Just in time for Halloween, the Washington State Department of Agriculture is revealing just what was inside a truly haunted house, or nest.
Early Friday, entomologists from the WSDA Pest Program cut open the tree which was home to a nest of Asian giant hornets, or so-called “murder hornets,” which had become a frightful reality near Blaine, Wash., before being eradicated last weekend.
The cellophane-wrapped log was sawed open inside a walk-in cooler at the Washington State University Puyallup Research and Extension Center in hopes that cooler temps would make any hornets that remained alive less mobile.
PREVIOUSLY: UW researcher put tiny tracking technology on giant hornets to help state deal with murderous pest
Last Saturday, in space-age looking bee suits, state personnel vacuumed 85 hornets out of the tree. They were led to its location — the first such discovery of an Asian giant hornet nest in the U.S. — after trapping and tagging a hornet with a tiny radio transmitter.
On Friday, the team collected more live hornets, adult specimens including both new queens and workers were still in the nest. Several larvae were recovered and white-capped cells contained developing adults.
A radio tag that had been tied with dental floss to a previously trapped hornet — and ultimately led to the nest’s location — was also found inside the tree. WSDA reported that the tiny tracking device appeared to have been chewed off.
WSDA plans to spend several days recording data such as the number and caste of adult specimens, the number and size of the nest cells, overall nest size, weight and length of collected specimens, and more. The data will be made publicly available when it is complete and will be posted to the state’s Asian giant hornet webpage.
The Asian giant hornet is the world’s largest species of hornet. The first-ever sightings occurred in the U.S. in December in Northwest Washington state. The hornets are known to attack and destroy honeybee hives during a “slaughter phase” where they kill bees by decapitating them.
WSDA will continue to look out for the pest. Citizen scientist trappers in Washington’s Whatcom, Skagit, Island, and San Juan counties are keeping traps up for another month or so.
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