THE NEW YORK TIMES – The hunt for the “murder hornet” in the northwest corner of Washington State began like a criminal investigation, with bee carcasses creating a crime scene and the public being asked to send tips about the potential culprit’s whereabouts.
Search grids were created. Traps were set. Soon, state entomologists were able to capture some of the wayward hornets, affixing tiny tracking devices on the insects to trace them back to their lairs. Crews wearing otherworldly protective equipment moved in to eliminate the nests with vacuums and carbon dioxide.
Officials believe it all worked. On Wednesday, five years after the invasive hornets were sighted for the first time in Washington State, state and federal agencies announced that they had successfully eradicated the species from that hot spot and the nation.
That dispelled their initial fears that the hornet might spread rapidly enough to establish itself in the United States for good.
“As an entomologist, I’ve been doing this for over 25 years now, and it is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects,” said Sven Spichiger, the pest program manager at the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
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Nicole Russo, an associate deputy administrator at the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, called the eradication a “landmark victory” to celebrate.
In total, Washington State officials found four nests related to the introduction of the hornet in Whatcom County, an area along the Canadian border where farmers cultivate millions of pounds of raspberries and blueberries each year.
The state has now gone three years without any new hornet discoveries in that region …