Uh oh, here we go again. I thought they wiped them out last year, but looks like the murder hornets are back in Washington state! A live Asian giant “murder hornet” was spotted attacking a paper wasp nest just outside the city of Blaine, which is about two miles from the location where that first murder hornet nest was eradicated last year.
This is the first live murder hornet to be discovered in the state of Washington this year, someone did find a dead one recently as well. The sighting was confirmed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, and you can bet they're now on the hunt for all of this critter's friends.
These nasty bugs got their name not only because their stings can be deadly to humans (on average about 50 people a year die in Japan as a result of being stung, usually by multiple wasps), but they also are particularly deadly to honeybees. They can quickly wipe out hives here in the United States as Western honeybees have no defenses against them like the honeybees in Asia do.
What does it feel like to be stuck by one of these monsters? An entomologist at Tamagawa University named Masato Ono, had the unfortunate experience and said it felt "like a hot nail being driven into my leg". Fabulous.
Photo: Getty Images