No, thousands of ‘murder hornets’ haven’t been spotted in Washington, agency says

More than 2,000 reports of invasive Asian giant hornets, sometimes called “murder hornets,” have inundated a Washington state agency site for tracking sightings.

But only five of those reports involved actual Asian giant hornets, USA Today reports. The rest were cases of mistaken identity.

“99.9% of the time, the answer is no,” said Karla Salp of the Washington Department of Agriculture, according to KING.

“People are learning a lot, not about Asian giant hornets, but about other insects that are out there,” Salp said, according to the station.

Asian giant hornets reach up to 1½ inches in length and have a sting that’s described as “excruciating” to humans, Scientific American reports. But they are a much bigger threat to honeybees.

The hornets, which are believed to have crossed into Washington state from British Columbia, slaughter entire hives of honeybees to feed their young, McClatchy News previously reported.

One hornet marks the hive with a pheromone that attracts a swarm of Asian giant hornets, who gruesomely massacre the bees by tearing their heads off, McClatchy News reported.

The hornets reportedly kill 50 to 60 people a year in Japan, mostly from allergic reactions, USA Today reported.

News of confirmed discoveries of the hornets in northern Washington state set off a slew of news reports across the United States.

Even government agencies on the East Coast reported receiving panicked calls about the enormous insects, McClatchy News previously reported.

In Washington, state agencies and bee enthusiasts have placed hundreds of traps baited with orange juice to help figure out the extent of Asian giant hornet activity, USA Today reported.

All five confirmed cases of the hornets since December have been in Whatcom County in northwest Washington, the state Department of Agriculture says. The last confirmed sighting took place in June in Bellingham.

But a map of reported sightings shows supposed encounters as far south as Portland, Oregon.

The mistaken reports most frequently involve bald-faced hornets, yellow jackets, bumblebees and ten-lined beetles, KING reported.

“Please don’t go out and proactively kill things because most of the time it’s not an Asian giant hornet and unfortunately we’ve had some people killing things like bumblebees that really play a beneficial role in the environment,” Salp said, according to the station.

Entomologists Quin Baine and Chris Looney said some of the false reports involve people killing suspected Asian giant hornets to send to state officials, USA Today reported.

“Unfortunately, while their intentions are good, many people have killed and submitted many insects that are NOT Asian giant hornets,” they said.