2021 Asian Giant Hornet Update with Sven-Erik Spichiger (S4, E29)

This is the third time we’ve talked with Sven-Erik Spichiger about the Asian Giant Hornet in the state of Washington, and this time he shares some history, enlightens us with the discoveries they’ve made so far, what they managed to accomplish this past season, and what they plan for next year. All this to keep this pest, or better, get rid of this pest, before it becomes established in the Pacific Northwest.

The good folks in Washington have spent their third season searching for that newest pest – sometimes called The Murder Hornet – with some amount of success, and a lot of good experience and a host of new techniques for finding, capturing and measuring what this new pest is up to.

The AGH was originally found in British Columbia in 2019. In 2020 Citizen Scientists, USDA, APHIS and Washington State Entomologists set up thousands of traps in the northern part of the state. They captured one nest. But they began to refine their equipment, condense the areas they were looking in, and get more people interested in helping them find more.

In 2021 they again set thousands of traps and caught several, used better tracking tags for live captured hornets, and began looking at where they were living, and what they were eating. Alder trees are popular, but so are holes in the ground at the base of trees.

The researchers observed the AGH favored the paper wasp nests of the PNW. The wasp nests are a great source of food, and figuring out how the AGH attacked, destroyed and then ate their wasp lunch was an interesting find. They also determined the WA State AGH was genetically related to AGH in Korea.

In 2022, more citizen scientists will help out, and Washington researchers will worth with counterparts in Korea to study the native population of these creatures. This will provide better insight to the biology, diet, nesting habits and more, of the AGH of Washington State.

Oops... sorry, we couldn't find the photo of Sven-Erik eating a larvae... dipped or otherwise.

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Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• Washington State Department of Agriculture Asian Giant Hornet site - https://agr.wa.gov/hornets

• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

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