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Washington officials announce eradication of northern giant hornet after multiyear effort
Summary
The Washington State Department of Agriculture and federal partners said they have achieved eradication of the northern giant hornet following multi-year trapping, telemetry-assisted nest tracking and four nest removals; officials credited public reports, beekeepers and interagency support.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture announced at a virtual press conference that state and federal partners have "officially" eradicated the northern giant hornet from Washington and, officials said, from the United States.
"Eradication has been achieved," Sven Erik Spieshager, WSDA's pest program manager, said, announcing that the final trap was removed on Dec. 5 and that surveillance milestones have been met after no additional detections since 2021.
Why it matters: The northern giant hornet preys on pollinators and other beneficial insects, and officials said rapid detection and nest removal averted a larger ecological and agricultural problem for Washington beekeepers and the state's pollination-dependent crops.
How the response worked: Officials described a multi-year campaign that began after initial detections in late 2019. WSDA deployed nearly 1,000 traps across Whatcom County and used a stepped approach: convert traps to live capture when hornets were found, attach telemetry tags to captured insects, follow those insects to nests and remove the nests. That approach, officials said, led to the discovery and eradication of the first nest in 2020 and three additional nests in 2021.
Federal and research support: Dr. Nicole Russo of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said APHIS provided surplus telemetry tags and receivers, applied federal pest-response guidance to survey and trapping methods, and coordinated laboratory and university research into genetics, diagnostics and attractants that aided field teams.
Public role and outreach: WSDA officials repeatedly credited local beekeepers, landowners and more than 1,000 citizen scientists for reporting and trapping, and they said thousands of hotline reports helped direct crews to suspect sightings. Spieshager said public reporting was essential to finding nests quickly.
Evidence and timeline: Spieshager noted that the response effort relied on genetic testing to trace some detections to parts of South Korea and, in the case of a British Columbia nest, to Japan. He said all four nests found in Washington were located in cavities in alder trees rather than in ground nests common in the hornet's native range, which officials said may have affected the species' ability to persist locally.
Questions from the press: Reporters asked how the hornets likely arrived and whether policies could prevent reintroduction. Spieshager said exact pathways are unknown but suggested queens may hitch rides in protected spaces such as plant pots, vehicles or shipping containers; he noted a state quarantine prohibitings keeping live hornets in Washington and that Customs and Border Protection inspects for suspect insects. On a reported Kitsap County sighting, he said WSDA did not obtain a specimen (the owner would not share contact information), traps there collected nothing and the agency will continue precautionary trapping.
Officials' closing note and next steps: While calling eradication a "significant victory," WSDA and USDA officials said vigilance will continue because other invasive hornet species remain a threat. The recording of the press conference will be available on WSDA's YouTube channel and on TVW.
