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https://vimeo.com/417887797

Video by Texas A&M Marketing and Communication

by Olga Kuchment, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications

You’ve probably heard of the “murder hornet,” or Asian giant hornet, by now. It’s the world’s largest hornet. Native to Asia, it was sighted for the first time in Washington state and Canada in late 2019. Keeping these insects out of Texas is important because they are formidable predators of honey bees, which are crucial for crop pollination.

The main problem caused by this hornet, Vespa mandarinia, is that it uses honey bees as a principal food source. This level of predation could decimate Texas honey bee populations. If our bee populations decreased, crop yields would greatly suffer, as would honey production.

It’s such a potentially big problem that Gov. Greg Abbott requested a task force be mobilized to prepare Texas against the Asian giant hornet’s arrival. The team of Texas A&M AgriLife experts aims to help protect Texans, crops and honey.

Asian giant hornets are really big

The Asian giant hornet is native to many areas from Japan and South Korea to India and Pakistan. Up to 2 inches long, these insects are about a one-half inch larger than the cicada killer wasps common in Texas. A bee species that co-evolved with these hornets has a coordinated defense strategy. However, the European honey bees prevalent in Texas have no natural defense against this predator.

Like many other hornets and yellowjackets, Asian giant hornets tend to nest underground. And, like other similar species, Asian giant hornets are fiercely protective of their nests. Their painful stings are no more toxic than those of other stinging insects, but they can cause fatal allergic reactions in people already sensitive to bee stings. A standard beekeeper’s uniform does not protect against the hornets’ stings.

“A colony of honey bees with 30,000 to 50,000 workers can be killed by 15 to 30 hornets in a matter of hours,” said David Ragsdale, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and associate director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and professor in the Department of Entomology. “The hornets then occupy the hive and kill the developing larvae, using this protein-rich meal to feed their young.”

How did the hornet get to the U.S.?

How the pests ended up in Canada and Washington is not yet clear. Most hornets are workers, which cannot reproduce or start a new hive. Experts believe that ship or airplane cargo may have inadvertently transported a fertilized female hornet. That’s why a key part of the Texas response is securing state entry points for cargo transportation.

The strategy includes preparing Customs and Border Protection staff to detect the Asian giant hornet. The work will also involve increasing surveillance of incoming containers and evaluating opportunities for specialized detection. One possibility is that scent-trained dogs might be able to find these hornets hidden in cargo.

How can Asian giant hornet be controlled?

Pest control for Asian giant hornets relies on understanding their life cycle. The hornets’ mating season is in the fall, the time period of greatest concern for the hornets’ spread. After mating, the newly mated queens find places to overwinter while the rest of the nest dies out.

Hornet queens re-emerge in the spring to raise their young. Once the queen has reared a few dozen workers, she no longer leaves the nest. To control the insects at that point, each underground nest must be located and the queen killed.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture, WSDA, has created a systematic trapping program to determine whether any of the hornets overwintered in the region where they were found last fall. If WSDA confirms the hornets are overwintering, the department’s next step will be to locate and eradicate all of these wasps’ nests before mating season in late summer.

Asian giant hornets not in Texas yet

Entomologists say that they have not seen Asian giant hornets in Texas.

If you are curious about an insect on your property, you can send a photo of the insect to Texas A&M entomologists for identification.

Or, you can also follow instructions to send an insect specimen to Texas A&M for identification.

For more information, see a thorough review of the pests’ biology, geographic distribution and control methods by USDA APHIS.

by Olga Kuchment, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

How the pests ended up in North America is not yet clear. Washington state investigations are focusing on the possibility that container ship or airplane transport may have inadvertently transported a fertilized female hornet.

“Part of our response is preparing our state entry points for cargo transportation,” said Greg Pompelli, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense. “We are developing training for Customs and Border Protection staff to be able to detect the Asian giant hornet. We are also increasing surveillance of incoming containers and evaluating opportunities for specialized detection, such as possibly using scent-trained dogs to find these hornets hidden in cargo or luggage.”

The task force is planning several avenues of action. The team will provide science-based educational materials on the hornet for citizens and beekeepers. In addition, to guard against the hornet entering Texas, the task force will work on detection efforts for border and port-of-entry points. The team will also assist with mitigation efforts to protect Texas honey bee populations. Finally, the task force will prepare statewide identification efforts if necessary.

About Asian giant hornets

The world’s largest hornets, these insects are native to many areas, from Japan and South Korea to India and Pakistan. Up to 2 inches long, the insect is about a half-inch larger than the “cicada killer” wasp common in Texas.

“The hornets’ life cycle informs the potential control strategies,” said David Ragsdale, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and associate director of AgriLife Research, and professor in the Department of Entomology.

Autumn is the hornets’ mating period and the most crucial time for their spread. After mating in the fall, the queens find places to overwinter while the rest of the nest dies out. Hornet queens re-emerge in the spring to raise their young. Once the queen has reared a few dozen workers, she no longer leaves the nest. To control the insects at that point, the nest must be located and the queen killed.

“While widespread surveillance for the hornets in Texas is premature, we do need strategies to prevent the hornets’ arriving here in cargo,” Ragsdale said. “Right now, what we need to know is whether the Asian giant hornets have successfully overwintered in British Columbia or in Washington state.”

In Washington, the State Department of Agriculture, WSDA, has created a systematic trapping program to locate any overwintering queens or workers this spring, Ragsdale said. If WSDA confirms the hornets are overwintering in Washington, the department will work to map the infestation and eradicate all colonies before the hornets’ mating season in late summer or early fall.

For more information, please see Asian Giant Hornet FAQ, a publication of Texas A&M AgriLife.

With more and more schools and universities closing due to the Coronavirus pandemic striking the world, the demand for online learning and distance education is rising.

Drs. Adrienne Brundage and Craig Coates recently led two webinars for the Entomological Society of America for both students and teachers to help them adjust to the online distance learning format that is in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coates said the ESA was looking for instructors willing to help hold a webinar to teach faculty and students about how to teach and learn in an online format.

Some of the resources available to teachers and students include images of insects and specimens using digital microscopy, lists of links for suggested equipment and software to purchase that are required for online learning, and resources on pedagogies and how-to teaching online materials.

“The primary goal was to provide some positive encouragement that it can be done, there are ways to adapt in-person lectures and labs to an online environment, and provide some tips on how to do so most successfully for our students,” Coates said.

Brundage has been teaching several of her classes online and wanted to share her experiences with others that are working on transitioning their face-to-face classes to an online format.

“I’ve taught online for around a decade now, and I have made A LOT of mistakes along the way,” Brundage said. “Since everyone is being thrown into this situation with little prep now (and when I made my mistakes I had the benefit of time!) I was hoping I could help them out and make the transition a bit easier.”

Both have heard positive responses from the total of 80 student and teacher students that made up the sessions on Thursday and Friday held via WebEx.

“I think both the students and the professors enjoyed the presentation,” Brundage said. “I really want to create a situation where we’re sharing resources and helping each other, because we will all benefit.”

Coates said this was a great way to help those to transition to an online format and to share learning experiences, as well as to create a central repository for instructors to use.

“I think was a good opportunity for those that may have suddenly been thrust into an online teaching role to get some ideas and best practices from our experiences,” he said.  “We are also creating a repository with shared resources, videos, photos, rubrics, teaching plans, case studies, etc, that faculty can use at other institutions and share into themselves.”