Painful-stinging Asian needle ants spreading across the US, experts say<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThe yellow-legged hornet aggressively preys upon honeybees. The hornet\u2019s rapid spread in Europe has caused a 30% reduction in honeybee hives and honey production, officials said.<\/p>\n
It was first detected in the United States near the Port of Savannah, Georgia, in 2023 and has since spread into South Carolina. Both states are working to eradicate it.<\/p>\n
On May 1, WSDA staff and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspected the vessel and the surrounding area but found no additional evidence of hornets. Officials have since placed traps nearby to monitor for any further activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hopeful that this was a one-off interception, which occasionally happens at our ports,\u201d WSDA Pest Program Manager Sven Spichiger said in a press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public was critical to our ability to eradicate the northern giant hornet, and they will be just as important in responding to this introduction if there are more hornets in the area,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The yellow-legged hornet is smaller than the northern giant hornet, colloquially known as the \u2018murder hornet.\u201d Washington state declared the murder hornet eradicated in 2024 after its introduction in 2019.<\/p>\n
Worker yellow-legged hornets measure about three-quarters of an inch to 1 inch long, while queens are larger. The insects have distinctive yellow coloring on the lower half of their legs and a yellow-orange band on the fourth segment of the abdomen.<\/p>\n
Unlike murder hornets, which typically nest in the ground or tree cavities, yellow-legged hornets build large, paper-like nests in trees or other elevated outdoor areas. Colonies can include up to 6,000 workers.<\/p>\n
WSDA officials advise anyone who believes they have spotted a yellow-legged hornet to take a photo and, if it can be done safely, collect the specimen and place it in a freezer. Sightings can be reported online at agr.wa.gov\/hornets or by email at hornets@agr.wa.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER, Wash. (KATU) \u2014 A highly invasive hornet species was discovered on a ship during a routine inspection…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":783003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-785384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116547406173799769","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}