The Murder hornet properly known as the Asian giant hornet is found throughout South and East Asia and was probably brought here accidentally on container ships, according to the Invasive Species Council of BC (ISCBC ).
They were first seen in BC in 2019 in Nanaimo and, following this discovery, the BC government and local beekeepers destroyed the nest.
Multiple individual dead hornets have been found in the Southern Fraser Valley region in 2020, but no nests have been found on mainland BC as of November 2020.
Between 2020 and 2021 officials destroyed several nests just across the BC border with the US in Blaine, Washington.
Asian giant hornets typically nest in underground cavities, or above ground in tree stumps of forested areas. They feed on insects and are particularly dangerous to our Honey bee hives. If they are able to establish in BC they pose a serious threat to the local beekeeping and pollination industries, which in turn will have serious consequences for all BC agriculture.
The Hornet’s head is bright orange with large jaws and entirely black eyes. The thorax (where the legs and wings attach) is dark brown or black, and the wings are tinted a dark brown. The abdomen has black and orange horizontal stripes. Their size varies between 2.5 cm to 5 cm.
Please be on the look-out for these insects. To report a sighting, please take a photo of the hornet and log onto https://bcinvasives.ca/take-action/report/.
