BC uses monitoring to manage Asian giant hornets

With the appearance of Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia) in the Pacific Northwest, Washington state has focused on attaching tiny trackers to hornets in an effort to track them to their nests. British Columbia, however, is taking a different approach.

“Radio tagging is only possible when one collects a number of live specimens,” Paul van Westendorp, BC’s top apiculturist, told Victoria’s Times Colonist. “Our survey efforts in the Fraser Valley have focused on trap monitoring and the support of beekeepers and other organizations.”

Officials are monitoring sightings by municipalities, the Semiahmoo First Nation, law enforcement, beekeepers and area residents. Fifty traps have been set up to try to catch the destructive hornets, known as murder hornets for the way they capture prey.

Read more from Castanet.