Viespile ucigașe au ajuns și în Statele Unite. Omoară albinele, iar înțepătura poate fi fatală pentru om

A deadly species of hornets capable of killing humans have been discovered in the U.S. and now scientists are facing a desperate race against time to eradicate them before they take over native bee populations. The Asian giant hornets also referred to by researchers as murder hornets kill around 50 people a year in Japan and have now been sighted for the first time in North America, in Washington state. The hornets, which up until November had not been sighted in the U.S. can decimate entire bee colonies in a matter of hours by decapitating their heads with their jaws and feeding the thoraxes to their young. A queen hornet can measure up to two inches long and hornets venom has been described as like hot metal driving through peoples skin. Chris Looney, an entomologist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, said the race to eradicate the bees was real and had to be done quickly to avoid the hornets becoming too established and therefore making it impossible to get rid of them. He told the New York Times: This is our window to keep it from establishing. If we cant do it in the next couple of years, it probably cant be done. Hornets have a distinctive look, with Spider-Man like teardrop eyes and orange and black stripe along with dragonfly-like wings. Looney recently set up a series of homemade traps in an industrial park in Blaine, Washington state, in a bid to catch a queen that was intent on building a nest. He used a variety of lures, including orange juice, rice wine and kefir using large plastic containers that he turned into make-shift traps. Entomologists are now planning to use radio frequency identifications tags on some of the hornets in the hopes they will be lead to the nests and be able to take out entire colonies at a time. Dr. Looney said he and others scientists are in the process of setting up hundreds more traps, starting in Blaine and moving outward across the state. The task, however, is daunting. Queen hornets can fly many a miles a day at speeds of up to 20mph and there is also the prospect of trying to discover nests hidden underground. 04 May 2020 Pictured: Chris Looney, an entomologist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, displays Asian giant hornets, a species of deadly hornets capable of killing humans, that have been sighted for the first time in North America at an industrial park in Blaine, Washington state., Image: 516960314, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: WSDA/ MEGA / The Mega Agency / Profimedia