'Murder Hornet' With Potentially Deadly Sting Arrives In United States
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Just when you thought 2020 couldn't get a whole lot worse, a new type of insect has arrived in the United States and its sting is strong enough to kill a human.
"It's almost two inches long," Drexel University Professor Jon Gelhaus said.
It has a stinger that can penetrate a beekeeper suit. And forget about what the Asian giant hornet can do to a honeybee hive.
"They will basically slaughter all the thousands of honeybee workers in the hive and then cart away their bodies and feed them to the hornet larvae," Gelhaus said.
Perhaps that's why its nickname in the United States is the "murder hornet."
Gelhaus, the curator of entomology at Drexel University's Academy of Natural Sciences, says beekeepers are worried because the murder hornet has been spotted in the Pacific Northwest.
"We don't need an additional pest to affect honeybees," Gelhaus said.
Entomologists in Washington State are trying to track the giant hornet's movements before they become a permanent foreign pest.
"We have a recent example right now with the spotted lanternfly," Gelhaus said.
That's the moth-like creature, which originated overseas and landed in Berks County. It's another invasive species that can decimate grape, hop and apple crops in Pennsylvania.
But fortunately, unlike the spotted lanternfly, this homicidal hornet may not have a large footprint yet in the United States.
"It's not clear to me that those populations are established and will continue," Gelhaus said.
There are only reports of the hornet in the Northwest U.S. Gelhaus says it likely came in on a flight or cargo ship.
Experts say the hornets rarely go after humans but because of their size, their sting can be deadly.