Asia's giant 'murder hornets' will hit the East Coast, experts warn

Earlier this week, news broke that Asia's giant "murder" hornets have been recorded in the US for the first time, specifically in Washington state. Now experts have warned that the killer insects will also hit the East Coast.

The insects, which reportedly kill up to 50 people a year in Japan, have prompted experts to warn the New York Post of their imminent arrival on the East Coast.

Related - This couple had a hive containing over 60,000 bees cut out of their ceiling: 

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Retired police officer and the "unofficial" NYPD beekeeper Anthony 'Tony Bees' Planakis told the publication: "I told the NYPD back in 2012, 'Your problem is not the bees. This [the murder hornet] is your problem.'"

"I showed them a picture of it, and they go, 'What the hell is that?'" Planakis said. "I go, 'That is an Asian hornet. My suit is useless against that thing.'"

When asked if the insects pose a danger to humans too, Planakis said: "Absolutely. Oh, my God. Have you seen the mandibles on these things?"

As per the New York Post, East Coast locations like the Bronx Botanical Gardens could make perfect homes for the murder hornets because fo the abundance of food and space that they offer. However, urban locations like Manhattan are likely to be safe because they nest in the ground or rotten wood.

Manhattan beekeeper Andrew Cote said it "could be years before they make a foothold [on the East Coast] - or they could end up in the back of somebody's truck and be here in four days."

Cote said that the insects are "here to stay" in the US.

"We can expect them to be everywhere on the continent in time… It's a done deal," Cote said. "There's no way to contain it to the West Coast."

The beekeeper explained that he first encountered the murder hornets on a trip to China in 2017 where "local beekeepers there used small bats that looked like miniature cricket bats" to hit the insects in mid-air.

"It sounded like someone hitting a rock. The hornets are extraordinarily aggressive," Cote said.

"The prospect of my semi-defenseless bees having to confront them sends chills up my spine."

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The killer hornet "can decimate a honey-bee colony because it needs to build up protein for its own colony, so it decapitates and consumes part of the honey bee," Cote said.

Planakis explained that the hornet's stinger "is approximately a quarter of an inch" whereas a typical honeybee's stinger is just one-sixteenth of an inch.

"It's a little bit bigger than a cicada," he said. "You'll see the tip of the stinger, but it's not until it actually extends the stinger out that it goes into your skin. And they're meat-eaters. … They'll go after birds, small sparrows if they have to."

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Planakis added that their venom contains "a pheromone, which is like a magnet to other hornets."

"So you can get swarmed just from getting stung by one."

"The worst thing anyone can do with these things is kill them," he said. "That scent is going to be airborne, and the rest of the hive will come.

"Getting stung is extremely painful, and anyone who is allergic, heaven help them," he added. "And they don't sting you one time. They have the ability to sting you multiple times. Honeybees can only sting you once, and then they die."

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However, on a slightly more positive note, "you have to understand, out in the wild, unless you go up to their hive, they're not going to sit there and just seek you out," the beekeeper said. "There's got to be a reason for them to come at you."

The only way that bees can fight back against the murder hornets is by trapping them in their hive and swarming.

Whereas beekeepers can limit the size of their hives' entrances and set "a roach motel for hornets" outside of hives containing meat to attract and trap the carnivorous hornets.

It's for these reasons that hornet hunters exist in China.

"There's a tracker, and what they do is they set up a water source, and they wait there, like a deer hunter would," Planakis said.

"As soon as they see the hornet coming to the water source to drink, the guy jumps out with a net, and he grabs it. Then, ever so carefully, he ties a strong on it and lets it go.

"There's a spotter watching it now with binoculars, and he watches this thing as it flies, because obviously it’s going to fly back to the nest. When they find it, they mark where the nest is.

"And at night they come back and with a flame-thrower, pretty much go at it, just follow them back to their base camp, and when they least expect it, boom, go after them."