Today, August 20th, officials with Washington State Department of Agriculture report 2 more confirmed sightings of Asian giant hornets. Both occurred in the Birch Bay area they said.
WSDA officials reported 1 worker hornet was caught in a trap and another was photographed but flew off before it could be collected. Both of the new sightings were within a couple of miles of an unmated queen found in a trap in mid-July.
The process of setting live traps is expected to begin today. Officials hope to capture Asian giant hornets live so to be able to place radio tracking devices on them. Once equipped with a tracker, they will be let the hornet back into the wild with the hope of tracking them back to their nest(s). If WSDA is able to locate a nest, the agency will eradicate it, officials said.
The general public has put up and is sending specimens weekly from nearly 1500 traps around western Washington. WSDA and cooperating agencies have put up an additional 785 traps.