BDN interviews Extension officials about ‘murder hornet’
The Bangor Daily News interviewed Clay Kirby, an associate scientist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and James Dill, Extension professor and associate program adminstrator, for the article “The ‘murder hornet’ is far from Maine. Experts hope it stays that way.” The invasive Asian giant hornet, also known as the “murder hornet,” because a few of them can destroy a honey bee hive in hours, has recently been found for the first time in the U.S. in Washington State, according to the report. “We’re hoping that the regulatory entomologists out there in the Pacific Northwest will nip that in the bud,” Kirby said.“But that’s going to be a whole other bug story I’m sure, hopefully one that will never have to be written from the state of Maine.” Dill said if entomologists fail to contain and eradicate the hornet, it would be difficult to determine when it could spread to Maine. “It would probably be a while because they’d have to most likely move on their own,” he said.