Here’s Why the First ‘Murder Hornet’ Trapped in the US is a Good Thing

Back in May, we gave you something else to freak out about besides coronavirus, and they are 'Murder Hornets.'

Also known as Asian giant hornets, these big orange and black insects are nasty looking buggers measuring about 2 inches long or the size of an average thumb, according to the website sciencenewsforstudents.org. Here's what entomologist Samuel Ramsey told NPR in May.

It kind of seems like someone just stitched together a bunch of nightmares and just ran with it.

These vicious murder hornets attack and eat honeybees and then wipe out their colonies. The hornet swoops down, grabs the bee out of the air, kills it, and takes it home to feed the baby bees. When the hornets mobilize, they form a raiding party that can destroy entire hives. The following video shows just how vicious these murder hornets can be.

On July 14, the Washington State Department of Agriculture successfully trapped one of these little suckers, which is a good thing because now they know the traps work, so now they're able to begin the process of figuring out how to stop them from slaughtering bumble bees.

According to npr.org, Asian murder hornets have sharp, serrated jaws and stingers that can bite through denim jeans. If the hornets stay alive while trapped, WSDA researches should be able to hunt them back to the colony and wipe them out. Here's another good thing, there are zero murder hornets in the state of Connecticut.