Asian giant hornets are large and stripey, yes.
But so are several other insects.
Its almost certainly a case of mistaken identity.
Remember: the invasive hornets have only been reported in Washington state, and theyre extremely rare even there.
(Also, hey recall that they arenot out to murder you.)
None of them were Asian giant hornets.
But you could also keep your local entomologist a bit of trouble by knowing your local large stripey bois.
(Queens are larger than typical individuals of their species.)
The following are a few of the insects that entomologists say people have been mistaking for Asian giant hornets.
So dont panic either way.
Heres afact sheeton them from Penn State.
European hornets are typically 1 inch long, with queens measuring about 1.4 inches.
They live in roughly the eastern half of the US.
The European hornets head is mostly deep red.
Asian giant hornets have orange heads and more sharply defined orange and black stripes.
Cicada killers
These are solitary wasps that emerge in the summer to feast on cicadas.
The males can aggressively defend their territory, but they dont have stingers.
Females wont usually bother you unless youre a cicada.
Heres a fact sheet on them from theUniversity of Kentucky.
Eastern cicada killers abdomens are long, pointy and mostly black.
Southern yellowjackets
Youve seen yellowjackets before, and they dont look too much like Asian giant hornets.
But both Bertone and Skvarla told me theyve gotten the occasional southern yellowjacket queen among their murder hornet inquiries.
They mainly live in the southeast.
Bumblebee queens
Bumblebees are already large, and queens are larger still.
There are many species of bumblebees, but they generally look fuzzy and, well, bee-ish.
The Xerces society, a pollinator conservation group,notedthat people are mistaking bumblebee queens for Asian giant hornets.
The appiNaturalistcan help identify species based on a photo if youre not sure.
If youdothink youve seen an Asian giant hornet, report it to your local agricultural extension office.
If you live in Washington, you’re free to usethis formto make a report.
This post was updated 5/6/2020 at 5:07 p.m. to clarify the color of the European hornets head.
