At Least We’re Not Getting The Murder Hornets

The terrifying invasive bugs probably won’t reach Wisconsin, thankfully.

Not much has gone right so far in 2020, but Wisconsinites should be able to sleep just a tad better at night knowing the so-called murder hornets probably won’t make it here.

The arrival of the invasive bug, aka the Asian Giant Hornet, to the United States has sparked concern as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. The species gets its name because it, well, brutally murders bees by ripping their heads off (oh and they can kill mice, too). On top of that, an average of 30 to 50 people die in Japan each year from the stings, one study found.

But the arrival of the beasts may not be much concern in Wisconsin. They’ve only been found so far in Washington state, and it’s not really clear if they’ll ever be able to establish colonies here due to Wisconsin’s climate.

“Will they be able to survive in a place like Wisconsin? We just don’t know for sure,” P.J. Liesch, the director of UW-Madison’s insect diagnostics lab, told Spectrum News.

Concern nationwide may also be overblown, experts told Business Insider. They require an extreme amount of food because of their size — two inches — and bees are about all they can feed on, said one expert, who suggested much of the panic is a result of a New York Times article documenting entomologists’ fight to stop the hornets from establishing themselves in America.

Barret Klein, a UW-La Crosse professor, told News8000 the hornets would probably die in climates with harsher winters, such as Wisconsin.