[imagesource: Washington State Dept. of Agriculture]

When a species is dubbed the ‘murder hornet’, it’s tough to make a good first impression.

The Asian giant hornet (or vespa mandarinia, if you’re feeling fancy) first started making headlines in the US back in May, after reports that it had been discovered in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

Last month, the first known murder hornet nest was found in the US, in Blaine on the border between the country and Canada.

Following that discovery, crews wearing thick protective suits that had been shipped in from overseas vacuumed the invasive insects from the cavity of a tree into large canisters.

Those in the vicinity also wore face shields, because the trapped hornets were capable of spitting a painful venom.

Charming stuff.

It’s a good thing that the team acted so swiftly, because once researchers looked inside the tree where the nest was located, they counted 76 emerged queens, as well as 108 pupae that were likely queens.

Each of those queens could have potentially spawned a new nest.

It’s uncertain whether any queens could have escaped the nest before crews intervened, which begs the question – should residents in the surrounding areas be worried?

Also, the colloquial name leaves little room for nuance, so is the species really as scary as it sounds?

On a recent VICE segment, Zeke Spector headed to the Canada-US border hunting for both the murder hornet and the truth behind the hype:

[source:vice]