This year has been one for the ages, from the friction between the United States and North Korea at the beginning of 2020, to Australia being brought to its knees by wildfires, and then, of course, the novel coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic.

Some are treating the first year of the new decade like a write-off.

However, almost to nobody's surprise, this year has another misfortune to offer, with the arrival of Asian Giant Hornets.

It is native to temperate and tropical East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia as well as others in the region, but is now threatening Canadian bees and the ecosystem.

It feeds primarily on larger insects, colonies of other eusocial insects, tree sap, and honey from honey bee colonies. However, it will also kill honey bees, and a group of a mere 40 hornets could decimate a bee colony.

We spoke to Simon Lalonde, a director with the Bee Keepers Development Association about the threat the hornets pose to bees if they were to get into Saskatchewan, as well as additional information about them.

"Do they pose a risk to the entire bee population? Probably not. But if they got established around a beekeeper they could definitely take a significant number out of that beehive."

He said they have been in Asia for many years, but they still do not have a method of slowing down their growth and preventing their spread.

"Apart from trying to find and then destroying the nest of the Asian Giant Hornet, there's no treatment or trap that keepers can put out to protect their hive."

They cannot fog for the wasps as at this time any type of fog would just hurt the bees and other pollinators.

At the moment it's not known for certain what led to the bees arriving in Canada, but Lalonde said they have a pretty good idea of where they came from.

"I think it was late 2019 when they were first noticed in BC. It's suspected that there was dirt underneath a c-can, and somehow made their way over from Asia on a container ship."

One saving grace at this time is that they will not recolonize a hive and it doesn't seem likely they would be transported that way. Its thought that the eggs of the hornets move with transported soil and then hatch in new locations.

There is currently a lot of work being done to try and eradicate the hornet populations in British Columbia, but Lalonde said there is a possibility that years down the line we could see Asian Giant Hornets in Saskatchewan. 

In contrast to Lalonde however, an entomology researcher from the University of Saskatchewan has recently said that he believes the hornets do not pose a threat to Saskatchewan, as he doesn't think the insects will be able to survive our climate. 

Dr. Cory Sheffield is the Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, he has built his career around researching bees, wasps, hornets and everything in between. He said, the current “Murder Hornet hysteria” is based on a lot of misinformation.

“I speculate, it would be near impossible for them to survive the trip across the Rockies – and if they did – our winters here in Saskatchewan, they are not suited to survive it. They are not like our bees in that sense and the mated female would not survive, therefore, not allowing re-population of the colony the following year.”

For humans, Dr. Sheffield said the threat of the Asian Giant Hornet is no more than of any other kind of bee, wasp or hornet, and stated a sting is likely only eminent if they feel threatened or are protecting their queen or colony.

Ultimately, there are no known nests in either Canada or the United States, which means there is no known threat.

As for how the colony developed in Nanaimo in the first place, he said it could have very likely been from one mated female who was brought over accidentally through commerce.

Dr. Sheffield is not the only one perplexed by the recent attention and so-called ‘hysteria’ surrounding the Asian Giant Hornet.

His friend and colleague, Dr. Doug Yanega, who is the Senior Museum Scientist of the Entomology Research Museum, University of California, Riverside, recently made this post on his social media page.

“Some poorly-worded media reports about Asian Giant Hornets have triggered a veritable avalanche of nonsense online, but I can help set the record straight. One colony was found and exterminated in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in September of 2019, with a few sightings associated. One wasp believed to be from that colony was found - dead - on the US side of the border near Nanaimo in December. Right now, all the authorities are doing is asking people to keep their eyes peeled JUST IN CASE there were queens that escaped the destruction of the Nanaimo nest and established their own nests nearby. I was one of the authorities brought in to consult on this case, and to my knowledge, there have not been any sightings in 2020 that would suggest the eradication attempt was unsuccessful. Put bluntly, as far as we know, there are no Asian Giant Hornets alive in either the US or Canada as of 2020, and if there are, then they would be in the immediate vicinity of Vancouver Island (about a 50 mile radius or so). “