A larger and stranger-than-normal hornet spotted buzzing around a port office building by a North Vancouver man earlier this month has been identified as a species not normally found in B.C.
Tyson Hergott knew the angry-looking insect was something different when he captured it in a plastic bottle at his office and brought it home to North Vancouver so he and his girlfriend Valerie Greer could take a closer look at it.
Experts at the University of British Columbia, who the couple handed the bug over to, have now confirmed that.
With the help of international bug experts, the hornet has been identified as a Vespa ducalis – a large type of hornet normally found in Japan and other parts of Asia.
After taking special scientific images of the massive bug – which was preserved in the North Vancouver couple’s freezer – entomologists at UBC sent the photos to a hornet expert at Hokkaido University Museum in Japan. He identified the mystery insect as a female black-tailed hornet.
That hornet, usually between 24 and 37 millimetres long, is found in areas including China, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia – but is not native to North America.
Nobody is sure how the hornet travelled across the Pacific to end up in Vancouver, but because it was discovered near to the port, experts have suggested it likely caught a ride on a freighter.
So far what’s also not clear is whether the presence of the wasp is something farmers who raise honey bees should be concerned about.
“The short answer is we don’t know yet,” said Leonard Foster, a professor who studies bees at UBC.
The other unanswered question is whether the unusual wasp captured by Hergott was by itself or whether it was part of a larger colony.
So far, no other similar sightings of the non-native hornet have been verified.
