**August 4th, 2021**

Snohomish County Rotaract is thrilled to be working alongside a network of individuals and community organizations in western Washington to prevent the establishment of the Asian giant hornet, or, more commonly referred to as, the murder hornet. The Department of Agriculture has asked citizens to construct, place, and monitor traps in and around their communities. By also registering the trap on WSDA’s website, scientists and eradication crews can more easily determine the locations of a nest, in coordination with other homegrown trapping data.

**Update: August 29th, 2021**

It’s been about six weeks since our club initially deployed our murder hornet traps in and around Snohomish County. Here’s an update on what we’ve learned and how we plan to proceed:

Murder hornets are attracted to sweet, alcoholy things, which is why WSDA recommends at-home trappers use a mixture containing equal parts orange (or pineapple) juice and rice cooking wine (or saké). 4oz of each, changed weekly, has been our MO for the past month. Fortunately, we have yet to capture a murder hornet–capturing one would mean that they’ve made it beyond the relative confines of Blaine, WA, where one was found last year and where a nest was recently eradicated. Read more about that operation here. 

Most of what we’ve captured includes moths, blackflies, and yellowjackets. Not one honeybee or bumblebee! The past few weeks, however, bald-faced hornets have starting showing up in our traps–about four or five per week. Here are some pictures to visualize our findings: