The Northern giant hornet, more commonly known as the “murder hornet,” has been eradicated in the U.S., agriculture officials said Wednesday.

The ominously nicknamed invasive species was confirmed to be in the U.S. in 2019 after officials in Washington state received and verified two reports of the hornet. Efforts quickly began to track and get rid of them. 

The 2-inch-long hornet, with a stinger longer than that of a typical wasp, can deliver potent venom, but is largely dangerous to bees and other insects, not humans. Eradication efforts started because of the threat the hornet posed to bees and agriculture across the country. 

“By tackling this threat head-on, we protected not only pollinators and crops, but also the industries, communities, and ecosystems that depend on them,” Dr. Mark Davidson, deputy administrator at USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said in a news statement.

How “murder hornets” were eradicated 

State, federal and international government agencies worked together to eradicate “murder hornets” in the U.S., the officials said. 

To do so, first entomologists had to find the hornets’ nests. Finding the nests can be a challenge, because the hornets typically build their nests in forested areas, often in an underground cavity, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In some cases, entomologists captured a live hornet, attached a radio tag to it, released it, and tracked the hornet back to its nest. Figuring out how to securely attach a radio tag to a hornet without harming it was a hurdle. 

After finding a nest in a tree, a team plugged the nest with foam, wrapped the tree in plastic and vacuumed out the hornets. They also injected carbon dioxide into the tree to kill any remaining hornets.

In 2022, scientists said they were setting about 1,000 hornet traps in Washington. Hornets caught in traps help scientists find the location of nests. The previous year, Washington state officials destroyed a nest, finding nearly 1,500 hornets “in various stages of development.” 

The public also helped officials track down hornet nests. If not for help from the public, there’s a good chance that the hornet could have been around for years to come, Sven Spichiger, Washington State Department of Agriculture pest program manager, said during a news conference Wednesday.

“All of our nest detections resulted directly or indirectly from public reports,” Spichiger said in a press release. “And half of our confirmed detections came from the public.

Could the hornet come back to the U.S.?

While officials in Washington celebrated the eradication of the invasive hornet species, Spichiger acknowledged they could come back to the U.S. He said officials would continue to keep an eye out for the hornet and encouraged members of the community to do the same.  

“They got here once and they could do it again,” Spichiger said. 

CBS News previously reported that it was unclear how the hornets first arrived in the U.S., though invasive species can be “unwitting hitchhikers” on things like shipping containers.

Even now, five years after the hornets appeared in the U.S., Spichiger said officials will never know exactly how they got to the country. 

What makes “murder hornets” unique?

The hornet, an invasive species from Asia, can kill an entire hive of honeybees in as little as 90 minutes, according to agriculture officials. 

“The hornets can enter a ‘slaughter phase‘ where they kill entire hives by decapitating the bees. The hornets then defend the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young,” according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. “They also attack other insects but are not known to destroy entire colonies of those insects.”

The hornets typically only attack people or pets when threatened, but can sting repeatedly. 

The hornet species has a large orange or yellow head and black-and-orange stripes across its body. 

They were first detected in North America in British Columbia, Canada ,in August 2019, authorities said, and then were confirmed in Washington state by the end of 2019.

While the U.S. appears to have gotten rid of them, at least for now, scientists in Spain last month reported sightings of the hornet species in Europe. They described two sightings of the hornet in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — Luigi Mangione, charged in the early December murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, could be back in New York sooner rather than later.

An attorney for Mangione told CBS News New York on Wednesday he will waive extradition at his hearing in Pennsylvania on Thursday morning. That could put the suspect in front of a New York City judge for an arraignment on murder charges within hours.

“If he waives extradition, that should be quite quick,” said Anna Cominsky, a professor at New York Law School. “The idea is we want to be able to get him over here to answer the charges that are pending here in New York, so in a matter of a day or two at most.”

Cominsky was asked what the benefit would be of Mangione waiving extradition on Thursday.

“The benefit is he gets his New York case to start. We already know that Pennsylvania has said they are not going to move forward with their case until the New York case is completed, and so this means that once he’s here, he can actually be arraigned and the case can begin with respect to his New York charges,” she said.

If for some reason Mangione ends up contesting his extradition, a spokesman said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will quickly sign a special warrant that could get him back to New York City in a matter of days or weeks.

CBS News New York has learned new details about Mangione’s communication in the Pennsylvania prison where he’s being held. The 26-year-old suspect has received 40 emails and 53 pieces of mail since his arrest last week at an Altoona McDonald’s, and has had 158 deposits into his commissary account. He has also had three visitors. Not from family, but rather his three attorneys, including Manhattan prosecutor-turned-defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

Luigi Mangione indicted on murder, terrorism charges

Mangione was indicted Tuesday on 11 charges, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, in the brazen assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. 

“This was a killing that, it was intended to evoke terror, and we’ve seen that reaction,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday. 

“This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock, attention and intimidation,” Bragg continued. “It occurred in one of the most bustling parts of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike, commuters and business people just starting out on their day.”  

The indictment also confirmed the words “deny” and “depose” were written on shell casings found at the scene, and “delay” was written on one of the bullets, an apparent nod to the “three Ds of insurance,” a phase used by critics of the industry.   

“We really need to see more, with respect to why is it that the prosecutor believes that they have evidence that supports that terrorism charge. Why is it that they believe that it wasn’t just an intent to kill an individual but also to terrorize others, to put fear in others, which is required in order to substantiate that,” Cominsky said.

“We don’t celebrate murders”

The NYPD flagged what appears to be a wave of online support for Mangione from people expressing anger toward the health care industry, along with serious online threats since Thompson’s murder. 

“There is no heroism in what Mangione did. This was a senseless act of violence, it was a cold and calculated crime that stole a life and put New Yorkers at risk,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.  

“We don’t celebrate murders and we don’t lionize the killing of anyone, and any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice,” Tisch added.