Having turned heads and bitten off more than a few from the thoraxes of honeybees in North America over the past few years, the Asian murder hornet is now creating a buzz in Europe. At least two pairs of the vicious flying nightmare monsters have been confirmed spotted in northern Spain since 2022, NBC News reports citing a fieldwork by entomologists tracking the beasts’ movements.
“Here in northern Spain, we have another species of Asian hornets that is called Vespa Veluntina, and it’s causing serious damages to the beekeeping sector, so the presence of another Asian hornet can magnify the bad affects,” said biologist Omar Sanchez, lead author of the study, adding that his team are trying to track the nest(s) and destroy it before they spread. “It’s a little bit tricky because this species makes their nest under the ground — more than 30 meters — so it is not easy to find.”