B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2021
Giant hornets thrust entomologist into spotlight
tree, the insect had never
been confi rmed in the U.S.
Refl ecting a few years
later, Spichiger said the
report “gave us a chance.”
It was, however, the
pest that got away. “We
didn’t hit it hard enough,”
Spichiger said. “We should
have nuked the area.”
If that sounds harsh,
consider this: The spotted
lanternfl y infestation grew
from 174 square miles in
2016 to about 3,000 square
miles in 2017, according to
the Pennsylvania Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
In 2018, a Pennsylvania
congressman complained
the pest was “wreak-
ing havoc” on agriculture
in 13 counties. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture
announced it would spend
$17.5 million to contain
the bug.
The pest continued
to spread. Penn State
researchers in late 2019
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
It was not astonishing
to Sven-Erik Spichiger
that the Asian giant hor-
net popped up in Washing-
ton state.
Shortly
before
the
insect,
sensationally
dubbed the “murder hor-
net,” was found near the
U.S.-Canadian border in
2019, the Washington State
Department of Agriculture
printed a booklet on “inva-
sive pests.”
The rogues gallery
included Vespa manda-
rinia, the world’s larg-
est hornet. The fearsome
decapitators of honey bees
had never been confi rmed
in North America. But
Spichiger, the agriculture
department’s
managing
entomologist, was expect-
ing them to arrive by ship.
“The way our trade
routes are set up, I’m sur-
prised it didn’t happen
before,” he said.
The hornets that were
found in British Columbia
and northwest Washing-
ton could have been stow-
aways — or they could
have escaped.
“Asian giant hornets are
a sought-after food source,”
Spichiger said. “It’s possi-
ble people brought them
here on purpose.
“You wonder whether
somebody tried to get a
colony going to enjoy
them,” said Spichiger, who
was tempted into trying
raw hornet pupae. “It tastes
like any other insect,” he
said.
Reluctant spokesman
For two years, Spichiger,
49, has been the intro-
verted but quotable sci-
entist informing the pub-
lic about the campaign to
repel Asian giant hornets.
He reported the mis-
steps, victories, surprises
and lucky breaks. He says
he doesn’t relish the role
he’s been thrust into, but
likes that people are listen-
ing and on-guard.
So far, with the pub-
lic’s help, Spichiger and
colleagues, including fel-
low department entomol-
ogist Chris Looney, have
found and destroyed four
nests, all near each other in
Whatcom County.
Spichiger
said
in
November that he was
hopeful the hornets have
been contained to a small
area along the border.
Murder hornets, however,
estimated the potential
economic damage. Worst-
case, if the pest gets estab-
lished,
annual
losses
are projected to be $554
million.
Spotted
lanternfl ies
spread by laying egg masses
on the surface of items that
can travel around the coun-
try. The USDA says spot-
ted lanternfl ies are now in
11 states, the farthest west
being Indiana.
Spichiger said he’s
watching Cleveland, where
spotted lanternfl ies were
found in August. He said
that he expects that once
they hit Chicago, they will
spread west on rail cars.
“Once it gets here,
we’re looking at managing
it, living with it,” he said.
By contrast, the Asian
giant hornet “will never be
the pest of a generation,”
he said.
“It’s just the one people
are interested in.”
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington State Department of Agriculture managing
entomologist Sven-Erik Spichiger holds a tray of Asian giant
hornet specimens.
remain a story of national
interest.
“We expected people
to be interested. We didn’t
expect people to be this
interested for this long,”
he said. “We’re not used to
people being interested in
what we do.”
Spichiger traces his
interest in insects to the
summer he was 8 and
helped his cousin earn a
Boy Scout merit badge
by collecting green drag-
onfl ies. He never stopped
collecting.
He earned a bachelor’s
degree in entomology at
Penn State University and
a master’s degree in the
same subject at Clemson
University.
A Pennsylvania native,
Spichiger worked his way
up to managing entomol-
ogist at the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture.
By 2018, he was attending
lots of meetings and doing
paperwork.
A bug crisis arose while
he was on jury duty, and
his staff handled the prob-
lem without him. That’s
when he knew it was time
for a change.
Spichiger applied, as
a lark, for an equivalent
position in Washington.
He was off ered the job,
so he and his wife, Kuen
Kuen, moved west, where
the mountains and fi sh are
bigger. “We feel like we’re
on vacation every day,” he
said.
Spichiger
said
he
became an entomologist
for the “wondrous variety.”
There’s a new infesta-
tion of Japanese beetles
to attack next spring in
Yakima County. “Japanese
beetles could be a disas-
ter. It could be ho-hum,”
Spichiger said.
Spotted lanternfl y
There’s another insect
that Spichiger would never
describe as humdrum. He
says it “could be one the
most harmful pests in our
generation.”
It’s the spotted lantern-
fl y. There’s never been a
credible sighting in Wash-
ington, but Spichigher
fought the pest in Pennsyl-
vania, and he expects to do
so again.
“It is coming,” he said.
In 2014, Spichiger, as
Pennsylvania’s entomolo-
gist, checked out a report
of an unusual insect. He
found hundreds of spot-
ted lanternfl ies on Ailan-
thus altissima , commonly
known as tree of heaven.
Spotted lanternfl ies pre-
fer those trees, which are
fast-growing, but they also
like grapes, apples, Christ-
mas trees and many other
crops.
Until Spichiger saw that
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NOTICE OF ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION
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(b) specifying the authorized uses of the proceeds of the general obligation bonds. Any
individual may contact the Superintendent of the District at 41535 Old Highway 30,
Astoria, OR 97103, telephone (503) 458-5993, to obtain a copy of the resolution. Judicial
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sought within 60 days of the date of the resolution.
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Published: December 18, 2021.
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