Did Asian giant hornets turn up in Pennsylvania? Not quite, but still a neat find. Recently, a neighbor called me and said there were enormous bees flying all over on his farm. I went down and the big bugs were flying up from the weeds, attracted to the headlights on the truck. I caught one to ID and it’s a European hornet. Pretty big, but not a murder hornet. So far there are no reports of murder hornets being confirmed in Pennsylvania.
The easiest way to tell them apart is murder hornets have straight, solid black bands on their thorax. The European hornet doesn’t.
Interesting thing about the European hornet is they prefer to feed at night on crickets and other insects.
