A UNL professor clears up local wasp confusions

A UNL professor wants you to know the wasp your seeing in town is most likely not a murder hornet.

Can you tell the difference? A UNL professor wants you to know the wasp your seeing in town is most likely not a murder hornet.
A UNL professor says the entomology department has gotten a lot of emails with pictures and questions about the murder hornet.
Dr. Judy Wu-Smart says there is a certain wasp native to Nebraska and it is the Cicada Killer wasp.
“The cicada killer wasp it’s related, it’s not similar, it’s a different gene but they look very scary,” says Dr. Judy Wu-Smart, UNL Department of Entomology. “Their large wasps that have the different coloration and different patterning.”
Smart adds though they also sting, the bees are not a huge threat to humans unless you bother them. Her advice to beekeepers is to stay aware of your hives.
“I would say it’s more important for the beekeepers to inspect their hives before they transport them into a state, just in case, beekeepers are moving these hornets around with the equipment not knowing,” adds Wu-Smart.
She says there is not enough research to support how fast murder hornets can travel state across a continent and she points out that Washington has a different climate than Nebraska.
“Nebraskans don’t really need to worry too much,” says Wu-Smart. “These murder hornets are just showing up in traps and in the very borders of Washington and they are still quite far away from Nebraska.”
Smart says if you see a large wasp in the Capitol City, you’re seeing a fellow neighbor in the region, and again if you don’t threaten a bee or wasp, it most likely will not sting because that is a last resort for the species.