Beekeepers brace for next round with Canada's 'murder hornets'

British Columbia resigned to a long fight' after 2020's efforts to track and kill the invasive insects ended in frustration

• Murder hornets': race to protect North America's honeybees from giant invader
• Read more in our series Biodiversity: what happened next?

The year 2020 is not one that beekeepers in Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia are likely to forget in a hurry. Since the spring, experts in both regions have been gripped by fears of Vespa mandarinia, a hulking insect whose voracious appetite for honeybees and stealthy spread could pose a threat to the region's vulnerable ecosystem.

I squeezed [the queen] on her thorax ... and this huge stinger came out. And the giant mandibles moved, trying to bite me. It was really quite beautiful