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| WSDA talks to colleagues and media about the potential drone use for hornet tracking. |
WSDA Communications
While we look back on 2022, I’d be remiss to only take a
peek from a bird’s-eye view. Some of the work our agency is tasked with involves
protecting agriculture by getting rid of and keeping invasive pests out of the
state.
Since 2019, our teams have been tracking and removing northern
giant hornet (NGH) nests and have garnered lots of experience in the art of
nest removal. From visiting South Korea to learn more to removing four nests
and learning all the ins and outs of this process, one thing remains true: in
Washington state, these hornets have given our hornet trackers a run for their
money.
When we found a northern giant hornet, we would radio tag
it, and follow that hornet back to the nest.
Trekking through the woodlands of northern Whatcom County
proved to be difficult when the NGH trackers began to find nests deep in the
woods in tree cavities, often several feet off the ground. The scientific
literature suggests that in native environments, NGH typically nests
underground. However, in Washington, hornet nests were often located in dense
forests with hard-to trek of lands. This made it hard to follow a hornet back
to its nest.
These obstacles slowed tracking in two ways; first by
requiring ground tracking personnel to cut their way through heavy blackberry
growth with machetes, and second by the forest itself interfering with the
range the tag’s radio signal could be detected. These difficulties were
compounded by the handheld tracking units being limited to detecting a single
signal, which was a shortcoming when multiple tagged hornets were in an area at
the same time.
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Our tracking teams decided to incorporate unmanned aerial
systems (UAS) equipped with radio telemetry hardware to aid in future tracking
operations. The first step was identifying if it would be useful in the
program. While the program drones haven’t officially taken flight, as soon as
the government policy is written and finalized, the sky’s the limit.
WSDA hornet trackers say these drones will be beneficial in rapidly
locating an area where a tagged hornet is located. We believe it will also
allow them to follow a highly mobile, tagged hornet from above the forest
canopy, to cut down on signal interference from the forest itself, and to
enable the ground team to track multiple tag frequencies simultaneously in real
time.
Speed and efficiency
Speed and efficiency is critical to any eradication effort.
While locating the nests via radio tagged northern giant hornets will
invariably require the presence of a ground crew with handheld radio telemetry
receivers, the aerial tracking system will both increase the efficiency of the
tracking operation and reduce safety risks to personnel in certain difficult
field conditions.
Flying into the future
Our team is hopeful that as soon as the policies are completed, our hornet tracking abilities can have the takeoff we’ve been dreaming of. Keep an eye on our blog for more on this in the coming months.