Northern giant hornets (sometimes called “murder hornets”) are not in Maryland and have been fully eradicated from the United States. The species was detected in Washington State in 2019, and after a five-year effort by federal and state agencies, the last known population was eliminated. What you’re almost certainly seeing in Maryland is a European hornet or one of several other large native insects that look alarmingly similar.
Giant Hornets Were Eradicated From the U.S.
The northern giant hornet first appeared near Blaine, Washington, in late 2019. Between 2020 and 2021, wildlife officials destroyed four nests, using tracking technology originally developed for monitoring spotted lanternflies. Nearly half of confirmed detections during the campaign came from reports by everyday residents, which underscores how seriously agencies took public sightings. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officially declared the species eradicated from the country.
No northern giant hornet has ever been found in Maryland, and at this point, none exist anywhere in the U.S. If you spotted a large, intimidating insect around your home or yard, something else is responsible.
What You’re Likely Seeing Instead
Maryland is home to two true hornet species: the European hornet and the bald-faced hornet. The European hornet is the one most often mistaken for a giant hornet because of its size (over an inch long) and yellow-and-brown coloring. It’s the largest wasp you’ll regularly encounter in the state.
Beyond hornets, several other large insects in Maryland trigger “murder hornet” reports:
- Eastern cicada killers are solitary wasps that can reach nearly two inches. They look fearsome but are docile and rarely sting people. They dig burrows in sandy soil and hunt cicadas.
- Great golden digger wasps are another large, solitary species that nests in the ground. Despite their size, they’re not aggressive toward humans.
- Carpenter bees are bulky and hover around wooden structures, sometimes startling homeowners. Males can’t sting at all.
- Hover flies mimic the coloring of hornets but are completely harmless flies with no stinger.
- Elm sawflies are thick-bodied insects that resemble hornets at a glance but aren’t wasps and don’t sting.
The key giveaway for a northern giant hornet would be its sheer size, roughly 1.5 to 2 inches long with a distinctly wide, orange-yellow head that looks almost cartoonishly large compared to its body. European hornets have narrower heads that blend more proportionally with their thorax, and their coloring leans more reddish-brown with yellow stripes rather than the bold orange face of a giant hornet.
European Hornets: Maryland’s Biggest Hornet
Since European hornets are the species most commonly confused with giant hornets in Maryland, it helps to know what to expect from them. They build paper nests using chewed wood pulp mixed with saliva, typically in hollow trees, abandoned rodent burrows, or wall voids in buildings. At peak population, a colony can contain around 300 workers. Unlike most wasps, European hornets fly at night and are attracted to porch lights, landscape lighting, and even light leaking through window blinds. They’ll sometimes bang into windows after dark, which can be unnerving.
European hornets hunt other insects, including grasshoppers, flies, bees, and other wasps. They also strip bark from young trees and shrubs to access sap, both for food and for nest-building material. If you’ve noticed patches of missing bark on ornamental trees, European hornets may be the cause.
Their colonies are annual. Every nest dies off in winter, and old nests are never reused. Only a few fertilized queens survive by overwintering in sheltered spots like leaf litter, under logs, or inside tree bark crevices. Each spring, those queens start entirely new colonies from scratch. This means that a nest you find in your attic or a tree cavity in August will be empty and inactive by the first hard freeze.
Late summer and early fall is when European hornets are most likely to seem aggressive. The colony’s social structure starts breaking down as new queens and males leave to mate, and the remaining workers become more defensive if their nest is disturbed.
What a Sting Feels Like and When to Worry
European hornets, like all social wasps, can sting repeatedly. Their venom contains proteins that punch holes in cells and trigger your body’s immune response. You’ll feel immediate pain, followed by swelling and redness as your immune cells rush to break down the venom proteins. For most people, this resolves in a day or two.
Some people experience a larger local reaction where swelling and redness persist for days to a week. This can look alarming, with significant puffiness around the sting site, but it’s not the same as an allergic emergency. A cold pack, over-the-counter antihistamines, and hydrocortisone cream are usually enough to manage the discomfort.
Anaphylaxis is the real danger, and it’s a whole-body reaction rather than a localized one. Signs include hives spreading across your skin, difficulty breathing, throat swelling, and a sudden drop in blood pressure. This requires immediate emergency treatment with epinephrine. The biggest risk factor is a prior allergic reaction to any stinging insect. If you’ve had one before, keeping two epinephrine autoinjectors on hand is standard advice, since body weight and venom duration can require a second dose. Watch for a red line extending from the sting site toward your heart, which signals spreading infection and warrants medical attention.
How to Report a Suspicious Sighting
If you genuinely believe you’ve spotted something that doesn’t match any local species, particularly an insect with the distinctive wide orange head of a northern giant hornet, Maryland has a reporting line for suspected invasive pests. You can call the Maryland Department of Agriculture at 410-841-5920. Having a clear photo ready will help officials assess your report quickly.
That said, the overwhelming majority of reports turn out to be European hornets, cicada killers, or other native look-alikes. Before calling, compare what you saw against the side-by-side identification guide published by NC State Extension, which shows the northern giant hornet next to more than a dozen commonly confused species. The differences become obvious once you see them together.