The Washington State Department of Agriculture received this photo taken Oct. 3 in Kitsap County showing a suspected northern giant hornet.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture will be analyzing a dead hornet that looks in pictures like a northern giant hornet, colloquially known as a “murder hornet.”

The hornet was photographed Oct. 3 by a woman checking a home in Kitsap County. She sent the photos to the department the next day. If it is a northern giant hornet, it will be the first found in Washington in three years.

Other hornets look like northern giant hornets, but none of those have been seen in Washington. “The photos do look very consistent with the northern giant hornet,” department spokeswoman Karla Salp said Oct. 16.

The hornet was on a windowsill inside the home. The woman won’t return to the home for another week or two to collect it for the department, Salp said. Until then, the department won’t declare it a northern giant hornet.

“We’re having a little patience and trying not be intrusive to the property owner,” Salp said.

Northern giant hornets, formally called Asian giant hornets, are proficient killers of honeybees and other pollinators. The hornets were found for the first time in the U.S. in late 2019 in Whatcom County.

The state agriculture department, assisted by USDA, has waged a campaign to eradicate the hornet. The campaign appears successful so far. No live northern giant hornet has been seen since 2021.

The only northern giant hornet seen outside Whatcom County was found dead in 2021 in Snohomish County. No live hornet was ever found there. “Hopefully, that will be the situation in Kitsap County,” Salp said.

The hornet photographed in Kitsap County was found near Port Orchard. The department asked residents to watch for other northern giant hornets. Reports can be made online at agr.wa.gov/hornets.

The department traps for northern giant hornets, but also relies on public reports, Salp said. “The Kitsap County report is just another example of how important that is,” she said.