# Murder Hornet Invasion > Murder Hornet Invasion is a May 2020 reaction-meme wave sparked by New York Times reports of invasive Asian giant hornets in Washington state, embodying absurdist pandemic-era dread. Murder Hornet Invasion is a wave of memes that erupted in early May 2020 after the New York Times reported on the arrival of Asian giant hornets in Washington state. Coming at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns, the news about two-inch-long hornets that decapitate honeybees hit the internet like a punchline nobody asked for. The meme captured a collective 2020 mood: the year was already a nightmare, and now nature was sending murder hornets. ## Origin On May 2nd, 2020, New York Times journalist Mike Baker published an article titled "'Murder Hornets' in the U.S.: The Rush to Stop the Asian Giant Hornet"[1]. The piece told the story of Washington beekeeper Ted McFall, who discovered thousands of his bees with their heads ripped from their bodies. The culprit: Asian giant hornets, which use shark-fin-shaped mandibles to massacre entire hives[1]. The hornets had actually been spotted months earlier. Washington's Department of Agriculture first confirmed a dead Asian giant hornet in December 2019[3]. But the NYT article, with its vivid descriptions and alarming nickname, was the match that lit the meme fire. The hornets had gotten some online attention before the invasion memes took off. On November 25, 2018, YouTuber Coyote Peterson posted a video of himself getting stung by an Asian giant hornet on the Brave Wilderness channel, which pulled in more than 7.4 million views in under two years[4]. - **Platform:** New York Times (news article), Twitter (viral meme spread) - **Creator:** Mike Baker (NYT journalist who wrote the viral article), Community-created (meme response) - **Date:** 2020 ## Overview The Murder Hornet Invasion meme refers to the avalanche of jokes, tweets, and image macros that followed a May 2020 New York Times report on Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia) being found in the United States for the first time[1]. The world's largest hornets, capable of growing over two inches long, kill roughly 50 people per year in Japan and can wipe out entire honeybee colonies by decapitating tens of thousands of bees in hours[2]. The memes weren't really about the hornets themselves. They were about the absurdity of 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic already dominating daily life, the sudden appearance of an insect nicknamed "murder hornet" felt like the universe was running a disaster randomizer. Most jokes followed the format of listing 2020's escalating catastrophes, with murder hornets as the latest (and most cartoonishly villainous) addition[6]. ## How It Spread The memes went nuclear within hours of the NYT article dropping. That morning, Baker tweeted a link to his piece, describing the hornets' stinger as feeling like "red-hot thumbtacks being driven into my flesh." The tweet grabbed over 24,000 likes and 12,000 retweets in two days[4]. Writer Scott Wampler quote-tweeted the article with "lmao God is just straight-up done with our bullshit," pulling 19,000 likes and 5,600 retweets[4]. On the same day, Twitter user @LeahCsMovies posted an Anthony Adams (Spice Adams) laughing reaction with the caption "Everyone: What else could possibly happen in May?" That post blew up to 833,000 views, 43,000 likes, and 14,000 retweets[4]. Instagram account @grapejuiceboys contributed a Don Draper Life Cereal Pitch parody about the hornets, earning 48,000 likes in under 24 hours[4]. By May 3rd, Reddit user wilymon shared a photo of the hornets in someone's palm on a subreddit, pulling 55,000 upvotes with 91% approval and nearly 5,000 comments[4]. Related posts on /r/Wellthatsucks and /r/natureismetal each crossed 15,000 points[4]. The phrase "murder hornet" trended on Twitter throughout the weekend as the internet collectively processed yet another 2020 curveball[3]. Multiple outlets covered the meme wave, including BuzzFeed, Mashable, The Daily Dot, and Distractify[6]. A common thread across the jokes was treating 2020 as a disaster checklist or a particularly cruel game of bingo. One popular tweet format imagined a conversation between an angel and God, with God casually adding "murder hornets" to the year's lineup[5]. Others riffed on legal technicalities ("They are only murder hornets if they're convicted") and geographical wine jokes ("They're only murder hornets if they come from the Murdèr region of France, otherwise they are just sparkling manslaughter bees")[5]. ## How to Use The murder hornet meme typically works in a few formats: **The 2020 disaster escalation:** List increasingly terrible events from 2020 (pandemic, economic collapse, civil unrest) and add murder hornets as the latest entry. Usually delivered through existing templates like Drake, expanding brain, or the "angel and God" dialogue format. **The "what's next?" reaction:** Use any reaction image or template to express overwhelmed disbelief, captioned with something about murder hornets being the final straw. **The personification of 2020:** Frame 2020 itself as a hostile entity that keeps adding new threats. Murder hornets function as the punchline to the question "what could possibly go wrong next?" **Legal/wordplay jokes:** Riff on the word "murder" in the name, applying courtroom language, true crime tropes, or classification humor to the hornets. The format works best when the joke focuses on human helplessness against an absurd cascade of problems, rather than the hornets themselves. ## Cultural Impact The murder hornet meme crossed over into mainstream news coverage almost instantly. NBC Los Angeles, CBS News, and other broadcast outlets ran segments that referenced the online reaction alongside the actual entomological threat[3][7]. The meme and the news story were so intertwined that scientists had to push back against the hype. Entomologist Lynn Kimsey at UC Davis told reporters, "Your neighbor's dog is probably more dangerous," and noted the hornets may have already died in the cold[8]. Task & Purpose took the meme's energy to its logical extreme by asking the Pentagon whether the U.S. military had been tasked with eradicating the hornets. A defense official responded that "murder's a pretty strong term to level at an entire species, as it implies intent, which must be proven in a court of law," before adding that the military would "engage it under cover of darkness" if forced to confront the insects[8]. The Ohio-based flamethrower company Throwflame reported an uptick in sales, with particular interest in their TF-19 Wasp drone flamethrower[8]. The David Suzuki Foundation used the media moment to redirect attention to the real threats facing pollinators, noting that while murder hornets posed little near-term danger, honeybees were already living in a "dystopian plot line" of pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change[9]. Fans of The Simpsons pointed to the 1993 episode "Marge in Chains" (Season 4, Episode 21), which depicted a flu virus spreading from Asia to Springfield followed by a swarm of "Killer Bees" escaping from a crate. While not an exact match, the combination of pandemic plus dangerous insects felt eerily close to reality[10]. CBS News later produced a longer feature following beekeeper Ted McFall's ongoing battle to protect his hives, reporting that Washington entomologists were experimenting with infrared cameras and even radio transmitters attached to the hornets (possible because they're large enough) to locate underground nests[7]. The nickname "murder hornet" itself likely came from a mistranslation from Japanese that went viral after the NYT article used it[7]. ## Fun Facts - A group of hornets is sometimes called a "bike," a fact that the David Suzuki Foundation noted while covering the hysteria[9]. - Asian giant hornets are so large that researchers can physically attach radio transmitters to individual insects to track them back to their nests[7]. - Japanese honeybees have a natural defense against the hornets: they swarm an intruder and vibrate their bodies to raise the temperature, essentially cooking the hornet alive[2]. - The entomologist leading Washington's response, Chris Looney, publicly disliked the "murder hornet" name, arguing it exaggerated the human health risk[7]. - Beekeeper Ted McFall stashed one of his daughter's tennis rackets near his traps as a last resort against the hornets, citing his "pretty good serve" from high school[7]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Murder Hornet Invasion? Murder Hornet Invasion is a meme trend from May 2020 where people made jokes about Asian giant hornets arriving in the U.S., treating it as the latest in a series of ridiculous 2020 disasters[4]. ### Where did Murder Hornet Invasion come from? The memes started on May 2, 2020, after the New York Times published an article about Asian giant hornets found in Washington state, written by journalist Mike Baker[1]. ### What does Murder Hornet Invasion mean? The meme expressed collective exasperation with 2020, using the hornets as a symbol of the year's relentless escalation of bad news on top of the COVID-19 pandemic[6]. ### How do you use Murder Hornet Invasion? People typically pair murder hornet references with reaction templates, disaster lists, or dialogue formats to joke about things getting worse, or about 2020 specifically as a cursed year[5]. ### Is Murder Hornet Invasion still popular? No. The meme was highly specific to May 2020 and the pandemic lockdown mood. It faded as the news cycle moved on and the actual hornet threat was brought under control by entomologists[8]. ### How dangerous are Asian giant hornets to humans? While they kill about 50 people per year in Japan, scientists emphasized they're not naturally aggressive toward humans. UC Davis entomologist Lynn Kimsey said, "Your neighbor's dog is probably more dangerous"[8]. ### What do murder hornets do to honeybees? They enter a "slaughter phase" where a small group of hornets can decapitate tens of thousands of honeybees and destroy an entire colony in hours, then carry the bee larvae back to feed their own young[2]. ### Did The Simpsons predict murder hornets? Fans pointed to the 1993 episode "Marge in Chains," which showed a virus from Asia followed by killer bees escaping a crate. The parallel wasn't exact but went viral as another "Simpsons predicted it" moment[10]. ### Did the U.S. military respond to murder hornets? Task & Purpose asked the Pentagon, which acknowledged awareness of the hornets but noted that "murder's a pretty strong term to level at an entire species, as it implies intent." They did say they would "engage it under cover of darkness" if needed[8]. ### Why are they called "murder hornets"? The nickname likely came from a possible mistranslation from Japanese. It went viral after the New York Times used it in their May 2020 article[7]. ### Were the murder hornets actually eradicated? Washington state entomologists launched active eradication efforts using infrared cameras, baited traps, citizen scientists, and special hornet-proof suits. The hornets' colonies die annually in cold climates, which limited their ability to establish a permanent foothold[7]. ## References 1. [‘Murder Hornets’ in the U.S.: The Rush to Stop the Asian Giant Hornet - The New York Times]() 2. [20 Murder Hornets Tweets That Will Help You Laugh Through The Terror]() 3. [Everything you need to know about 'murder hornets' | Mashable]() 4. [Murder Hornet Invasion - Know Your Meme]() 5. [List of YouTube videos]() 6. [2020 Has Officially Gotten Even Worse: "Murder Hornets" Now In U.S.]() 7. ['The Simpsons' made chilling prediction about murder hornets, coronavirus pandemic 27 years ago!]() 8. [‘Murder Hornet’ Invasion Becomes Latest 2020 Concern – NBC Los Angeles]() 9. [Nuke the Murder Hornets]() 10. [Do “murder hornets” pose a serious buzzkill? - David Suzuki Foundation]() 11. [Invasion! The threat from Asian giant hornets - CBS News]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/murder-hornet-invasion Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library