To be perfect clear: insects are not bad. They have no moral or ethical guidelines. They cannot act with malice. They certainly cannot commit murder. That said, there’s a reason the Asian giant hornet was nicknamed the ‘murder hornet’ in the North American press and not, say, ‘soft sweetheart’. These apex predators look like they were flown in from the Carboniferous era. They can slaughter colonies of honeybees in a matter of hours and tear the torsos of the tiny pollinators in half. Their poison causes scorching pain in humans at best and death at worst. And when they were discovered in Washington state last spring, the invasion sounded downright demonic. It’s fitting, then, that the new film from director Michael Paul Stephenson Attack of the Murder Hornets plays like a spooky true crime story.
The documentary, currently streaming on Discovery +, begins with a spectacular carnage. A lovable beekeeper named Ted McFall gives a gruesome look at what happened to his honey bee hives when the hornets showed up in his Whatcom County, Washington, bee farm: full-scale slaughter. McFall suffocates when he talks about the unexpected deaths. As a professional beekeeper who makes a living selling such products as honey and beeswax, the appearance of the Asian giant hornet on his property was an existential threat, and he couldn’t help but lose his bees personally. Attack of the Murder Hornets follows McFall as he joins a loose alliance of beekeepers and scientists in the Pacific Northwest who hunt for the nests of these invasive insects and race to clear them from the local ecosystem before they wreak havoc.
Another member of this mission is Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist Chris Looney, a dedicated, talkative scientist who treks through the woods with a net, undaunted by the lengthy nature of his quest. Although the team lays traps, their breakthrough comes from a little bit of high-tech equipment: roboticist Vikram Iyer realizes that tracking devices made for robotic flies can also work when attached to the Asian giant hornet, so the gang begins catching individual hornets and gluing trackers to their bellies until finally leading them back to the nest. Although they encounter a series of roadblocks, Stephenson’s subjects are able to catch much of the hornets, including many young queen specimens, which would have spread the problem all over the region had they grown up and were their own nests started. Science doesn’t quite save the day, but it prevents disasters.
Stephenson’s documentary moves in an exciting fashion from a thriller, and he’s so immersed in the ad-hoc murder-hornet detective that people talk to him candidly. He captures their chase from an intimate point of view, picking up quiet moments, such as a local child crying at the sight of a hornet whose wings were accidentally glued together in an attempt to attach the robot tracker. And it’s a passionate, engaging group: they’re all in the woods, guided by either an altruistic hope for science or the zeal of a true crusader. (“If we can’t get rid of this murderous hornet, God help us all,” says McFall.) The story is a riveting ecological race against time, with real commitment: when honeybees are in danger, the whole food chain also at risk.
With so much drama, atmosphere and character built in, Attack of the Murder Hornets didn’t have to lean so hard on its nature-doc-as-crime-doc gimmick, with its ominous soundtrack and horror movie graphics. Most of the scientists interviewed note that the insects themselves are not responsible for following their instincts. (McCall regrets, however, that he cannot decapitate every hornet himself.) Beekeeper Conrad Berube, who exterminated the first nest discovered in North America, is brought in to aid in the mission; although he prefers vests embroidered with bees and clearly respects insects, he has been called the “trigger man” because of his experience in destroying these habitats. Yet he does not dislike the hornets he feels obliged to destroy. “Look how beautiful she is,” he says when he sees a queen. “There is a certain twinge of commitment to eradicating it.” He explains that he only helps kill the creatures to protect the ecosystem.