OMAHA — There’s lots of worry to go around right now. Americans are dealing with the reality of a pandemic and now this headline from the New York Times: ‘Murder Hornets’ in the U.S.: The Rush to Stop the Asian Giant Hornet. Great. What are they and should we be concerned in Nebraska?

“It’s given that name because it is predatory and it’s very large and scary, but also when it attacks honey bee colonies it will go in and potentially remove body parts, like heads for instance, and it can destroy and entire colony,” Dr. Carol Fassbinder-Orth said.

Fassbinder-Orth is a professor of biology at Creighton University and a beekeeper. She says the so-called murder hornet was spotted in the Pacific Northwest in the fall but hasn’t been seen yet this spring. A sting or multiple stings will do more damage than your typical bee sting.

“Yes it would hurt more, there would be more venom, and potentially if you got stung by multiple at once it could be very damaging,” Fassbinder-Orth said.

Fassbinder-Orth says serious injury to humans is rare, even in areas with the biggest populations of the giant hornet. The bigger concern is to the beekeeping industry, which already loses about 50 percent of its colonies every year.

“Most likely the nature of these hornets would not kill an entire apiary but even losing a couple of hives could be really impactful when we’re already losing a lot,” Fassbinder-Orth said.

As far as the hornet spreading to Nebraska, don’t worry about it. The hornets live in low mountain ranges and forests. But the possibility of a new invasive insect is enough to put experts on edge.

“We don’t know what it can do," Fassbinder-Orth said. "It doesn’t appear to be a major threat but we don’t want to take that chance.”

Bug experts say the only live nest seen in North America was wiped out last September.