#What happened to the murder hornets expected to wreak havoc in the US?

Washington state Department of Agriculture entomologist Chris Looney displays a dead Asian giant hornet.
POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Murder hornets appear to be spreading south with a new confirmed sighting in Washington state — where more than 1,000 people have scrambled to set up traps since reports of the insect being found in the US for the first time surfaced earlier this year, a state official told The Post.

One of the jumbo stingers — a queen — was found nearly dead on a woman’s porch on June 6 in Bellingham, roughly 15 miles south of Custer, where the deadly hornets were first spotted, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

“They are strong fliers so they can spread very far distances if they want to,” said WSDA public engagement specialist Karla Salp. “The biggest risk to humans would be if you stepped in a nest and were stung multiple times, and they nest in the ground, so it’s easier to miss.”

The department plans to trap and tag the species’ worker hornets in order to follow them to nests — then extinguish the colonies with pesticides, Salp said.

At least four other confirmed sightings of the species, officially named Asian giant hornets, have been reported in Washington, including a dead queen found in a road in Cluster on May 27. Others have surfaced farther north in British Columbia.

Salp said her department has received hundreds of reports from all over the country in recent months, but no murder hornets have been confirmed in the US outside of Washington state.

“Unfortunately a lot of people are killing bumblebees thinking they are Asian giant hornets,” she said. “That’s doing more harm than good.”

The invasive insect, which can grow up to 2 inches long, are a threat to honey bees — which they can decapitate in seconds. While a sting to humans isn’t usually fatal, the host of an extreme nature show described being stung as “Searing pain! Absolute searing pain!”

Japan attributes 50 human deaths a year to the nasty buzzers.

Roughly 1,000 “citizen scientists” in the northwestern section of Washington state have set up traps using instructions provided by the WSDA, such as using juice as bait.

“The best thing people can do is to learn how to properly identify them and report them,” Salp said.