“It’s a little bit tricky because this species makes their nest under the ground — more than 30 meters — so it is not easy to find,” he said. “We are trying.”

30 meters seems kind of unlikely to me. 30 centimeters, maybe?

kagis

https://www.orkincanada.ca/blog/the-asian-giant-hornet-murder-hornet-what-you-need-to-know/

Unlike other species of Vespa, V. mandarinia  Asian Giant Hornet prefers to nest underground. With rotten pine roots being a common nesting material for these hornets, however, snake or rodent tunnels that have already been dug up  have also been used to nest.  The depth of these nests are between 6 and 60 centimetres (2.4 and 23.6 in).

Yeah, that seems more like the right range.

Anyone remember these being a big story in early 2020, right before… right before some other thing came up?

I feel like this is the type of story that’s on a tabloid front cover every few months.

I was going to suggest that these things don’t look as bad as Australian hornets but apparently Australian hornets are actually potters wasps and are smaller. Wikipedia says they only get to 30mm which I’m not convinced is correct having seen one of those suckers drag a spider the size of my hand up a wall but I wasnt getting there with a ruler given how aggressive they tend to be. Either way, good luck with your terrifying new giant bug Europe.