The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) announced on Friday that it had trapped its first Asian giant hornet in the northern most part of the state near the Canadian border.

“The hornet was found in a WSDA trap set near Birch Bay in Whatcom County,” the department said. “WSDA trappers checked the bottle trap on July 14 and submitted the contents for processing at WSDA’s entomology lab. The hornet was identified during processing on July 29. This was the first hornet to be detected in a trap, rather than found in the environment as the state’s five previous confirmed sightings were.”Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist for the department said, “This is encouraging because it means we know that the traps work, but it also means we have work to do.”

Officials say that their next steps are to search for nests using infrared cameras while continuing to place additional traps in the area, including special traps that are designed to keep the Asian giant hornets alive. Officials want to catch live specimens so they can be tagged and released with the hopes that they will lead officials to their nests, which will then be eradicated.

“WSDA hopes to find and destroy the nest by mid-September before the colony would begin creating new reproducing queens and drones,” the department added. “Until that time, the colony will only contain the queen and worker Asian giant hornets. Destroying the nest before new queens emerge and mate will prevent the spread of this invasive pest.”

Officials say that residents are most likely to see Asian giant hornets in August and September because the number of “Asian giant hornet workers increases as a colony develops.”

A photograph released by the department shows that the specimen that it caught was approximately 2 inches long.