The invasive murder hornet has been murdered into eradication just five years after first buzzing into America, entomologists now say.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared victory over the Northern Giant Hornets — colloquially referred to as murder hornets for their habit of targeting honeybees and destroying their colonies within a matter of hours — claiming that the predatory bugs have not been detected in America in three years now.

“We are proud of this landmark victory in the fight against invasive species,” Deputy Administrator for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Mark Davidson said in a press release.

The murder hornets, native to Asia, are also known to spit venom. While they are generally not aggressive towards humans unless provoked, the 2-inch insects are estimated to kill up to 75 people globally each year.

The hornets first surfaced on American soil in December 2019 when they were spotted in northwest Washington state. Agriculture and wildlife officials eradicated the first nest in 2020 by placing a tracking beacon on one hornet, enabling them to follow it to its nest and destroy the colony.

Another three colonies were also destroyed after they were tracked down by scientists who set 1,000 hornet traps around the state in 2022. The following year, they were able to track down one nest containing nearly 1,500 hornets and swiftly destroy it.

Officials warned, however, that the little buggers may resurface. “They got here once, and they could do it again,” a pest specialist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Sven Spichiger, said during a press conference Wednesday.