I did my part.

Five years ago, while I was driving one of the blighters landed on my windscreen. I pushed the wiper lever to rinse, expecting it to swipe him away.

Instead it beat him down to my air intake vent, and he was sucked into the AC system.

I made sure to warn the mechanic of what lurked down there when I brought the car for her annual service.

Did your mechanic visit happen soon thereafter? Was it alive?

The visit was a few months afterwards, and he changed the air filters without comment. If it was still alive, or mutated into something ungodly, I would've known. Unless the mechanic is now host to something worse, and that's the reason he didn't speak... I think I'll change mechanic for good measure.

Not the same Asian hornet, in Europe we have Vespa velutina vs mandarinia in the PNW.

Our invasion was traced back to 2004 when a queen was supposedly brought from China to France through the port of Bordeaux. The spread is very much not controlled in Mediterranean countries, but I believe beekeepers have adapted.