LOOK OUT for ASIAN HORNET

colinlodgelodge

Vespa Velutina on white camellia
                                             

Invading Asian hornets may have arrived here last summer and produced Queens to over-winter in hibernation and emerge this spring to build their primary nests.  Spring Equinox is on Wednesday 20th (at 21:58 hrs to be precise) and as the evenings draw out temperatures should improve day by day allowing the Hornets to come out of their cosy hiding places.

 

 As the weather improves and you can get out into the garden, please look out for hornets:

 

Asian hornets have swept up through France and Spain over the last few years and are in the process of establishing here. Several nests were found in the UK last year. These hornets multiply rapidly over the summer and need protein in large quantities for their grubs. They kill other insects to feed their young and cause enormous losses in the populations of pollinating insects, including honey bees. The only way DEFRA and the National Bee Unit can control their spread is if the public are vigilant and report any that are seen.

 

The earliest sightings tend to be around now in the spring when queen hornets are feeding on camellia flowers (bushes with single-petalled flowers are more popular than the doubles). They look different from our native European hornets - the invading ones are black, with an orange band near the very back of the abdomen. There are clear pictures comparing them on the Internet.

 

To report a sighting by email use [email protected] and include a photo if possible. If you are unable to get a photo, contact your nearest beekeeping branch and someone will come out to monitor a saucer of wasp bait to get a picture and confirm the sighting, before a DEFRA team comes out to track down the nest. You can also find an APP for identifying and reporting Asian Hornet  on these links:

 

• Asian Hornet Watch app for iPhone
• Asian Hornet Watch app for android

 

For anyone especially interested, there is good footage of about twenty seconds showing clearly what they look like, at around 20.20, in this documentary from Italy: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_qP7L4CG6so&t=1072s

DampGardenMan

Should we be killing them if we see one?

nutcutlet

I would say no because most people don't recognise them and kill anything with stripes. (not Tigers). Bee keepers say yes 

Guernsey Donkey2

Although I tend to agree with you nutcutlet - if we don't eliminate the hornets they will eliminate our common garden bees.

Here we have been asked to try to locate the hornets nests so that they can be professionally removed. So far I think we have had half a dozen nests found last year, more found in Jersey which is closer to France.

Be vigilant and if you see an Asian hornet try to capture it in a bottle or some other container and ring your local bee keeping group or some other relevant person, as Colin has suggested and provided the links too.

colinlodgelodge

There is no Point in killing them as individuals except perhaps to save a few bees and other pollinating insects or to collect a specimen as evidence.   What is important is to gather some evidence, either a specimen or photographic or video evidence to send off with your report to [email protected] .  You will have to kill one if you want to send a physical specimen, and the best way to do that is to catch one in a jar ( they are not aggressive as single insects ) and put it in the freezer overnight.   It is relatively easy to drop a jar over the insect and slide a bit of card across the opening.   If you wish, and you have one handy, you can catch them in a net and transfer them to a jar.   If you don't want to try and catch them alive then use a badminton racquet to swat one.

Killing individual queens will not reduce the number of nests for the year significantly as the attrition rate of queens in winter is  is high anyway and one more or less makes little difference to the number of nest that get started.    Killing workers later in the year is no point as their will be so many of them, and in fact we need to see flying workers to track them to their nests which will be killed by professional pest controllers working for the National Bee Unit.

If you see one the best thing to do is put out a bait dish with a sugary liquid bait to attract them.   They will become habituated to the bait and keep returning to take on fuel for flying as it will be easier to collect than at flowers.   The when NBU inspectors arrive they will mark some of the insects in order to follow them to their nest.

As a bait you can use a mix of Sweet white wine, beer and Ribena but if you have Creme de Cassis that is better than Ribena.    The Italians use just beer.   Put a paper towel in a 4" or 5" flower pot saucer and weight it with a stone.  Pour the bait liquid onto the towel so it soaks in  and you get a pool of the liquid in the bottom of the saucer.   This will keep the towel wet and the towel helps to disperse the odour of the bait.   Very soon hornets, if present in the locality will start to come to the dish and keep on visiting for as long as there is wet towel and liquid in the dish.    The very best bait is SUTERRA wasp attractant sold as Trappit wasp attractant, but this is quite expensive.

If you want to help try to detect Asian Hornets put a bait dish like this outside you kitchen window so you can observe it from time to time.    You probably will not see any Asian Hornets as they are not yet established in England, and they won't be if lots of people look for them to find the few that may arrive.     But you may see European Hornets which look like very large brown wasps and you will attract lots of our usual wasps, but if they are going to the bait dish they will not bother you as they will be content with the feed they get, hopefully. 




Frelon asiatique = Asian Hornet = Bad Guy
                                                 Frelon commun = native European Hornet = good Guy


 

DampGardenMan

colinlodgelodge said:

 which will be killed by professional pest controllers working for the National Bee Unit.

Would we have to pay, or will the NBU be footing the bill?

fidgetbones

There is a harmless hoverfly that mimics the hornet.

colinlodgelodge

Good news DampGardenMan,   NBU stated in talks with AHATs and BBKA that for this year the cost of eradicating nest will be paid by the Government.   This will be reviewed on a yearly basis. If NBU are unsuccessful at finding all nests this year and the hornet becomes established they will declare a new phase of "Containment and Management" and costs of removal of nests will probably have to be born by landowners  where they are found.

This means it is in our interest to make the NBU policy work.  In other words we need everybody knowing what to look for so we have a high chance of finding the Hornet wherever it occurs and reporting it to NBU, so they can kill the nests and prevent queens being produced at the end of this coming autumn.  If they continue to be successful in this policy it will be renewed next year.   Only if it they fail and money is seen to be wasted will they call of the policy.

This is the Hornet mimic hoverfly, Volucella zonaria which is very common in the south of England and spreading up through the country. It is completely harmless and actually does a lot of good in the garden pollinating as it searches for nectar.    It looks a little like a European hornet which gives it some protection from other species which may prey on it otherwise.