But this species poses very little threat to people or to bees. The European hornet ( Vespa crabro), for example, looks similar to the Asian hornet and is nearly double the size. So why are European beekeepers so concerned about an insect that is mostly a piece of everyday life for beekeepers in Asia? The secret is in the breeding.Įuropean beekeeping has never had to account for a significant predatory threat like the Asian hornet. All of these bees are living with the Asian hornet without much issue. There are over 45 million honeybee hives across Asia, housing nearly half of the world’s honeybees. Why they’re a threatīeekeeping is not just a European enterprise. But a study, led by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, to investigate the underlying factors is underway. Scientists aren’t yet sure what has caused 2023’s mass invasion. So warmer summers make it more likely that they will cross over to the UK from Europe and survive long enough to be spotted by people. Hornets need warm weather, like they have in Asia, to survive. It’s plausible that the higher summer temperatures seen throughout Europe in 2023 may have driven the recent increase in sightings in the UK. This implies that they are crossing the channel from France on maritime winds with regular re-invasions each year. Genetic analyses carried out by the National Bee Unit, which runs bee health programmes in England and Wales, suggest that the Asian hornets found in the UK all have the same heritage as the population on mainland Europe. The UK sightings so far in 2023 are clustered around the coast in Kent, Dorset, Hampshire, Plymouth and Weymouth.
It was supposedly brought to Europe by mistake in a shipment of imported pottery from China.Īsian hornets have since spread into several neighbouring countries, including Spain, Portugal, Germany and the UK. The Asian hornet (also known as the yellow-legged hornet) first came to Europe in 2004, where it was spotted in the Lot-et-Garonne region of south-western France.
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UN invasive species report reveals scale of threat to nature and people – and how to manage itĪsian hornets were first spotted in the UK in 2016. Their implicit economic cost stands at around US$420 billion (£335 billion) each year. According to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, invasive species are linked to 60% of global plant and animal extinctions. The spread of invasive Asian hornets mirrors a global trend.
Despite the occasional suggestion that the Asian hornet may have become established in the UK, there is no evidence yet that these insects can survive British winters.
So far, there have been more confirmed UK sightings of the Asian hornet in 2023 than there were in all the previous years combined. Since then, vigilant members of the public and beekeepers have found and identified 43 Asian hornet nests in the UK – mainly in southern counties such as Kent, Hampshire and Devon. One study found that flower visits by bumblebees and hoverflies dropped substantially in the presence of these predators.Īsian hornets were first recorded in the UK in 2016 when worker hornets were seen foraging at an apiary near Tetbury in Gloucestershire.
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