But now it seems that for Asian hornets, the honeymoon is over.
Jersey’s native European hornets appear to have begun to fight back against their Asian invader cousins, with several of the invasive insects being found killed.
Bob Tompkins, who writes the JEP’s nature column, said he recently noticed Asian hornets being attacked and dismembered.
But it may all be a short-lived skirmish, rather than an all-out war.
Mr Tompkins said that attracting and trapping Asian hornets had recently become more difficult but he had not been able to determine exactly why. However, he pointed out that he had witnessed the invasive insects being attacked by their European counterparts at ‘attractant stations’, and added: ‘I have seen this happen on several occasions and, more recently, have begun to find dead Asian hornets on the feeding dishes that have clearly been stung, killed and partially dismembered. Given that our resident hornet is larger than the invader, all it has done in the past has been to chase the others off.
‘This recent action might seem to give hope that the native hornet will help control the invasive species, but I believe this to be a temporary disruption brought about by the effects on them by the recent weather patterns.
‘It is my theory that the severe shortage of prey species has drawn the local hornet to broaden its hunting strategy to take advantage of our feeding stations to cover its food shortage.
‘In turn, if an Asian hornet escapes such an attack, it avoids the attractant station, making our job of tracking much harder.’
- Nature: Pages 16 and 17 of today’s JEP.
