Islanders urged to report hornet nests

With leaves falling from trees and hedgerows, Tim du Feu, the Environment Department’s director of environmental protection, said that Asian hornet nests would be more easily seen and he also called on the public to check autumnal flowering plants in their gardens for evidence of the predatory insect. Between April and October this year 15 nests were found and destroyed by Environment Department officers working alongside beekeepers to try to control the outbreak.

‘Asian hornets are here to stay and work will continue next year to control the number of nests in the Island,’ Mr du Feu said.

‘The public can still play a crucial part in continuing to phone in the location of nests so that they can be destroyed by our trained pest controllers.

‘As leaves fall from trees and hedgerows, secondary nests will be more easily seen and Islanders are asked to report any suspect sightings to the department.’

The invasive insect has rapidly spread throughout France and into Belgium, Germany, Spain and the British Isles since it first arrived in Marseilles, in a consignment of flower pots from China, in 2004.

A single colony can contain up to 6,000 insects, which deliver a very painful sting.

Mr du Feu said his department was grateful for the hard work of the Jersey Beekeepers Association, as well as volunteers who have been searching for nests and tracking hornet movements almost every day for the past three months – a crucial period, as it is the time of the year, when queens leave colonies to prepare to establish new nests in the following spring.

‘The queen hornets would by now have been liberated from any remaining nests and will be feeding before looking for places to hibernate such as wood piles, holes in blockwork etc,’ Mr du Feu said.

‘Autumn-flowering camellias and Fatsia japonica plants are popular feeding plants at this time of the year and if anyone has these in the garden, then please check the flowers on warm days.’

The Asian hornet is smaller than the more common native European hornet.

It measures between 17 mm and 32 mm and its sting measures 6 mm.

Also known as yellow-legged hornets, they are predominantly black with a broad orange stripe on the abdomen and a fine yellow band on the first segment.

Mr du Feu added that the insects were likely to emerge from hibernation in late March to early April.

Asian hornet or nest sightings should be reported immediately by calling 441600.

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