Asian hornets: Join the hunt before they spread

Asian hornets: Join the hunt before they spread

Islanders are being urged this week to check their sheds, garages, porches, outbuildings and farms for primary ‘start-up’ nests currently being built by queens.

Although small and only home to one insect, the nests – a number of which have already been found around the Island in recent days – play a key part in the proliferation of the species.

John de Carteret, vice-president of the Jersey Beekeepers’ Association, which is working with the Environment Department on the problem, said that finding and destroying them now could have a big impact later on, as each queen could produce thousands of other insects, some of which would then go on to produce hornets themselves.

And he warned that without immediate action, Jersey’s crops could suffer in ten to 15 years’ time, because Asian hornets not only attacked honey bees but fed on other pollinators too.

‘Long term, if they get established, there will be a problem with the pollination of crops,’ he said.

‘That is a wider issue that people don’t seem to be aware of. The hornets feed off pollination species up to dragonfly-size.’

Mr de Carteret, who is currently monitoring a primary nest at a private property near Les Varines in St Saviour in order to collect information before the nest is destroyed later this week, added: ‘It is a critical time in the battle against this invasive species – I am a man on mission to get people looking for these nests.’

Primary nests have so far been found at Maufant, Longueville, near Les Varines and elsewhere in St Saviour. However, Mr de Carteret said he expected there to be many more around the Island.

‘They can look like nothing and I am sure a lot of people think they are nothing,’ he said.

Anyone who finds a nest or suspects that they have found one should take a photo if possible and call the Environment Department on 441600.

Asian hornets originate from South-east Asia and were first spotted in Jersey in 2016. In spring, founder queens come out of hibernation and build their primary nests alone, often in a protected place such as a garden shed or under the eaves of a house.

The embryonic nest resembles a small sphere, five to ten centimetres in diameter with an opening at the bottom.

After leaving their primary nest, the queen and her worker hornets move on to build a larger secondary nest in early summer. These are mostly found in dense canopy shrubs and trees up to 40 metres high but have been found in brambles and occasionally on buildings and cliffs.

The primary nest is small – slightly larger than a tennis ball – while the secondary nest is larger – roughly the size of a basketball – and spherical or pear-shaped.

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