Nigel Semmence from the National Bee Unit (NBU) gave an update on the yellow-legged Asian hornet (YLH) situation on Tuesday 11th March.
The following are the key points:
2024
- 24 nests destroyed – South East England.
- First evidence of overwintering/breeding in UK.
- 29,611 reports but only 71 confirmed – 0.2%. We need to continue to educate the public on how to identify the YLH.
2025
- Eradication phase continues.
- 1 confirmed single hornet – January – Oswestry, Shropshire.
- Spring YLH queen surveillance has been approved for the NBU – they are monitoring 5 km zones around 7 high risk points identifiied in Kent/E. Sussex.
- We need to continue vigilance, awareness, identification, reporting.
Monitoring
- NBU advice is that, in areas that are not at high or medium risk of YLH presence (like Beds), do not use kill traps as they have big impact on by-catch.
- Preferably, use open monitoring i.e wick stations.
- Selective traps that have no/limited by-catch (e.g. Gard’Apis or VespaCatch with 6.5mm escape holes) are OK if properly used and monitored.
- Monitoring need varies with season and local risk level (proximity to any previous years’ nests); so selective and killing traps are ideally to be used only near areas where there are confirmed sightings.
- NBU guidance on monitoring can be found here.