Asian hornets in Tetbury

**Greengage** · 21-09-2016, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by gavin

Given that a worker was detected in Tetbury it seems very likely that at least one queen has established a nest in the area. Bad news as, by this time of the year, sexual forms may well be dispersing.

Surly if a queen has established there would be more than one male, if he is the only one and there are lots of females lurking in the woods he is going to be a busy boy.

Maybe he is sterile like all the drones that are flying around Cork here in Ireland.
Time to lock up the children this guy can swallow wood and move buckets .http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...n-cousins.html Since yea are no longer in Europe there will be no grants to help you get rid of the invasion, your on your own.

**gavin** · 01-10-2016, 01:52 PM

Here is last night's post on http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/News/news.cfm#176

September 2016 - Asian hornet nest found and destroyed

An Asian hornet nest (image 1) has been located and destroyed by experts in the Tetbury area. The nest (image 2) was found at the top of a 55 foot tall conifer tree (image 3). Inspectors from the National Bee Unit are continuing to monitor the area for Asian hornets alongside local beekeepers. However to date, no live hornets have been seen since the nest was removed.

We urge anyone to report suspect Asian hornet sightings to alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk.

Further guidance on the Asian hornet can be found on the Asian hornet pages of Beebase where you will find a very useful Asian hornet ID sheet sheet and Asian hornet poster which is available for identification purposes.

With the images:

**gavin** · 01-10-2016, 03:04 PM

From an earlier statement:

Asian Hornet update. Following the recent discovery of two Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) workers near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, Bee Inspectors from the National Bee Unit have visited over 100 sites in the local area. Asian Hornets were found at six locations within 500m of the original sighting.

Impressive scale of search but it does make me wonder ....

- flights of Asian hornet workers seem rather short if the six locations were within 500m of the original sighting
- only one site of six with hunting hornets was reported, the others found by inspectors

This all seems a bit needle in a haystack. There must be a chance that there are more out there and this nest wasn't established by the first queen to make it to these shores. If the radius affected is short and most folk with bee hives don't notice or report the issue then it would be easy for there to be others and we're just seeing the colony of one daughter or grand-daughter of the first one.

Also interested to hear whether there was evidence either way about new queens produced by this colony. It looks a fair size.

**greengumbo** · 03-10-2016, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by gavin

From an earlier statement:

Asian Hornet update. Following the recent discovery of two Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) workers near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, Bee Inspectors from the National Bee Unit have visited over 100 sites in the local area. Asian Hornets were found at six locations within 500m of the original sighting.

Impressive scale of search but it does make me wonder ....

- flights of Asian hornet workers seem rather short if the six locations were within 500m of the original sighting
- only one site of six with hunting hornets was reported, the others found by inspectors

This all seems a bit needle in a haystack. There must be a chance that there are more out there and this nest wasn't established by the first queen to make it to these shores. If the radius affected is short and most folk with bee hives don't notice or report the issue then it would be easy for there to be others and we're just seeing the colony of one daughter or grand-daughter of the first one.

Also interested to hear whether there was evidence either way about new queens produced by this colony. It looks a fair size.

That nest is impressive! They are such cool insects.....a pity they are / can be so devastating. Sounds like the NBU have done well and I am sure they are thinking similar questions to yourself Gav. Amazing this can go undetected. I wonder if the nest was removed intact or destroyed in situ ? Maybe if the former could it be examined for signs of queen dispersal ?