Asian Hornet - Folkestone

[W0otz]

This has appeared on the BBKA FB page and there doesn't seem to be a thread on it yet.


Whilst you should all be vigilant, those in Kent need to be especially so.

It's a bit close for comfort for me and I've ordered some Vespa Catch traps from Thornes.
A good excuse to watch the bees for a while each lunchtime though, and if the wife complains that I'm out with the bees again I can now argue that I'm doing my civic duty monitoring for an invasive species

 

[ericbeaumont]

bit close for comfort

If it was like the one on 5 April (Northumberland, found in a box of imported French caulilflower) then it's a stray interloper. I'd have waited for confirmation before spending.

 

[W0otz]

If it was like the one on 5 April (Northumberland, found in a box of imported French caulilflower) then it's a stray interloper. I'd have waited for confirmation before spending.

It doesn't hurt to be prepared as I'm straight up the motorway from Dover. If one comes in and gets out of its box of cauliflower the more traps the better!

 

[JamezF]

I find it bemusing when there's an announcement that there's going to be an announcement. It's often hard to work out what useful (and accurate) information the announcement of the announcement provides that was necessary ahead of the announcement, and why they couldn't just go ahead with the actual announcement in the first place.

In this case for instance, is it genuinely "a sighting" as it flew off into the distance with the current whereabouts unknown, or a live and already trapped one, or a dead one caught in a shipment of Roquefort?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

I find it bemusing when there's an announcement that there's going to be an announcement.

Maybe they announcement of the announcement is not the NBU but somebody who's got wind of it and wants to be the first to break the news?

 

[MillMeadow]

I find it bemusing when there's an announcement that there's going to be an announcement.

Or possibly that they are certain it is one but actually need someone with the relavant seniority/ bit of paper to confirm it?

Worrying regardless

 

[Blunt Spike]

.

 

[isc26]

Maybe they announcement of the announcement is not the NBU but somebody who's got wind of it and wants to be the first to break the news?

The BBKA was contacted by the NBU with the information. Each organisation has its own timeframe for making announcements.

 

[JamezF]

The BBKA was contacted by the NBU with the information. Each organisation has its own timeframe for making announcements.

I really don't see the logic of that though. If the NBU can tell the BBKA and is happy for the BBKA to announce the announcement, why not do the job itself? If there are good reasons that the NBU is holding back, why allow a third party to make it public? It just seems needlessly obtuse.

James

 

[isc26]

A good point, you would need to ask the NBU about that.

I really don't see the logic of that though. If the NBU can tell the BBKA and is happy for the BBKA to announce the announcement, why not do the job itself? If there are good reasons that the NBU is holding back, why allow a third party to make it public? It just seems needlessly obtuse.

James,

 

[fian]

If it was like the one on 5 April (Northumberland, found in a box of imported French caulilflower) then it's a stray interloper. I'd have waited for confirmation before spending.

Lost intruder was also the one that arrived in Bordeaux in a cargo container from China, now France and the entire continental Atlantic coast of Europe suffer the consequence.
The Asian hornet has a predilection for its native flora (camellia, azalea, rhododendron, eucalyptus) and for the yellow color, either the color of the trickling liquid or the outer casing of the container itself.
The asiaty hornet makes 2 nests. The primary is executed by the queen, 5 centimeters in diameter, almost spherical with the entrance at the bottom. Watch video.
The secondary nest is made by the successive workers and can reach 70cm in diameter.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The asiaty hornet makes 2 nests. The primary is executed by the queen, 5 centimeters in diameter,

Lots have been dissected by the beekeepers on Jersey. You should look at their website.

 

[rook66]

I find it bemusing when there's an announcement that there's going to be an announcement. It's often hard to work out what useful (and accurate) information the announcement of the announcement provides that was necessary ahead of the announcement, and why they couldn't just go ahead with the actual announcement in the first place.

In this case for instance, is it genuinely "a sighting" as it flew off into the distance with the current whereabouts unknown, or a live and already trapped one, or a dead one caught in a shipment of Roquefort?

James

Have you forgotten Yes Minister, you need a chitty first before making an announcement.

 

[JamezF]

Have you forgotten Yes Minister, you need a chitty first before making an announcement.

So instead you get Sir Humphrey to arrange a carefully-organised "leak"?

James

 

[Blunt Spike]

I really don't see the logic of that though. If the NBU can tell the BBKA and is happy for the BBKA to announce the announcement, why not do the job itself? If there are good reasons that the NBU is holding back, why allow a third party to make it public? It just seems needlessly obtuse.

James

It appears they are run like many Gvt /Home Office depts. I get emails from one dept asking another to tell me about something. The strange thing is I'm copied into the conversation. They worry about stepping on toes and overreaching, which in turn creates masses of double keying!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It appears they are run like many Gvt /Home Office depts. I get emails from one dept asking another to tell me about something. The strange thing is I'm copied into the conversation. They worry about stepping on toes and overreaching, which in turn creates masses of double keying!

trouble is, quite a few years ago, someone desperate for their BEM devised this system called 'legal gateways' and you had to use these invariably convoluted routes to pass information on from one department/agency to another, often no such route exists.
I remember once leading a house search under a writ and as well as finding an expected load of smuggled tobacco, and a collection of very interesting sex toys I found a load of monofilament nets most often used by salmon poachers.
On interrogating various databases I found out that the suspect's brother was a big scale poacher involved in all kinds of nastiness but thought to be, due to a short spell away at a government 'all inclusive' establishment, inactive nowadays as no evidence had been found to lead to any other conclusion. I had found it. Unfortunately there was no 'legal' route to pass on the information to the (fairly ineffective anyway) Environment agency so it wasn't even included on our intelligence database, and the information wasn't passed on, so it was done by a series of nudges and winks over a chat at the gamefair with a few bailiffs I knew and of course very few specifics were passed over so they just had to 'keep an eye' out for him.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Is there still no news from the NBU?

 

[JamezF]

Is there still no news from the NBU?

I've seen nothing.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

They do like to keep us dangling, eh?

 

[JamezF]

According to a newsletter I received today:

10th April - an Asian Hornet was photographed on the ferry between Poole and Cherbourg

10th April – an Asian Hornet was reported in Folkestone, Kent

I'm at a loss to explain the first. I don't understand how an Asian Hornet can even afford a ticket for the ferry these days.

James