Asian Hornets

[OldFarm]

Hmmm. I'd be wary of any claims that it's a game changer. If Vespa crabro can't enter it means that Vespa velutina queens can't enter so the trap only targets velutina workers. Upshot being that velutina queens survive propagating the species meanwhile beekeepers are hood winked into thinking it's making a difference when the truth is quite the opposite. It makes no commercial sense for a trap manufacturer to eradicate their intended target species.

As someone who has globally patented a sophisticated wasp trap and had a jump start to create a velutina trap, I declined that opportunity because I know it to be the wrong

Designed by a French bee keeper, seems to be well regarded by Andrew Durham in his asian hornet briefing. I'm going to be building some of these.

 

[OldFarm]

From my conversation with the beek, Week 0 Asian Hornet seen and reported, Week 1 first AH trapped..... Week 6 hive losses - 3 remain out of original 17. I have spent a bit of time there, you can watch the AHs hawking, then at a point the hive roars (i assume in distress) within a day or two it will be dead. This BBKA hosted talk by Andrew Durham is worth a watch .

Blimey, fascinating, horrifying and inspiring. Well worth watching both presentations.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

You are spot on except that we need more than just beekeepers for the spring trapping, there simply are not enough beekeepers to provide the coverage. We are currently having a large push on the media outlets and posters and flyers across Kent and to large corporations, eg highways agency to increase public awareness.
Latest NBU report is 48 nests in 40 locations, across all of Kent, the south coat and now the east coast up to Hull, it's running at about 1 nest a day.

Up the East Coast to Hull is a bit of a stretch. Given that Hull is a port for continental ferries and also handles imports of all manner of things including timber (although mostly from the Baltic). Timber when bundled I believe provides ideal concealment opportunities it's hardly surprising to see an incursion. A few years ago there was a positive ID near East Hull (Hull docks are East of Hull), but from memory it was a hitchhiker which DNA suggested came back with a family after a continental holiday. Yes we need to be alert and take positive action when required but not allow hysteria to take over or every striped insect seen anywhere will be obliterated.

 

[JamezF]

Up the East Coast to Hull is a bit of a stretch.

My feeling too. I don't immediately see any nests found on the east coast north of London except for the one in Hull. That's hardly what most people would understand from nests being found "in locations up the east coast to Hull".

James

 

[Tony Warren]

Looking at the NBU rolling updates after 11th August (the most recent update was 11th September) there appear to be twenty-two nests discovered in Kent during those thirty-one days. The total number of nests found in the same period looks to be twenty-nine, so a smidge under one per day. In the first eleven days of this month it looks to be seven in Kent and fifteen overall. That does make it look like the discovery rate in Kent is actually dropping off whilst increasing overall, but I'd guess the numbers are actually too small to draw much of a conclusion in that respect (and we don't know what's happened so far this week).

James

The NBU/Defra update today (15/9) is 43 in 36 locations. That is found nests so does not include know nests that are known to be there but have not been found, eg those in Capel le Ferne.

 

[JamezF]

Yes, push education out across the general public in terms of being vigilant, recognising the AH and reporting it but trapping across the county can be covered by beekeepers.

That's also my gut feeling.

There are apparently around 200 apiary sites within 10km of any of my own here in West Somerset. Clearly some will probably have fallen into disuse, but others quite likely won't have been registered either, so we can perhaps assume that it's a fair figure to start from. On average that's an apiary site for each 1.5km² assuming I've done my maths correctly, or an average distance of about 700m between sites. If every beek can be persuaded to put traps at every site they have, that would be a lot of coverage.

James

 

[JamezF]

The NBU/Defra update today (15/9) is 43 in 36 locations. That is found nests so does not include know nests that are known to be there but have not been found, eg those in Capel le Ferne.

Obviously. They can't exactly count ones they haven't found yet and until they do find them we can have no idea what sort of difference it will make to the figures.

James

 

[Tony Warren]

That's also my gut feeling.

There are apparently around 200 apiary sites within 10km of any of my own here in West Somerset. Clearly some will probably have fallen into disuse, but others quite likely won't have been registered either, so we can perhaps assume that it's a fair figure to start from. On average that's an apiary site for each 1.5km² assuming I've done my maths correctly, or an average distance of about 700m between sites. If every beek can be persuaded to put traps at every site they have, that would be a lot of coverage.

Obviously. They can't exactly count ones they haven't found yet and until they do find them we can have no idea what sort of difference it will make to the figures.

James

Another update today

 

[Tony Warren]

Another update today

From the BBKA Asian Hornet WhatsApp group. The tally is now 48 nests in 40 locations!
In addition to an active operation in Southend on Sea nests have been found in Folkestone, Maidstone, Oxted(Surrey), Hackney(North/East London) and Hull (Yorkshire)
Defra update 15.9.23
So far in 2023 there have been 48 Asian hornet nests found in 40 locations.
Essex
The NBU are currently conducting active operations in Southend-on-Sea.
Kent
Following active operations at new sites in Kent, a nest was found in Folkestone and a nest was found in Maidstone.
London
On the 13th of September the NBU were successful in locating a nest in Hackney which has been destroyed and removed.
Surrey
The NBU have found two nests at a location in Oxted, Surrey. Both nests are due to be destroyed today.
Yorkshire
This week the NBU were able to locate a nest in Hull. This is due to be destroyed early next week.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

From the BBKA Asian Hornet WhatsApp group. The tally is now 48 nests in 40 locations!
In addition to an active operation in Southend on Sea nests have been found in Folkestone, Maidstone, Oxted(Surrey), Hackney(North/East London) and Hull (Yorkshire)
Defra update 15.9.23
So far in 2023 there have been 48 Asian hornet nests found in 40 locations.
Essex
The NBU are currently conducting active operations in Southend-on-Sea.
Kent
Following active operations at new sites in Kent, a nest was found in Folkestone and a nest was found in Maidstone.
London
On the 13th of September the NBU were successful in locating a nest in Hackney which has been destroyed and removed.
Surrey
The NBU have found two nests at a location in Oxted, Surrey. Both nests are due to be destroyed today.
Yorkshire
This week the NBU were able to locate a nest in Hull. This is due to be destroyed early next week.

Why does an active nest continue to go about it's business until the following week? If I discovered a threat of similar magnitude retribution would be somewhere between instant or no longer than it takes to travel to the nearest agricultural suppliers and return with an appropriate method of destruction. Cymag anyone (if it's still sold)?

 

[fian]

https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/about-us/beekeeping-news/2023-asian-hornet-rolling-updates/If you look at the map, half of the nodes are in Kent. In view of the fact that the distance to London is around 130 km, it is not unreasonable to assume that this year's nests come from queens that successfully hibernated 2 years ago, first near Folkestone and then last year in Maidstone (this year there are already 5 nests located nearby).
This gives us the magnification ratio:
1 in 2021-5 in 2022-20 in 2023. The growth rate of located nests appears to be 4/5.
Taking into account that the NBU with its method last year has only located 2 nests (none in Folkestone, the last one located in this location dates back to 2020). If the method is not changed next year in Kent the number of nests will be around 80 and I think I will fall short since the nest located in 2020 indicates that the estimate is a year late. If so, it would be assumed that there could be 80 nests in Kent, of which 25 have been located. Many of them will be found in the wooded masses that run between the highways that connect Kent with London.

 

[fian]

Why does an active nest continue to go about it's business until the following week? If I discovered a threat of similar magnitude retribution would be somewhere between instant or no longer than it takes to travel to the nearest agricultural suppliers and return with an appropriate method of destruction. Cymag anyone (if it's still sold)?

Because there are no human means to proceed with its destruction. Consider the quantitative jump from last year (2 nests) to this year (48) and that means that the appropriate staff is now overwhelmed. In fact, one of the recommendations for next year will be to form groups to destroy the nests, at least one for each county and in Kent, with so many nests located, I would say that there should be 3 to 5.
And if someone is wondering, a week is not an acceptable period since in a secondary nest it is too long a period for the queens and drones of the new generation to be produced, especially in this month.

 

[JamezF]

The NBU/Defra update today (15/9) is 43 in 36 locations.

That was 11th September I believe, not 15th. Today's update gives the later figures you quote.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Why does an active nest continue to go about it's business until the following week

they are pretty confident at this time of year that it's nowhere near ready to produce sexuals, in fact, all of the nests located since and including the first (Gloucestershire) nest were found to be struggling to get to the stage where they could send out queens before winter set in, so there is breathing space - the destruction team must be put on site and sometimes, the height of the nest site may mean cherry pickers need to be sourced and got to the location which is probably not conveniently at the side of a road.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Because there are no human means to proceed with its destruction. Consider the quantitative jump from last year (2 nests) to this year (48) and that means that the appropriate staff is now overwhelmed.

not true

 

[fian]

not true

NBU reports are produced every 4/7 days. It is easy to track destruction equipment through detailed reports.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

NBU reports are produced every 4/7 days. It is easy to track destruction equipment through detailed reports.

what on earth are you talking about?
where is your proof that the NBU is overwhelmed?

 

[ericbeaumont]

the NBU is overwhelmed

The NBU may have coped this summer with overtime and a lot of driving, but it doesn't bode well if nests increase significantly in future years and staffing & funding remain static.

As Rolande pointed out earlier, the focus on AH may easily lead to more outbreaks of notifiable disease if Inspectors are not available to nip it in the bud.

This week one of our Inspectors told me that unless a significant EFB outbreak occurred, everything was on hold to hunt for the Hackney E5 AH. They found it at the weekend, presumably working overtime.

 

[JamezF]

they are pretty confident at this time of year that it's nowhere near ready to produce sexuals, in fact, all of the nests located since and including the first (Gloucestershire) nest were found to be struggling to get to the stage where they could send out queens before winter set in

I'd missed that, and in fact generally assumed that some nests from last year must have produced viable queens that survived to produce nests this year, particularly in Kent. Is there any suggestion as to why? Just poor weather and/or forage at the wrong time of year?

James

 

[Gilberdyke John]

they are pretty confident at this time of year that it's nowhere near ready to produce sexuals, in fact, all of the nests located since and including the first (Gloucestershire) nest were found to be struggling to get to the stage where they could send out queens before winter set in, so there is breathing space - the destruction team must be put on site and sometimes, the height of the nest site may mean cherry pickers need to be sourced and got to the location which is probably not conveniently at the side of a road.

Appreciate the logistics but East Yorkshire Farmers contend with similar difficulties on a regular basis.