Devon hornet sighting urgent

[For want of a better word]

PLEASE READ THIS
Animal and Plant Health Agency
National Bee Unit
National Agri
-
Food Innovation
Campus
Sand Hutton
York
YO41 1LZ
T +44 03003030094
www.
nationalbee
unit.com
The Animal and Plant Health Agency is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs working t
o
safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, t
he environment and the economy.
Dear General Secretaries,
By now you may be aware that the
Vespa velutina
. A.k.a the yellow legged hornet (Asian hornet)
has
been confirmed in North
Devon
, following
its
discovery on 18 September 2017.
Beekeepers within
the area of the outbreak will be
contacted by Bee Inspectors in order to carry out apiary inspections
and to hang out killing traps and we ask for full your co
-
operation during these visits.
To help target our inspections better, it is important that all of your members are registered on
BeeBase and that all of their apiaries are up to date and recorded on our database.
It is also important that all of your me
mbers are able to identify
V. velutina
and distinguish it from
our native European hornet,
Vespa crabro.
G
uidance on
identification
features
can be found on the
Asian hornet
pages of BeeB
ase where you will find a very useful
As
ian hornet ID sheet
and
Asian
hornet poster
which is available for identification purposes.
When monitoring for the hornet, please
hang out monitoring traps, baiting them with
sweet
or
protein based baits. In addition, monitor the local forage, in particular the ivy, as hornets may be
seen foraging for nectar.
We have designed
A simple monitoring trap for the Asian hornet
and an
Asian hornet trap making video
to help assist you in doing this.
You can now report sightings with your smart phone or t
ablet, by using the ‘
Asian hornet Watch
’
app for
Androids
and
iOS
. The app also uses GPS which allows the user to submit the exact location
of their finding, allowing any confirmed sightings to be followed up quickly and efficiently


Myttin da

 

[For want of a better word]

Doc would not transferr...
Point is that ONLY beekeepers who are members of BBKA OR registered on BEEBASE will receive updates.
I know of some who view this forum are not!!!

South Wales is but a ( Hornets) wing flap away across the Bristol Channel and today's winds are blowing in that direction!

Cheers folks

Mytten da

 

[enrico]

Thanks, keep me updated
E

 

[Into the lions den]

Beekeepers within
the area of the outbreak will be
contacted by Bee Inspectors in order to carry out apiary inspections
and to hang out killing traps and we ask for full your co
-
operation during these visits.

All seems sensible to me apart from that bit...................

I HATE having bees examined by inspectors so late in the season......a lost queen at this stage is a dead/dying/queenless/drone layer hive by spring. Hope they are not using a hornet situation to push through lots of extra full inspections at a less than optimum time when its not a 'inside hive' situation they are dealing with anyway. I DO agree and understand if its a foulbrood situation but this is not.

Hope its just a standard wording being put out.

 

[Fusion_power]

Among other things I do on a daily basis is data manipulation. It takes less than a minute to fix the formatting.

+44 03003030094
www.nationalbeeunit.com
The Animal and Plant Health Agency is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs working to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the environment and the economy.

Dear General Secretaries, By now you may be aware that the Vespa velutina . A.k.a the yellow legged hornet (Asian hornet) has been confirmed in North Devon, following its discovery on 18 September 2017. Beekeepers within the area of the outbreak will be contacted by Bee Inspectors in order to carry out apiary inspections and to hang out killing traps and we ask for full your co-operation during these visits. To help target our inspections better, it is important that all of your members are registered on BeeBase and that all of their apiaries are up to date and recorded on our database. It is also important that all of your members are able to identify V. velutina and distinguish it from our native European hornet, Vespa crabro. Guidance on identification features can be found on the Asian hornet pages of BeeBase where you will find a very useful Asian hornet ID sheet and Asian hornet poster which is available for identification purposes. When monitoring for the hornet, please hang out monitoring traps, baiting them with sweet or protein based baits. In addition, monitor the local forage, in particular the ivy, as hornets may be seen foraging for nectar. We have designed a simple monitoring trap for the Asian hornet and an Asian hornet trap making video to help assist you in doing this. You can now report sightings with your smart phone or tablet, by using the ‘Asian hornet Watch’ app for Androids and iOS. The app also uses GPS which allows the user to submit the exact location of their finding, allowing any confirmed sightings to be followed up quickly and efficiently.

Just curiosity, but can V. velutina and V. crabro crossbreed?

 

[For want of a better word]

Just curiosity, but can V. velutina and V. crabro crossbreed?

FP....Not ANOTHER bloody hybrid!!!

ILTD.....SBI says they were trapping in vicinity of apiaries... no need to open colonies!!

Yeghes da

 

[beeno]

All seems sensible to me apart from that bit...................

I HATE having bees examined by inspectors so late in the season......a lost queen at this stage is a dead/dying/queenless/drone layer hive by spring. Hope they are not using a hornet situation to push through lots of extra full inspections at a less than optimum time when its not a 'inside hive' situation they are dealing with anyway. I DO agree and understand if its a foulbrood situation but this is not.

Hope its just a standard wording being put out.

I am sure it is. I cancelled the SBI on account of chilly weather and he understood perfectly. They are really nice people in my experience from lectures and the SHB inspections they ran in the spring.

 

[Pete D]

As an SBI I can tell you these apiary inspections are apiary inspections, not colony inspections. Visit the apiary, check for hornets, deploy traps etc.
No roof / crown board lifting.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Visit the apiary, check for hornets, deploy traps etc.

Do you then return to check the traps every day, or how often?

 

[Pete D]

They will be checked daily to ascertain the size of the area the hornets are working, traps will be redeployed in different locations to home in on the nest site.

 

[Erichalfbee]

They will be checked daily to ascertain the size of the area the hornets are working, traps will be redeployed in different locations to home in on the nest site.

is this worth looking at
https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=605529&postcount=17

 

[Pete D]

is this worth looking at
https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=605529&postcount=17

Yes of course. Believe me they are looking at everything, every option, new, old and tried and tested. There is a lot of sharing between France and UK.
There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes other than just a few bods gazing skyward looking for a nest.

We all need to do our bit too, get your traps out, monitor and empty them daily. Many pairs of eyes will make the job easier, they need to know where they are. Keep a look out in your apiaries, when you are out and about walking, fishing, shooting, shopping or trips to the park and beach.

Please don't kill everything that flies though, Wasps and European hornets don't need slaughtering.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Please don't kill everything that flies though, Wasps and European hornets don't need slaughtering.

Completely agree with you, were dealing with an invasive species, other insects shouldn't suffer as a consequence.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Another sighting in Plymouth
I shall have a good look at sentinel traps now.

 

[For want of a better word]

Wollacombe
Just received information saying a nest has been found and will be
destroyed tonight. DEFRA are expecting some coverage on BBC tomorrow

Plymouth sighting unconfirmed

Nos da

 

[Teemore]

Can anyone give an update on today's Bee Craft Bulletin which confirms that Asian hornet was correctly identified in Plymouth?

 

[For want of a better word]

Asian Hornet Update

Further to my communication on 29 September, the BFA has received clarification and update from the National Bee Unit (NBU) of the situation with regards to the reported sighting of Asian hornet in Plymouth, following the confirmed incursion near Woolacombe.

Although the report was credible and treated seriously, surveillance over a number of consecutive days by NBU inspectors has not resulted in any positive sightings of Asian hornet. Monitoring traps have also failed to show hornet activity of any type. The NBU will continue to monitor Plymouth, but it has not confirmed the reported sighting.

From BFA, who as ever are on the ball!
Posted here as other hornet thread has been demolished!

Yeghes da

 

[fatshark]

And this has recently appeared and describes the Tetbury/Somerset isolates last year.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185172
The invasion, provenance and diversity of Vespa velutina etc.
Budge and colleagues from FERA/NBU/Newcastle

 

[Erichalfbee]

And this has recently appeared and describes the Tetbury/Somerset isolates last year.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185172
The invasion, provenance and diversity of Vespa velutina etc.
Budge and colleagues from FERA/NBU/Newcastle

Thanks for that....
Good to get to the bottom of it all so far.
This bit's interesting
The genotypes of the male and female offspring from the Tetbury nest were used to manually infer the parental queen and drone genotypes, which were most consistent with the nest having been formed by a single queen and a single drone

Not multiple matings, then....I really must order Stephen Martins book on the Asian Hornet

 

[Millet]

Are they here or not, have any been proven to be found dead, OR is it just scare mongering. ? , the reason i say this from all i have read nothing suggests any guaranteed statements that have been made.