NBU Vespa velutina 22/12/17

[B+.]

Following suspect sightings, on Sunday 24th September the NBU received two photographs from a beekeeper in Woolacombe, North Devon, of an Asian hornet. The following day, the 25th September, preliminary surveillance began in the apiary and the NBU's Contingency Plan was activated. The local Bee Inspector monitored the apiary and initially found surveillance difficult due to the position of the colonies in the apiary. However, that morning, the Inspector managed to capture a hornet and sent the sample to the NBU in Sand Hutton for formal identification. Later that afternoon, the Inspector returned to the apiary site and a further 7 hornets were seen hawking in front of hives, but no line of sight could be ascertained, to establish a flight path back to the nest.

On the 26th September, South West Region inspectors were deployed to intensify searches for Asian hornets hawking in the area. Wet, misty and murky morning weather conditions were not ideal, but the Inspectors continued to survey the original outbreak apiary and two lines of sight were established. Inspectors were able to identify a second apiary site about 1km from the original outbreak, where one hornet was seen hawking for returning foraging bees. A hornet sample was taken, in order to establish if the hornets visiting the second apiary site were from the same nest and thus determine if there were multiple nests in the area.

Hornets were also observed in an apiary at a further site and were seen flying in a similar line of sight. The lines of sight from both the outbreak apiary and the second apiary combined were enough for an initial triangulation to be taken and investigated. The Inspectors began investigating public footpaths and the area around where the lines of sight met at the triangulation. A great deal of Asian hornet activity was observed at a nearby building site and on 27th September an Asian hornet nest was discovered.

The nest was destroyed the following evening, removed and taken to the Fera lab (Sand Hutton, York) on Friday 29th Sept. Further surveillance was carried out within a 10 km zone of the nest site and no further Asian hornet activity was detected. Following analysis of the nest has shown that none of the adult hornets were male and this indicates that the nest was detected and removed before the production of queens which will have gone into winter and then produced nests in 2018.

Additionally, if you are interested in finding out more details of the Tetbury outbreak in 2016, including genetic analysis of the hornets origin, this can be found in the PLoS One publication: Budge GE, Hodgetts J, Jones EP, Ostoja Starzewski JC, Hall J, Tomkies V, et al. (2017) The invasion, provenance and diversity of Vespa velutina Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in Great Britain. PLoS ONE 12(9): e0185172. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185172.

 

[oliver90owner]

Well done. On the part of the bee inspectorate and the apiarist who first spotted them. That time scale showed the urgency of the operation and has avoided a really nastyl problem (at least from that nest) arising in the coming season.

RAB

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Well done. On the part of the bee inspectorate and the apiarist who first spotted them. That time scale showed the urgency of the operation and has avoided a really nastyl problem (at least from that nest) arising in the coming season.

RAB

The NBU operation seemed a lot slicker this year and their PR was a bit better. It's not fashionable to congratulate government departments but WELL DONE, the NBU.


CVB

 

[fatshark]

It's worth reading Martyn Hocking's account of the story. He was the beekeeper who found the Woolacombe hornet. pp172 in Devon Beekeeper from November. There's a follow-up article in December.

 

[oliver90owner]

Amazing that the initial report was not followed up immediately! A report from a beekeeper will be far more reliable than one from jo public.

Perhaps some bungling bureaucrat forgot to mention asking for the credentials of the person (reporting the possible sighting) in their 'tick' list? Eight days between possible and confirmed sighting at an apiary is a rediculous waste of action time. A little later in the season and the nest could have been producing queens.

Perhaps a direct report to the local bee inspector would be better - after all, they respond to reports of AFB quite sharply.

RAB.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Amazing that the initial report was not followed up immediately! A report from a beekeeper will be far more reliable than one from jo public.

Perhaps some bungling bureaucrat forgot to mention asking for the credentials of the person (reporting the possible sighting) in their 'tick' list? Eight days between possible and confirmed sighting at an apiary is a rediculous waste of action time. A little later in the season and the nest could have been producing queens.

Perhaps a direct report to the local bee inspector would be better - after all, they respond to reports of AFB quite sharply.

RAB.

The report of an Asian Hornet on northern Plymouth a week after the Woolacombe incident was reported by the Apiary Manager of the local association. Because of his position as an experienced beekeeper, the NBU spent time and resources searching for AHs but found nothing. The NBU cannot send teams of inspectors every time a beekeeper thinks an AH is seen - they, quite rightly in my opinion, want either a dead body or a photograph. Apparently, they were getting hundreds of reports each week when the story was reported in the national press. These newspaper reports were often mistaken in identifying photos of Asian Hornets, European Hornets and Giant Asian Hornets. The NBU had to draw the line somewhere and the criterion they came up with was a dead body or a photo.

My understanding is that the proposed Devon Initiative in relation to the Asian Hornet is for a local team of volunteer beekeepers to visit the area of a reported sighting-only (i.e. no dead body or photo) to try to provide the proof necessary for the NBU to send in its team.

CVB

 

[oliver90owner]

they, quite rightly in my opinion, want either a dead body or a photograph.-

It might be your opinion, but not mine. Seasonal bee inspectors don't wait for someone else to confirm AFB, betore toddling along to check for themselves.

A single bee inspector is not a full 'team'. Beekeepers are more reliable than Joe Public.

Eight days is a long time, IMO. It could hve been longer. It could have been a failure to prevent the spread of this pest.

I wonder if bee inspectors wait around for a week, or more, before checking out SHB reports.

As for the so called apiary manager, he/she should have the wit to enlist other beekeepers in the apiary to check it out before crying 'wolf'!

 

[charlievictorbravo]

they, quite rightly in my opinion, want either a dead body or a photograph.-

It might be your opinion, but not mine. ......

As for the so called apiary manager, he/she should have the wit to enlist other beekeepers in the apiary to check it out before crying 'wolf'!

What do you mean - to get a dead AH body or a photograph?

CVB

 

[oliver90owner]

Let’s get this clear. It may have been your opinion, but it was not mine. I thought I had emphasised the delay, it being unimportant to you. But perhaps you are more beurocratic than me. I think more practically (perhaps) than you.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I think more practically (perhaps) than you.

 

[For want of a better word]

The report of an Asian Hornet on northern Plymouth a week after the Woolacombe incident was reported by the Apiary Manager of the local association. Because of his position as an experienced beekeeper, the NBU spent time and resources searching for AHs but found nothing. The NBU cannot send teams of inspectors every time a beekeeper thinks an AH is seen - they, quite rightly in my opinion, want either a dead body or a photograph. Apparently, they were getting hundreds of reports each week when the story was reported in the national press. These newspaper reports were often mistaken in identifying photos of Asian Hornets, European Hornets and Giant Asian Hornets. The NBU had to draw the line somewhere and the criterion they came up with was a dead body or a photo.

My understanding is that the proposed Devon Initiative in relation to the Asian Hornet is for a local team of volunteer beekeepers to visit the area of a reported sighting-only (i.e. no dead body or photo) to try to provide the proof necessary for the NBU to send in its team.

CVB

Hope you sent the " Experienced Apiary Manage r" one of your "Test Tubed" Asians*** CVB !

***Mine lives in the Defenders large cubby box and is shown to everyone and anyone who asks about the beast... once seen never forgotten!

Yeghes da

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Hope you sent the " Experienced Apiary Manage r" one of your "Test Tubed" Asians*** CVB !

***Mine lives in the Defenders large cubby box and is shown to everyone and anyone who asks about the beast... once seen never forgotten!

Yeghes da

I don't know the guy who made the report - I just heard about it from a neighbouring BBKA group but I had an interest because the sighting was less than a kilometer from my apiary. I have distributed the supply of Plenty of Honey's dead Asian Hornets all around Cornwall and gave one each to a couple of SBI's who had not seen one at that time. It cost me very little and did a lot of good, I think, for people to see the Asian Hornet "in the flesh".

CVB

 

[For want of a better word]

I don't know the guy who made the report - I just heard about it from a neighbouring BBKA group but I had an interest because the sighting was less than a kilometer from my apiary. I have distributed the supply of Plenty of Honey's dead Asian Hornets all around Cornwall and gave one each to a couple of SBI's who had not seen one at that time. It cost me very little and did a lot of good, I think, for people to see the Asian Hornet "in the flesh".

CVB

CVB... if you have any left, bring them to the BIBBA/B4 Sustainable beekeeping conference on the 17th February at Eden Project 2018!
A lot of beekeepers and entomologists will be interested to see and perhaps take one of the tubed dead beasts back to far and wide in the UK where they have not ( and hope do not see) one in the flesh!!

Yeghes da

 

[charlievictorbravo]

CVB... if you have any left, bring them to the BIBBA/B4 Sustainable beekeeping conference on the 17th February at Eden Project 2018!
A lot of beekeepers and entomologists will be interested to see and perhaps take one of the tubed dead beasts back to far and wide in the UK where they have not ( and hope do not see) one in the flesh!!

Yeghes da

I've only one "AH in a test tube" left but if Richard can sent me some more dead 'uns, I've time enough before 17th February to get some more tubes from China.

CVB