The Asian hornet is an invasive species that has established itself in several regions outside its native range.

Identification

• Dark body with an orange-yellow band on the abdomen
• Yellow leg tips — the clearest feature
• Smaller than the European hornet
• Nests high in trees, large and spherical

The hunting method

This is what makes it so damaging. It hunts by hovering in front of the entrance, intercepting returning foragers.

The greatest harm is not the number of bees caught but that the colony stops flying. A colony under sustained pressure stays inside, brings in nothing, consumes its stores and enters winter weakened.

Why western honey bees are vulnerable

Apis cerana forms a ball around an attacking hornet and kills it with heat. Western honey bees show this behaviour only marginally.

They do not have this predator in their evolutionary history — precisely the pattern that also applies to Varroa.

When pressure peaks

Late summer and autumn, when nests are at their largest — and exactly when winter bees are being reared.

Measures

• Reduce the entrance; the area to defend shrinks
• Entrance guards or mesh where these are in use
• Keep colonies strong; unite weak ones
• Locate nests and report them
• Move the apiary under very heavy pressure

About traps

Sugar-baited traps are not selective and catch honey bees and beneficial insects. Targeted spring trapping near a known nest can have value; broad deployment does more harm than good.

Reporting

Notifiable in many countries. Photograph, record the location and date, and inform the competent authority. Nest removal is work for equipped personnel.