Beekeepers are being urged to prepare for more sightings of the latest threat to honeybees and pollinators – the highly destructive Asian hornet.

Experts have been briefing the South West Beekeepers’ Forum (SWBKF), which represents around 10,000 beekeepers.

Dr Pete Kennedy, a research fellow at the University of Exeter, presented the latest findings from a government-funded project which attached specially-designed tags to hornets in Jersey and France to test tracking systems. These techniques are used to track hornets back to their nests so professional teams can quickly dispose of them. 

SWBKF Chairman Peter Darley urged beekeepers, wildlife groups and the public to all play their part in detecting the insect and reporting it to the Great Britain Non-Native Species Secretariat. 

Asian hornets are slightly smaller than native hornets, have a distinctive black/dark brown thorax; brown abdominal segments with the fourth segment almost entirely yellow-orange, brown legs with yellow ends, a black head and an orange-yellow face.

Beekeeping associations in the South West are drawing up ‘battle plans’ ahead of the coming season.