Worker hornet leads to first secondary hornet’s nest of 2022

Thursday 11 August 2022

The Asian Hornet Team (AHT) has found and destroyed the first secondary hornet’s nest of 2022.

A single worker hornet was trapped off Rue de Portelettes in Torteval. The hornet was let go, tracked and bait monitoring stations were set up in the area.

The AHT worked with local beekeepers and residents, to monitor visits to the bait station by worker hornets and together they tracked a secondary hornet nest to a large sycamore tree.

Pictured: A cherry picker was used to help the team find and destroy the nest.

The project co-ordinator for the Asian Hornet Strategy, Francis Russell, said: “This is the first large secondary nest that we have found on the island this year after not having had any other confirmed reports of Asian hornets for about 2 months. 

“This nest was surprisingly difficult to find even though we had as many as 8 hornets coming and going from our bait stations. 

“We suspect the queen from this nest is one of a number that arrived on island during early May. This one must have evaded capture and went on to establish this nest. It’s great that we have found the nest so early in the year before it got quite large with greater numbers of worker hornets heading out each day to feast on our native pollinators like bees. 

“There may well be more nests across the island which we will be very keen to track down so as always, we are encouraging everyone to keep sending in photos and report anything suspicious to us.” 

If you think you have seen an Asian hornet please email asianhornet@gov.gg or call either 220356 or 07839 197082.

Pictured top: Credit Andy Marquis and Asian Hornet Team (AHT).