The Society has set up an Asian Hornet Action Team (AHAT) to support members in monitoring for, and confirming sightings of, the Asian Hornet.
Take time before and after each inspection of your hives to see if there is unusual activity or unusual flying insects.
If you think you have seen an Asian Hornet, the Team's advice is to;
- Take a photo - you can use the Asian Hornet Watch app if you have loaded this onto your smart phone.
- Record time of day and weather.
- Compare your photo with the species chart on the app.
- Notify the Society’s Asian Hornet Action Team using this form.
- Notify the Non-Native species sercretariat - using the app or by email to alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk
What will happen next?
A member of the team will arrange to visit the site where you made the sighting to confirm the sighting if possible. By confirming your sighting locally we hope that it will trigger action by the NBU to locate the nest more quickly.
If the team member cannot confirm the presence of Asian Hornets they will help you set up a monitoring trap.
It is suggested that If you pin a 'skirt' of hessian or some other cloth around the legs of your hive stands you will force Asian hornets to hawk in front of the hive rather than ambushing bees from underneath and you can more easily see if your bees are under attack.
LATEST NEWS
NOTIFY NBU OF MONITORING TRAPS - The NBU has asked all beekeepers who have already set up asian hornet monitoring traps to notify them on Beebase. This will help the Unit get a clearer picture of the coverage by monitoring traps across the UK.
ASIAN HORNET WEEK - The British Beekeeping Association (BBKA) will be holding Asian Hornet Week during 10-16 September 2018, since this is the time of year when Asian hornets start hawking honeybees at hive entrances. They have said: “The early autumn is the last chance we will have to prevent the emergence of new Asian hornet queens”.
There is now a BBKA Asian Hornet Week website page, which contains all the relevant information about this important event -
https://www.bbka.org.uk/a sian-hornet-week
RESOURCES & LINKS
| Notifying positive sightings |
| On-line reporting form: |
| http://www.brc.ac.uk/risc/alert.php?species=asian_hornet |
| Asian Hornet Watch app: |
| https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/asian-hornet-watch/id1161238813 |
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.ac.ceh.hornets |
| E-mail: |
| alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk |
| AHAT Team via SDBKS.secretary@gmail.com |
Information sheets
http://www.nonnativespecies.org/alerts/index.cfm
Asian Hornet resources:
- Alert Poster for Vespa velutina (Asian Hornet)
- Risk assessment for Vespa velutina (Asian Hornet)
- Identification Sheet for Vespa velutina (Asian Hornet)
- Information sheet for Vespa veultina(Asian Hornet)
Asian Hornet Monitoring trap
BBKS has advised that it is unnecessary to put up AH monitoring traps in all apiaries throughout the season. We recommend that traps are only set up in an apiary or other location where an unconfirmed sighting of an Asian Hornet has been made.
Any traps set up should be of the type where some insects other than Asian Hornets can escape AND they should be inspected every day to allow trapped insects to be released.
National Bee Unit has prepared a monitoring trap for the Asian hornet fact sheet and an Asian hornet trap making video to help assist you in monitoring for the Asian hornet.