Asian Hornet

[MickBBKA]

We have been told that our local nest had not produced any queens. I take no comfort in that as I presume that queen came from some nest that did which can't be too far away and she won't be the only one.
Good point by Nigel, but moving large apiaries is going to be a nightmare and as the NBU maintains a mushroom policy then you could be moving apiaries out of the frying pan !

[MickBBKA]

So I read in last months BBKA mag that there has been a huge reduction in foul brood inspections by the NBU to allow inspectors to deploy to AH incursions. Now I have been very critical about the Government and the NBU's Dads army approach to AH and I do believe I have been proven to be 100% correct so far. So my question is, were the NBU doing more FB inspections than was necessary so enabling them to reduce visits, or have the Government and NBU not resourced enough into AH incursions so that they have to pull money and people in to make up the shortfall ? I mean if they are not taking this threat seriously then what possibly could go wrong ??? Why are they using bee inspectors for AH sightings, surely that's the remit of the APHA ? The half baked AH plan has failed massively as I said it would, now they are going to open the door to outbreaks of FB. Bees lead by donkeys springs to mind. This whole organisation is not fit for purpose and should be replaced. The Government only consider beekeeping a hobby and not livestock management without any thought of the environmental concerns about the loss of bee colonies. The BBKA have been very silent about this shambles.

[AdamD]

My own seasonal inspector spent some time in Kent last autumn, dealing with Asian Hornets. He did continue the inspections at my apiary as I am a sentinel apiary being close to a port.

The south coast had it particularly hard with regard to hornets - could the 'authorities' have a list of beekeepers who could be trained over winter and then called upon to assist to help out the existing personnel in the future, who were overwhelmed last year?

[AdamD]

News from APHA today.
They still plan to eradicate the Asian Hornet which are apparently not established in the UK yet.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chief-plant-health-officer-urges-increased-asian-hornet-vigilance.


Note that there is an app called Asian Hornet Watch that can be downloaded on Android and Apple products.

[MickBBKA]

Dads army is a pipe dream. They are here now. The government, APHA, and NBU are a failure. So what is plan B ???????? I have never heard of one. They have had years to come up with it. They can't even stop thousands of human migrants crossing the channel. NBU - FAIL

[AdamD]

There was some media attention after the press release, however from what I saw, it was mainly journalists re-typing the NBU press release. The local BBC channel, Look East, did make an effort and called me about commenting, however someone else nearby volunteered and appeared in front of camera instead.

[Spike]

Dads army is a pipe dream. They are here now. The government, APHA, and NBU are a failure. So what is plan B ???????? I have never heard of one. They have had years to come up with it. They can't even stop thousands of human migrants crossing the channel. NBU - FAIL

Lots found in Kent so far. How many have not been found yet?

[MickBBKA]

Having traded at 2 events this weekend it was very encouraging to hear the amount of comments and questions from the public regarding the dangers of AH incursion into the UK. It show's the publicity is working which can only be a good thing.

[NigelP]

DEFRA have issued an alert to all farmers to be on the look out for it.
Alas it's too late I fear. It's "invasion" was inevitable from the moment it turned up in France. Too many ways it can enter anything shipped or driven from one side to the other. e.g. If queens over wintered in a pallet of wood destined for export to UK. Or entered a caravan coming back over etc etc.

[MickBBKA]

There is a good article in the latest BBKA mag with alternative ways to kill AH colonies. Unfortunately no doubt DEFRA and the NBU will be against it. All I can see is huge resources going into doing the exact same things as the Europeans have done such as writing reports, doing studies, gathering data, drawing up graphs and coming up with statistics all which equate to doing nothing. All funding for that kind of thing should be stopped and put into finding real practical solutions to eradicating these insects. I wonder how much resources are being drained from the NBU just collecting specimens and examining nests, eventually that will be pointless.
Also debate on BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine show today on AH with quite a range of views.