They've been here a good while.
Just not spotted much before due to public unawareness/apathy.
British Beekeepers Association Official Forum
Asian Hornet
- Honeybee pests and diseases.
BBC seems to have jumped on the band wagon... We are all doomed 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66697968
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66697968
43 nests so far. Well as expected stopping them has failed, so what's the governments plan now ?
Clearly the dam has broken and asian hornets will move quite quickly through the country.
Are there enough people who will be able to remove problem nests when they are discovered in 2024 and beyond? (Although, see below, it may not be worthwhile in many cases).
The April edition of the BBKA news has an article by Andrew Durham with the first heading of
Other paragraph titles are:-
The BBKA has a load of material written by Andrew material that's hidden to non-members that might be useful to any beekeeper. (I have never been sure why there are hidden parts of the website but that's another matter).
Associations need to be sharing this information and having 'lessons' on dealing with the hornet which will arrive with most of us soon. Will it get established as far as Yorkshire and further north? Some of you guys might be saved!
A UK supplier or two should be encouraged by the BBKA to have the harp electric for sale or perhaps the spanish ARPAS which Andrew suggests could be better. (They seem to work).
https://sanve.weebly.com/
Are there enough people who will be able to remove problem nests when they are discovered in 2024 and beyond? (Although, see below, it may not be worthwhile in many cases).
The April edition of the BBKA news has an article by Andrew Durham with the first heading of
Other paragraph titles are:-
- Nest destruction does not work as a control strategy.
Beekeepers were right about spring trapping; scientists were wrong
There is no knight in shinng armour
You need to know what to do
The south are no longer marginal territories
Get Ready: It's going to be worse than you think.
The BBKA has a load of material written by Andrew material that's hidden to non-members that might be useful to any beekeeper. (I have never been sure why there are hidden parts of the website but that's another matter).
Associations need to be sharing this information and having 'lessons' on dealing with the hornet which will arrive with most of us soon. Will it get established as far as Yorkshire and further north? Some of you guys might be saved!
A UK supplier or two should be encouraged by the BBKA to have the harp electric for sale or perhaps the spanish ARPAS which Andrew suggests could be better. (They seem to work).
https://sanve.weebly.com/
May your bees read the same books as you do.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12523027/asian-hornet-invasion-beekeeper-business-wiped-out.html
Having more than one apiary site will be very beneficial, should one site come under attack.
Lost a late summer nuc to wasps. They are once again a total nightmare and invading even very large colonies. I have had to bring a double brood hive home as it was under relentless attack with wasps running around under the polycarbonate crown board. Today there was a biblical downpour while I was at the apiary and the wasps were still attacking the bees like it wasn't even raining. Wasp traps are full each time I visit but with out apiaries you can't be checking every 2 days.
God knows what its going to be like once the AH gets here seeing as the APHA and government have failed, as expected. I may be in the North East but we have very mild winters here lasting from November until mid May so I don't think AH will have any problems surviving the local climate as the wasps seem to be getting worse each year and I would suggest bigger too.
Fingers crossed for a good old fashioned hard winter and warm spring.
God knows what its going to be like once the AH gets here seeing as the APHA and government have failed, as expected. I may be in the North East but we have very mild winters here lasting from November until mid May so I don't think AH will have any problems surviving the local climate as the wasps seem to be getting worse each year and I would suggest bigger too.
Fingers crossed for a good old fashioned hard winter and warm spring.
There have been quite a few newspaper articles appearing in the past few days. Hopefully this will make people aware. In the future, we'llneed sightings to help us keep hornet numbers down. That's allwe'll be able to do unless a scientist comes up with a pheromone or some-such-thing that affects them in some way.
May your bees read the same books as you do.
Well the NE is defininetly not safe, reported sighting by NBU of a hornet in Yarm....