[Part time dabbler]

I have copied this from the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41523027), the more people looking out for these hornets the better.
 

A team from the University of Exeter has visited beekeepers in Jersey to field test special tags

Radar and radio waves could be used to track swarms of Asian hornets, scientists have said.

A government-funded team has been attaching specially-designed tags to hornets in Jersey and France to test the tracking systems.

The nine-month pilot project will run until November, with results expected in the next few months.

Asian hornets are a predatory species which feed on honey bees and other pollinating insects.

The most recent nest to be found in the UK was in Woolacombe, Devon, and there have been no further sightings in the area. Pest controllers have also destroyed 11 nests in Jersey since April.

The University of Exeter team, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), recently visited beekeepers in Jersey to field test special tags, one using radio waves and the other radar, which are fitted to Asian hornets.

The two systems the study has looked at include a radio tag, the Picopip, which is designed to be attached to small animals and a radar tag which is usually used by mountain rescue teams.

Juliette Osborne, who leads the team from the Environment and Sustainability Institute in Penryn, Cornwall, said they were looking to "slow down the rate of invasion" by being able to accurately track hornets back to their nests, so professional teams could quickly dispose of them.


Identifying an Asian hornet (Vespa velutina)
?Asian hornet queens are up to 3cm (1.2in) in length, while workers are up to 2.5cm (1in)
?Entirely dark brown or black velvety body, bordered with a fine yellow band
?Only one band on the abdomen, with the 4th abdominal segment almost entirely yellow/orange
?Legs brown with yellow ends
?Head black with an orange-yellow face

A Defra spokesman said the government was carrying out "several initiatives" to stop the spread of Asian hornets.

In addition to the field test, Tim du Feu, from the States of Jersey's Department for the Environment, said the UK government was "extremely interested" in the work of "highly professional" local beekeepers in the island, who have been tracking Asian hornets by hand.


Asian hornets, what can I do?

Defra has advised anyone who believes they have found an Asian hornet nest to not go near it and report it using the Asian Hornet Watch app.

You can also report sightings by email to alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk with a photo or on the Great Britain Non-native Species Secretariat website.

[chrismahon]

Last month we called out pest control to get rid of a nest of Asian Hornets which had invaded a black bee's nest, destroyed it and built their own there in the space of a few days. Asian hornets are smaller than European ones, which technically are protected under EU law and are generally harmless although they cause a lot of mess- we have two nests, one in the garage and one (very annoyingly) huge one in the chimney above the cooker extractor which we can't reach.


AH's have yellow legs and a single abdominal yellow band as said. The pest control man told us there are 500,000 in this Departement (Gers) and he is dealing with them all the time as they pose a serious risk to humans due to their attacking strategy, which is to sting and lay a pheromone trail back to the nest which the others then follow to sting- several people died last year. Cost us €150 to get rid of them and be able to walk safely around the rear of the house.


There is an electrical 'harp' recently been invented in France which can be placed in front of bee hives- 100's have been sold already and the inventors have won an award. The spacing of the wires allows bees to pass but is too narrow for AH's, which are electrocuted. European hornets don't eat bees so they remain unaffected.


Unfortunately the English climate is more suitable for AH's than the South of France, so them moving North is inevitable. Apparently they were deliberately introduced here to combat the Box Tree Moth, because they are the moth's only natural predators. Unfortunately this introduction wasn't thought through properly as that's when they realised European Bees have no defence against them, whereas Asian Bees gather and smother attacking hornets by overheating them.


Here people hang beer/ wine and jam filled traps out around the property in February, which catch the emerging Queens. Unfortunately they catch and kill both hornet species- a friend of ours caught 200 in his traps last year! Think the best strategy is vigilance and to get the nest destroyed before new queens are released, which fortunately we did with ours.