Overview
- A photo from Leipzig was provisionally verified as Vespa velutina on Wednesday, August 12, and regional experts are now carrying out on-site searches for the insect and any nest.
- Beekeepers in Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate report intensified hornet pressure at hive entrances and some cases of entire colony losses, prompting urgent appeals for support.
- The species builds a small spring primary nest low to the ground and then moves to a much larger secondary nest high in trees, which makes detection difficult and allows a single colony to grow to thousands of hornets.
- Rhineland-Palatinate officials are planning a coordinated Task Force and trials of drones to locate and neutralize high tree nests, and the insect’s listing by the EU obliges authorities to act when nests are discovered.
- The Asian hornet arrived in Europe from southern China in the early 2000s, was first found in Germany in 2014 near Karlsruhe, and is considered a major threat to managed honeybees, wild pollinators and some fruit crops while posing limited direct danger to most people except allergic individuals.