The NBU (National Bee Unit) are asking for our help:
Can you spare time to monitor for yellow-legged hornets over the next 2 weeks? Help protect our native pollinators and take time to observe insects feeding on monitoring stations, fruit/fallen fruit and flowering ivy before winter.
This year, the NBU has located and destroyed 21 yellow-legged hornet nests in Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Hampshire. Your sightings can make the difference between a nest being discovered or being unreported.
The yellow-legged hornet (also called the Asian Hornet) is smaller than the native European hornet, and it has a dark velvety thorax, and a dark abdomen with a distinctive yellow band on the fourth segment. If you think you have seen a yellow-legged hornet, please report it using the free Asian Hornet Watch App, available for Android and iPhone, on the online notification form or by emailing alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk. A photograph and the location of the sighting must be included for the National Bee Unit to respond. Please include your contact details so we can get in touch. For more information on how to report sightings, please visit our ‘So you think you’ve seen a yellow-legged hornet’ page.
Further information about the yellow-legged hornet and the work of the Non Native Species Secretariat can be found here: Asian Hornet » NNSS (nonnativespecies.org)
