The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) is holding its fourth Asian Hornet Week (September 5-11) and is asking the public to download a new version of the free Asian Hornet Watch app on their phones.
The app designed by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology says Asian Hornets are often confused with similar species and it has an expanded gallery of pictures allowing you to compare what you might be seeing.
Autumn is typically when the nests of the Asian Hornet are revealed by leaf fall from trees or bushes.
A BBKA spokesperson said: “Since our last awareness week two nests were found in October 2021 in Hampshire and Berkshire, and destroyed. This year in April a single hornet was captured at Felixstowe.
“Gene testing showed that both nests and the individual captured in Felixstowe had come from Europe.”
The spokesperson added: “The two late season nests illustrate how ‘under the radar’ these hornets can be, as neither nest was known about until the capture of an individual hornet followed by flight tracking back to the nest by National Bee Unit inspectors.”
Asian Hornets have big nests and are voracious consumers of honeybees and many other insects too. They hang around in front of hives, which is called ‘hawking’, and pick off the honeybees as they emerge.