discovered in Glenfield<\/a> in late October.<\/p>\nThe predator hornets are a danger to local honey and wild bees.<\/p>\n
Genetic testing of the hornets indicated they were closely related, suggesting a “small, contained population”. <\/p>\n
Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner north Mike Inglis said the numbers showed surveillance was working, prompting further expansion across Auckland’s North Shore.<\/p>\n
“In recent weeks, we\u2019ve put in five times as many traps (now more than 600) across a 5km radius from detection sites, and property-by-property searches under way within 200 metres of confirmed finds,” he said.<\/p>\n
Inglis said their teams had searched more than 2100 properties “and that number grows every day”. <\/p>\n
“Those ground searches are paying dividends, with many of the nests and queens being detected through those intensive ground sweeps.”<\/p>\n
Teams from Auckland Council, Pest Free Kaip\u0101tiki, Plant & Food Research, and Kiwifruit Vine Health have joined Biosecurity NZ forces on the ground.<\/p>\n
Electronic tracking gear, purchased following international expertise, arrived in New Zealand this week.<\/p>\n
Inglis stressed the continued importance of public vigilance, despite the increased surveillance.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve had more than 4000 public notifications so far \u2013 an incredible contribution \u2013 and we\u2019re very keen for this to continue.”<\/p>\n
Anyone who has a suspected hornet specimen, located a possible nest, or taken photographs of them have been advised to contact Biosecurity NZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-seven queen yellow-legged hornets have so far been found in Auckland as efforts to eliminate them continue to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,1389,273,111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-160758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-conservation","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}