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Three Yellow-legged Hornets (Vespa Velutina) around the entrance to their nest. Image \u2013 Crown copyright<\/p>\nThere\u2019s been what is described as a \u2018credible\u2019 sighting, backed up with a photo, of a yellow-legged Asian Hornet in Ripon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The National Bee Unit is asking us to look out for them over the next few weeks. They are rare in the UK but if they ever got established here then they would create chaos with insects.<\/p>\n
Catch traps have been put out this afternoon to see if they can get a live one.<\/p>\n
Yellow-legged hornets are smaller than our native European Hornet, with a dark body, one yellow band, and yellow legs that give them their name. You\u2019ll often spot them hovering near hive entrances, picking off bees as they come home.<\/p>\n
If you see one, don\u2019t approach it. They can sting through clothing. Report it through the Asian Hornet Watch App. If you can safely get a photo that makes a real difference to reports, but if you find a nest, usually in trees, but sometime in the bushes, keep pets and yourself as far away as possible.<\/p>\n
Richard Senior is the yellow-legged Asian Hornet county coordinator for the Yorkshire Bee Keepers Association. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s been speaking to the Sunday Late Show on YorkMix Radio in an interview you can hear in full this coming Sunday (9th August 10pm): <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is quite unusual to see yellow-legged Asian hornets this far up north. We did have a nest in North Yorkshire last year and that was destroyed, but the main bulk of the hornets that we\u2019re seeing at the moment are down in the south, in places like Kent, which is close to the the channel, the hornets are coming from France.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go near their nests, they are highly aggressive. Out feeding, they don\u2019t seem to be too bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNests can not only be up high in trees, they can be down in brambles as well. So if somebody were to inadvertently knock into one or try to clear some brambles and bump into a nest, they are going to get stung and they can sting through a bee suit too!<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are significantly more aggressive than honeybees. It\u2019s believed that one yellow-legged Asian hornet colony can wipe out 12 kilograms of insects in a season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s pollinators, that\u2019s butterflies, that\u2019s hoverflies, and they\u2019re looking for the meat parcel to be able to feed to their own larvae.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a very dark insect. It\u2019s slightly smaller than our European hornet, which is a native species of hornet, but it\u2019s a dark insect. It\u2019s usually got a yellow band around its abdomen, and it\u2019s got yellow socks, so yellow legs, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s called the yellow legged Asian hornet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three Yellow-legged Hornets (Vespa Velutina) around the entrance to their nest. Image \u2013 Crown copyright<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when members of the public or beekeepers think they\u2019ve seen a yellow-legged Asian hornet we ask them to report it via the Asian Hornet Watch App, and it is\u00a0the National Bee Unit (NBU) that responds to sightings, but they will only go to a credible sighting, which is backed up by a photograph, because there are other species of insects that look similar to yellow-legged Asian hornets. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo they do need that photograph to be able to confirm it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, it falls down to the local beekeeping associations to try and get boots on the ground to try and get a live specimen, so that the NBU can do track and trace to be able to locate those nests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have destroyed 21 nests in the UK, mostly down in the south, and most of them are high up in trees, but we are seeing some lower down too\u201d.<\/p>\n