The busy summer for Guernsey’s Asian hornet team has continued with the removal of two large nests.
It brings the total located and removed this year to six – with large nests able to support up to 2,000 hornets.
The first of the two recent nests was removed on 23 September at a private location on La Gibauderie after reports of hornets at St Jacques and Bailiff’s Cross.
It was found near the top of a sycamore at the back of a built up road and required a one-and-a-half hour road closure to safely remove it.
Two days later another nest was found on Duveaux Lane in St Sampsons at the top of a large poplar tree in a private garden.
A beekeeper in the area had noticed hornets at beehives in the early morning and alerted the States team to it.
Ponies and horses had to be moved from a paddock so a cherry picker could access the nest.
Francis Russell, invasive non-native species Policy & Coordination Officer, said it was critical to remove the nests before hundreds of queens are released and increase the population size next year.
“If they succeed in leaving the nest, these new queens will hibernate and greatly increase our workload as we will experience an increasing population of hornets the following year,” he said.
“This is the sixth nest that we have found so far and once again we are indebted to Guernsey’s Civil Protection team for securing the immediate area which allows us to focus on safely destroying and removing these nests.”
If you spot an Asian hornet in Guernsey…
Try and take a picture of it.
Note the direction it travels in.
Report the sighting to asianhornet@gov.gg or phone 01481 220110 or 07839 197082.