back to article What a bee-lief! UK's asian hornet outbreak is over ... for now

British honeybees can sleep safely in their hives tonight. The UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has announced that the outbreak of Asian hornets in Blighty has been safely contained. The winged critters were spotted in Tetbury this year, a small town within the picturesque Cotswold district last September, …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardly surprising.

    The wasp / hornet / striped stingy thing season is over.

    it's not some new event, it happens **every** year at this time.

    If any of those hornet queens managed to find somewhere warm (comparitively speaking) to over-winter they will start new nests next june...

    1. Pen-y-gors

      Re: Hardly surprising.

      Yep. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hardly surprising.

      "If any of those hornet queens managed to find somewhere warm (comparitively speaking) to over-winter they will start new nests next june..."

      I thought that wasps need a cold winter for the queens to hibernate and survive to breed the next year. A warmer winter prevents hibernation and makes them exhaust their food reserves prematurely. That was the reason given for fewer wasps in 2016.

      1. Muscleguy

        Re: Hardly surprising.

        My experience would confirm this. We had a mild winter last, mild and wet here in Dundee and for the first time since we moved in here mid '99 I did not have to deal with a queen wasp trying to nest in our shed. When we moved in there was an apricot/plum sized nest hanging from the ridge beam.

        Worst was the spring after a really hard winter when I was dealing with the nascent nest on the roof beam when I realised there was another, more established nest in the wall above the door, right behind me.

        This winter seems to shaping up for a hard one so the wasp killer spray will get deployed again next spring.

        In the summer if I'm in the back garden in the suburban quiet I can often hear a rasping sound which turns out to be a wasp chewing wood from one of the fenceposts. So long as the nest the paper is destined for isn't in my shed or garage I let them be.

        I'm not surprised they target our shed. It is light, dry and out of the wind and the inside is ALL wood and unpainted or finished. A wasp paradise.

    3. Tom 7

      Re: Hardly surprising.

      I was out walking my dog and chucked the ball a few yards off course. The dog leapt after it and after rummaging around in the undergrowth came out with the ball and half a dozen wasps attacking it.

      This was late January this year. The striped stingy thing season is NOT over.

      We may be lucky though - not seen a lot of striped stingy things this year as the not-cold enough winter meant the little bastards didnt hibernate and starved to death but it may not be long before they can annoy us all winter and then breed like rabbits.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Linux

        Re: Hardly surprising.

        Its November, so all the wasps have left Britain for the Costa del Sol, just like all the other British WASPs :)

        (Tux--because winter in Britain seems kind of balmy to him.)

    4. Kurt Meyer

      Re: Hardly surprising.

      Any news on how Sarah Bee is faring?

  2. Pen-y-gors

    What does this remind me of?

    Hmm, dodgy foreigners, coming over from France uninvited...</obligatory Brexit comment>

    1. Blofeld's Cat
      Childcatcher

      Re: What does this remind me of?

      <daily wail> ... coming over here with their dark brown or black velvety abdomens and decapitating our bees, just so their pregnant queens can get nests ... </daily wail>

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Allan George Dyer
    Coat

    If they come from France, do they use tiny guillotines?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Brexiteers cheer!

    Brexiteers will be using this, the first good news for them since the Vote. They've managed to keep a few foreigners out, even if its only for Winter. The fact they can't afford to feed themselves, yet the wasps can, over Winter, is not pertinent here.

  5. Tom Paine
    Alert

    I once saw two wasps fighting (on the platform at Newport railway station, IIRC.) They struggled up and and around in the air, sometimes hanging onto each other and sometimes flying separately. Abruptly, something pinged out sideways from the pair, -- picture half a pea being flicked in the air by your thumbnail. They spiralled to the ground and stayed there. I took a cautious look and found wasp A industriously sawing the wings off wasp B with it's mandibles. I took a look at the thing that came flying out of the fight: it was the front half of wasp B's head, neatly sliced in half just behind the eyes.

    ...

    I mean,.. y'know, that was pretty cool, right?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      y'know, that was pretty cool, right?

      You wouldn't be saying that if it was you. Then again you wouldn't be saying much at all.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Of course they spiralled to the ground. One of them had no head for heights.

        Yes, yes, I'll be here all day..

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So?

    If these Asian hornets are already established in mainland Europe, why is it such a big deal that they've made it over to the UK? Are our honeybees particularly fragile or something?

    1. Electron Shepherd

      Re: So?

      Honey bees have enough problems without hornets adding to them.

      Apart from the problems with CCD, neonicotinoids, varroa and EFB, there's a lot of evidence that the NOx from car exhausts is reacting with the complex scent chemicals produced by flowering plants, hindering the bees' ability to find the nectar they need.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So?

        there's a lot of evidence that the NOx from car exhausts is reacting with the complex scent chemicals produced by flowering plants, hindering the bees' ability to find the nectar they need

        UK NOx emissions have dropped by 60% in the past thirty years, and we now have far more restrictions on the use of pesticides, so even allowing the other current problems for bees, surely things should be getting better, not worse?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So?

      30 asian hornets vs 30,000 bees:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDSf3Kshq1M

      They spray acid too. Never mind the honeybees; we're quite fragile if you piss a few of them off and we have flamethrowers.

    3. R.Moore

      Re: So?

      The Asian hornet (vespa velutina) targets honey bees as a favoured prey.

      Our honey bee (apis mellifera) hasn't evolved any defensive strategies against it, and unlike wasps and other hornets, the asian hornet won't try and enter the hive. If it did, it could be attacked and 'balled', i..e cooked to death by a multitude of bees. Instead it 'hawks' outside the entrance to the hive, facing the incoming foragers, which it captures on the wing, removing the unnecessary parts and returns to the nest where it will tell others about the location of the bee colony. As a consequence, the colony can lose all its foragers in a day or two.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So?

      If these Asian hornets are already established in mainland Europe, why is it such a big deal that they've made it over to the UK? Are our honeybees particularly fragile or something?

      I'm going to give you the most inspiring answer of all: self interest. They may not aggressively come after you like Africanised bees who need no provocation at all, but that only lasts until they decide you're a threat, a situation you or your children may provoke entirely by accident.

      I suspect you've never seen one of these beasties from up close (best from behind a pane of glass). Their stinger is an INCH long, and they are massive. Now imagine a collection of them coming after you, keeping in mind that they can fly faster than you can run. I suspect that will not exactly rank as the most joyful experience of your life, but it could be your last.

      Honeybees are no match for the hornets, they're more like tasty snacks.

  7. TomChaton
    IT Angle

    I, for one, welcome our new vespine overlords etc etc

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