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This week is Asian Hornet Week in the UK.  Thus it is a time when we can raise public awareness of the threat which the "Yellow Legged Hornet"  poses to the UK. This is a threat to pollinating insects which fly not just our bees.

We tend to think of the Asian Hornet as a predator on our bees. As the picture below shows they are also keen on rotten apples . If you see any ripe fruit look carefully. Are they wasps or is it an Asian Hornet?

Asian Hornet on a rotten apple
Asian Hornet on a rotten apple
Courtesy The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Crown Copyright

The BBKA have a whole page of links to YouTube videos. They  bring us up to date with some of the latest  research. and are well worth having a look at.  The National Bee Unit also has some interesting data, links and videos on their Asian Hornet page.

In addition the BBC has run an item on BBC1 "The One Show". This is available on BBC iPlayer and will be available for about 30 days. The item is well worth watching and for those not keen on the rest of the show then you will find the item from 25 minutes to 30 minutes.

Just because we have not seen them so far this does not mean we will not be seeing them soon.  I suspect that this summer the lack of tourist traffic from the South of France crossing the Channel has been one of the reason why we have not been troubled. It may also be the fact that much of the wind has blown from  a Northerly direction or t may be that it has just been too cold. We do not know. What we can say is that the Asian Hornet is a serious threat and it is as far North as the Channel coast. This is not a time to relax.