Dear Beekeeper. Following the finding of Asian hornets in Gloucestershire last week we have received a large number of suspect Asian hornet reports from members of the public and beekeepers which we are following up. Bee inspectors have now visited over 100 sites. Asian hornets have been seen at just six locations within 500 meters of the original site.
Efforts to track down the nest and destroy it are ongoing. There have been no other substantiated reports of hornets anywhere else in the UK so please be patient while we continue our field work and be assured that when appropriate, national alerts will be sent out via our email alert system. In the meantime, our news feed on BeeBase will be used to keep everyone updated.
Please also see the updated ID sheet to help you Identify Vespa velutina in your apiaries http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageId=208. At this time of the year, the best bait to use in traps is fish bait diluted to 25%
Please continue to monitor your own apiaries using hornet traps and encourage those whom you know are not registered on our database to sign up.
To unsubscribe to these updates, follow the link below.
https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/secure/beekeeper/unsubscribe.cfm?id=57034
Kind regards,
National Bee Unit.
