Asian hornets: how to identify and report a sighting

Is it an Asian hornet? The 10-second check

Yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) - what to look for:

• Dark, almost black body with a single yellow-orange band near the tail (the fourth segment)
• Bright yellow leg ends - the giveaway that names it
• Orange face when seen head-on
• Smaller than our native hornet - workers up to about 25 mm, typically nearer 20 mm

The native European hornet (Vespa crabro) is bigger and much yellower - a wasp-like striped abdomen and brown legs. It is a beneficial native part of British wildlife: no need to kill it. When in doubt, photograph rather than swat; identification from a photo is exactly what the reporting system is designed for.

Where you will see them

At an apiary, the classic sight is hawking: a hornet hovering with pinpoint control in front of a hive entrance, picking off returning foragers. Away from apiaries, look on flowering ivy in late summer and autumn, around fallen fruit, and near wasp traps. Nests start small in spring (often low, in hedges or sheds) before the colony builds the large summer nest high in a tree.

How to report a sighting

Confirmed sightings are followed up officially: nests are traced and destroyed by trained teams. Do not attempt to deal with a nest yourself - apart from the danger, a disturbed colony relocates, which makes official tracing harder.

What to do at your own apiary

• Photograph first, report second - a blurry photo is still far better than none.
• Note the details: how many, where exactly (hawking at hive 2, on the ivy, in a trap), and whether you suspect a nest nearby.
• Keep a log per apiary - a pattern of sightings across weeks is exactly the evidence that helps locate a nest, and it tells you which apiary needs monitoring traps.
• Consider a monitoring trap in spring and late summer - not to control hornets (traps will not stop them) but to detect arrivals early.

Reduce the pressure on your colonies

Where hornets are active, reduce hive entrances so guards can defend a smaller doorway, avoid leaving combs or feed exposed, and keep colonies strong - hawking pressure hits weak colonies hardest. And keep reporting: the years where nests were found early were the years reports came in fast.