A new smartphone app has been launched today to help beekeepers and the public make a quicker report if they find a suspected Asian Hornet.

Asian Hornet Watch app is designed to give you high quality reference pictures and use the GPS on your phone to record exactly where your photo was taken. It will be sent straight to the team that is working to identify the hornets as quickly as possible.

Android & IOS versions

It is available as a free download from today for both android and IOS phones.

The BBKA will be encouraging all beekeepers to use the app but to also tell their local groups if they find something.

When the two Asian hornets were confirmed in the Gloucerstershire and Somerset areas last summer there was very little information given to beekeepers. Even those within a few miles were alerted but not given the precise location. Given the fact that Asian hornets target honeybees and can quickly devastate a colony of honeybees, we need information in order to take defensive actions.

Beekeepers must share info

Ivor Davis, Public Affairs Manager for the BBKA, said: “The app is great news but we must make sure that this year beekeepers are better informed. If they make a report on it their local branches should also be told by the beekeeper and should then alert every member about the find.”

Adopt a Beehive beekeeper Jules Moore at Mumbleys Farm has hives in the area where the first hornet was found. That led to an enormous hornet nest high up in a tree in a local garden which was destroyed. She says the new app will be helpful: “Like all beekeepers in Gloucestershire we’re very keen for everyone including beekeepers to look out for the Asian Hornet.

“This app is a great idea as it creates both an instant record and also means people won’t perhaps instantly try to kill the wrong sort of insect. Correct identification seems crucial to me.”

-ends-

Notes to Editor

If you suspect you have seen an Asian hornet you can also report it using the alert email address: [email protected] with a location (and photo if possible). 

The Government has an ID sheet and Alert Poster, which are available here:

http://www.nonnativespecies.org//downloadDocument.cfm?id=872

http://www.nonnativespecies.org//downloadDocument.cfm?id=646

If you want hard/laminated copies of the ID sheet or poster, please contact the GB Non-native Species Secretariat: [email protected] including the numbers you would like.

For further information and interviews:

Please contact: Diane Roberts BBKA press officer

[email protected]

07841-625797