4th October 2018

The island of Jersey's local Asian Hornet Hunters,  with the assistance of trainee hunters from across the UK,  have found, destroyed or prevented 52 primary and secondary Asian Hornet nests so far this year with almost equal numbers being in trees and buildings. 

1.5 million hornets 

Nigel Errington, the recently appointed States of Jersey Asian Hornet Co-ordinator, estimates that "thee 52 nests would have produced around 10,400 queens (based on the generally accepted figure of 200 queens produced by each nest). 

"Given the high winter mortality of queens and if only 2.5% survived the winter this would have potentially led to Jersey having 260 nests next year. 

"Based on 260 nests having an average hornet content, at high season, of 6000 hornets per nest this would mean they could, hypothetically, produce a hornet count over a year of around 1.5 Million hornets!

Each hornet starts life as a grub who only eats protein in the form of pollinators - it's generally accepted that they can get through 10 a day each. Only a mathematician can see the impact this would have over a year on the local pollinator population." 

Nest location analysis

Analysis of the location of the 52 nests has shown that in 2018, there were almost equal numbers of nests in trees and buildings. 

Way behind those come hedges. 

Tree        21        40%

Building   22        42%

Hedge      3          6%

Other       6         12%

-ends-