Asian hornets: First nest found in Herm

Asian hornets are "highly efficient" predators of local insects which affects plants requiring pollination

The first Asian hornet nest ever found on Herm has been removed.

The Asian Hornet Team said the "medium-sized" nest was treated and removed on Friday from a bank of brambles just inland from Belvoir beach.

The team had been investigating after reports of hornets in a number of locations around the island.

Francis Russell, project coordinator for the Asian Hornet Strategy said they were grateful to everyone who had contacted them with information.

He said: "Pinpointing a nest is always challenging but this one was found relatively quickly by tracking hornets returning from two different locations back to their single nest."

Asian hornets are an invasive species which first arrived in Guernsey in 2017.

They cause significant harm to biodiversity as predators of native insect populations, such as honey bees.

Mr Russell said in previous years on Guernsey, active nests had been found up until the end of October so there was still time to find more.

"It is always a race against time to find and destroy nests before they have raised the next generation of queens, at which point risks this invasive species becoming established on our islands - a very unwelcome prospect that would devastate our native species and make the work of controlling them in future years much more difficult."

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