Everyone can contribute to the control of the yellow-legged hornet, until recently known as the Asian hornet. “Especially now that queens of this exotic wasp species are making their first nests, they are easy to remove,” says Stan Maessen of the Midden-Brabant bee association. He calls on everyone to be alert for small litters.
Stan shows such a litter. It is the size of a golf ball. You can find such a nest in all kinds of places. They hang in sheds under gutters, in conservatories, in bird nest boxes or when storing your firewood.
If you find one, you have to take action, says Maessen. “Put a jam jar over it, cut off the nest with a putty knife, close the jar and put it in the freezer for two days. The queen in the nest is then dead,” Maessen explains. “We can thus prevent suffering.”
Because if the queen is not killed, she will later build a nest the size of a football somewhere in a hedge, and later an even larger nest in a tree. Ultimately, there are about a thousand hornets in there.
“Please note that it is really a litter of one yellow-legged hornet and not an ordinary wasp,” says Maessen. “Because wasps are very useful. If you are not sure or do not dare to remove the nest, contact a beekeeping association in your area. They are happy to come and help.”
The yellow-legged hornet has no natural enemies in our country and causes a lot of damage, Maessen knows. “Last year, the exotic wasp killed an entire bee colony in my home. The hive was completely emptied. That is annoying for me, but the damage is not limited to beekeepers.”
The hornet also eats a lot of wild insects and that is a major danger to biodiversity. And it causes economic damage. The hornet loves pollinators and this also causes enormous damage to fruit growing.
“If we don’t do anything, more and more will come.”
A large hornet nest can also be dangerous to humans. “You have to stay away from them. If you get too close, the creatures become aggressive. An army of hornets can attack you. They can then sting you severely and spray poison in your eyes.”
The fight against the hornet is a bit of a battle against the odds, Maessen admits. He has already removed many nests in recent years: “If we do nothing, more and more will come. Every nest that is not controlled this year will result in four new nests next year.”
There were five hundred nests in Central Brabant last year and there will be around two thousand this year. The goal is to keep growth manageable. Because one thing is certain for Maessen: “The yellow-legged hornet will never leave here.”
Forest ranger Frans Kapteijns talks in the weekly podcast Dust mail about nature. The Asian hornet was also previously the focus. Kapteijns answers the question: how dangerous is the Asian hornet really? And what can we do about it?
