ASIAN YELLOW-LEGGED HORNET FOUND IN AUSTRIA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC

A yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina Lepeletier, was found in Austria, near the city of Saltzberg, on April 9, 2024, the first time that this hornet has been detected in Austria. This invasive hornet continues its dispersal throughout Europe and was also discovered in the neighboring Czech Republic in 2023.
The yellow-legged hornet is believed to have first entered Europe in the region of Lot-et-Garonne, in southwestern France, in or before 2004 and may have been imported with a shipment of pottery from China. Much of Europe offers a favorable environment for this invasive species and it has spread from its entry point to the rest of France, and to much of Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and the U.K. Research shows that it spreads at a rate of between 11 and 40 miles/year, depending on factors such as available habitat and local efforts to control the pest.
Studies in France indicate that a mature nest may contain between 3,000 and 6,000 adults and a nest consumes, on average, 5.1 lbs. of insects each year to feed larvae, about 38% of which are honey bees. Doing the arithmetic, if a honey bee weighs 1/10 gram, this corresponds to 43,000 honey bees killed by a nest each year. The yellow-legged hornet has also been found in the U.S. and was first recorded in Georgia and South Carolina in the fall of 2023, where it continues to spread and cause problems for beekeepers…