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Earlier this month, a beekeeper in Georgia saw a hornet on his property that looked different from those he normally sees.
He reported the insect, and the state’s agriculture department confirmed this week that it was out of the ordinary — the beekeeper had seen the first live yellow-legged hornet known to be spotted in the United States.
The invasive hornet preys on honeybees and other pollinators, making it a threat to Georgia’s agriculture industry if it becomes more widespread. The hornets, which are native to Southeast Asia, are not particularly aggressive toward humans unless a colony is disturbed, but they can sting. Officials are asking the public to report suspected sightings of the yellow-legged hornet to help “trap, track and eradicate” it, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a news release Tuesday.
Though it is too early to tell how the yellow-legged hornet was introduced and whether it will be able to establish itself in the ecosystem, its presence in the state could have a “potentially huge” impact on Georgia’s beekeepers, said Lynn Kimsey, an entomology professor at the University of California at Davis.
Bee colonies could be at risk if more yellow-legged hornets are found in Georgia. A honeybee colony is “basically a giant waffle of protein” for yellow-legged hornets, Kimsey said.
“There’s so much food there,” she said. “So for a colony of these big hornets, honeybees would be fair game, and that’s their reputation.”
Kimsey said the yellow-legged hornet, like other invasive species, could have been introduced to Georgia via cargo, but it’s difficult to know based on one specimen.
The yellow-legged hornet, or Vespa velutina, is already established in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Asia where it is not native, according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture. It forms egg-shaped nests above ground that have around 6,000 worker hornets, the department said.
Kimsey said the species preys on pollinators and insects, including crickets and grasshoppers.
In Georgia, where agriculture is the state’s top industry, officials are particularly concerned about the yellow-legged hornet’s threat to honeybees and honey production.
Honeybees help pollinate crops across the country. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has described the insects as “flying dollar bills buzzing over U.S. crops.”
Georgia officials this week announced an interagency plan to eradicate yellow-legged hornet colonies if any are found in the area. Kimsey added that the hornets typically seen in the United States — the Vespa crabro — could also prevent the establishment of the yellow-legged hornet because they would compete against one another for resources.
While officials attempt to trap and survey other yellow-legged hornets that may be in the state, they have asked the public to send in potential sightings with the date, location, description and a photo if possible.
Georgia residents should be especially alert if they spot more than one of the hornets, as that may indicate there is a nest nearby, Kimsey said.
“Finding more individuals is critical at this point, just to determine whether in fact they are really there or whether this is an accidental individual that got in,” she said.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/18/yellow-legged-hornet-invasive-georgia/