Asian Hornet for Beekeepers: Identify, Report, Defend

The Short Answer

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina, now officially called the yellow-legged hornet in the UK and US) is an invasive predator of honey bees. It was first found in Europe in south-west France in 2004 and reached the UK in 2016. In the US it was first detected near Savannah, Georgia in 2023, and it has since been found in South Carolina and North Carolina.

For a beekeeper there are three jobs: identify it correctly (most reports turn out to be native insects), report it to the official channel for your country, and protect colonies that are under pressure. This guide covers all three and links the official sources. It also covers a fourth job that identification guides skip: keeping your own record of what you're seeing at each apiary.

We're a software team, not entomologists. Everything on identification, reporting and defence below comes from national bee authorities and published research, and we link to them. Your national guidance always takes priority over ours.

How Big Is the Problem Now?

The numbers have been climbing fast on both sides of the Atlantic.

From 2026, UK samples are no longer routinely sent for laboratory confirmation. Officials now confirm sightings from photographs, so year-on-year figures aren't perfectly comparable.

The US also had a different species in the news: the northern giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) in Washington State. It was declared eradicated from the US in December 2024. The yellow-legged hornet in the south-east is a separate species and a separate problem.

Identification: Asian Hornet vs European Hornet

The UK National Bee Unit says the vast majority of reported sightings turn out to be native insects. Size is a poor guide, because the native European hornet (Vespa crabro) is actually the bigger of the two. The NBU puts it plainly: the yellow-legged hornet "is not a large insect and is smaller than the European hornet", closer to wasp size "but much darker in colour than any native wasp".

From the GB Non-Native Species Secretariat identification sheet, produced with the National Bee Unit. US authorities describe the species as ¾–1 inch long.

Other lookalikes include the hornet-mimic hoverfly (Volucella zonaria, which has only one pair of wings), the median wasp and the giant woodwasp. Before reporting, check against the official ID sheet.

The behaviour that gives it away

For a beekeeper, the clearest sign is hawking. The hornet hovers just outside a hive entrance and takes returning foragers in mid-air. The National Bee Unit says predation on honey bee colonies starts from July and builds until the end of November. Georgia's field team notes that hawking can happen at any time but tends to peak before noon and again after 5 PM. So an entrance watch in the late afternoon is more useful than one at lunchtime.

The damage goes beyond the bees that get eaten. Research from France showed that hornets hawking at the entrance cause "foraging paralysis", where the colony largely stops sending out foragers. Simulations identified that as an important mechanism behind colonies collapsing over winter (Requier et al., Journal of Pest Science, 2019).

Where to Report a Sighting

Every national scheme asks for the same things: a photo and a location. Don't approach or disturb a nest. US federal guidance says "only trained State or Federal responders should handle hornet nests", and in the UK the BBKA notes beekeepers aren't insured to take part in nest destruction.

Spain handles reporting through its regional governments. In Galicia, for example, you call 012. Channels change, so if your region isn't listed, your beekeeping association will know the current one.

In the UK, the BBKA and the Welsh Beekeepers' Association also run volunteer Asian Hornet Teams that work with the NBU on monitoring and on following up sightings. Your local team is worth knowing before you need them.

Defending the Apiary: What the Evidence Says

This is where the advice gets contested, so we'll show the evidence on each side instead of picking one.

Colony strength comes first. NC State Extension (August 2026) calls "maintaining a strong and healthy hive" the most important practice. Weak colonies are the ones hawking pressure pushes over the edge.

Entrance reducers. The same NC State guidance says an entrance large enough for bees but too small for hornets can protect vulnerable colonies.

Muzzles. A French study of 22 paired colonies found a hive muzzle "did not reduce" homing failure but "drastically reduced foraging paralysis" (Requier et al., 2019). A study of 36 hives published in 2025 found that under high hornet pressure, "all unprotected colonies and those with muzzles collapsed", while 25% of colonies protected by electric harps survived (Roura-Pascual et al., Journal of Applied Entomology). The evidence points both ways.

Electric harps. A 2022 study of 36 hives found harps reduced predation pressure and improved winter survival. The authors recommend using them alongside other measures (Rojas-Nossa et al., Pest Management Science). The lead author is also named on a Spanish utility model (a form of patent), which is worth knowing as a potential conflict of interest.

Traps. The UK National Bee Unit only encourages selective traps in spring and baited monitoring stations from summer onwards. It says "lethal traps kill beneficial insects and we do not recommend their use." Its monitoring fact sheet adds that there's no need for spring monitoring in areas that aren't at high risk, and that it isn't legal for members of the public to capture and release the hornets. A 2026 study in the Journal of Pest Science found that in most baited traps, more than 98.5% of the insects caught were not Asian hornets. If you use monitoring stations, the NBU fact sheet recommends protein bait in summer, changed every three days.

Nests. Report them; don't touch them. Trained responders destroy them.

When It's Worth Escalating

• You've seen a hornet you can't rule out. Report it with a photo, even if you're not sure. That's what the schemes are for.
• Hawking is getting worse at one apiary. Rising numbers over a couple of weeks suggest a nest nearby. Tell your hornet team or state agency, and give them your dates and counts.
• A colony has stopped foraging on a warm day with hornets at the entrance. That's foraging paralysis, and that colony needs the defensive measures above now, not after the next inspection.

For a refresher on telling hornets and wasps from a honey bee swarm when the public calls you, see our swarm catching guide. Winter prep is covered in do beehives die in winter, which matters here because paralysed colonies go into winter short of stores.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I tell an Asian hornet from a European hornet?

The Asian or yellow-legged hornet is smaller and darker. Workers are up to about 25 mm long, with a velvety black thorax, a mostly dark abdomen with a single yellow-orange band on the fourth segment, legs that are yellow at the ends, and an orange face. European hornet workers are up to about 30 mm, with a largely yellow abdomen, brown-tipped legs, a yellow head, and yellow antennae, and they may fly at night. Asian hornets are never active at night.

Where do I report an Asian hornet sighting?

In England, Wales and Scotland, use the Asian Hornet Watch app, the online alert form, or email alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk, with a photo and location. In Northern Ireland use the same app or CEDaR. In the US, report to your state department of agriculture, for example Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina, or to your State Plant Regulatory Official. In France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy there are national or regional platforms listed in this article.

Is there an Asian hornet app for beekeepers?

The official reporting app in Great Britain and Northern Ireland is Asian Hornet Watch, built by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. France uses a hornet quest in the INPN Espèces app, and Flanders uses the Vespa-Watch platform. These apps send a report to the authorities. They are not designed to keep your own apiary records, which is a separate job.

Should I trap Asian hornets?

Be careful. The UK National Bee Unit only encourages selective traps in spring and monitoring stations with bait from summer onwards, and does not recommend lethal traps because they kill beneficial insects. A 2026 study found that more than 98.5 percent of insects in most baited traps were not Asian hornets. Follow the current guidance from your national bee authority or hornet team.

Does HiveSense have a hornet tracking feature?

No. HiveSense has no dedicated hornet feature and does not report sightings to any authority. What it can do is keep a dated, per-apiary record of what you saw, dictated or typed in the yard with no signal, and export those records to CSV so you can count sightings over time. Always report sightings to your official national channel as well.

The HiveSense Angle

To be clear up front: HiveSense has no hornet feature. It doesn't identify hornets and it doesn't send reports anywhere. For reporting, use the official app or form above.

What a reporting app doesn't give you is your own history. Was there one hornet at the east apiary last Tuesday and five this Tuesday? Which hives are they working? Did the muzzle you fitted make a difference? You need that record to know when to escalate, and your hornet team will want it when you do.

Here's how to keep that record in HiveSense with the tools it already has:

• Log an entrance watch as a Quick Check on the hive being hawked. Dictate the note with gloves on, something like "hornet watch, four hawking, 5 PM". The transcription runs on the phone, so it works in an out-yard with no signal. The inspection is dated automatically, and everything you said lands in its notes.
• Start every note with the same word, like "hornet". Engineers call it a consistent tag, and it makes the records countable.
• Keep it in the notes, not the disease field. The disease-signs field feeds the colony health score, and hornet pressure isn't a disease.
• Set a repeating task with a reminder to check your monitoring station, so the three-day bait change doesn't slip.
• Export inspections to CSV when you want the picture across apiaries. Each row carries the apiary, hive, date and notes, so filtering on your tag gives you sightings per apiary per week, ready to send to your hornet team.

It's a workaround, and we're saying so. If you're a beekeeper dealing with hornets and want a proper sightings log, tell us. HiveSense is founder-built, I read every message, and requests from people with a real need are how features get built. The rest of what the app does is on the hive management app page.