Asian Hornet Queens and nests this year double 2025's numbers

Tuesday, 28 April 2026 14:30

The number of Queen sightings is running about five weeks ahead of last year.

Sighting didn't reach 1,310 until 3 June last year, but this year, we're already there.

72 Embryo nests have been reported, compared to 32 in 2025, and 1,310 Queens, compared to 684.

The Asian Hornet Group says that a full week of north easterly winds blowing over from the Normandy Peninsula, where thousands of Asian Hornet nests are reported each year, may have brought some of the 322 new Queen reports to here.

It says as if to 'reinforce the long-held belief' that our Spring Queens come from France, the East Coast seems to be the most populated.

On Friday, traps around AnnePort, Archirondel, Gorey and St Catherine caught their highest ever one-day total of 20 Queens.

With the Hornets getting into houses, the group asks: "Please make every attempt to capture/kill them, because if you let them fly away, there’s every likelihood that she has already started building a nest on your property, or that of a neighbour."

The group is trying to maximise the number of Queens and Embryo nests destroyed before any Worker Hornets appear, because then things get 'far more complicated and dangerous for everyone.'

An interactive online map has been developed this year to streamline the process of reporting them.

READ: New online map and app to report Asian Hornets

The first Worker Hornet report last year was on 8 May, two weeks away.