A suspected yellow-legged hornets’ nest in Udimore was destroyed on Tuesday, July 22 having been found in an outhouse in the village a week before. Investigations are continuing to confirm whether the insects are hornets, also known as Asian hornets, which are regarded as one of the UK’s biggest threats to bees.
Hornets are just one danger faced by bumblebees, highly important as pollinators and playing a vital role in the agricultural and natural eco-system, as well as the economy. The insect population is declining around the world, but bumblebees face a unique threat that makes them particularly vulnerable.
“Without bumblebees nature would be quieter and lack many foods we love. It may become a crisis,” says the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
There has been a particular decline in Britain over the past century. Two species became extinct and eight (around a third) of our remaining twenty four species are currently listed as conservation priority due to their scarce distribution. The rarest bumblebee, the great yellow, is now only found in the far north and west of Scotland.
The UK has lost 97% of wild flowers in the last century which means bumblebees are struggling to find enough food and nesting spots to survive.
Building much needed housing is also an issue, as it cuts habitats off from each other and reduces green spaces and countryside. Insecticides can directly kill and too many honeybees and commercially reared bees have increased competition for food and can lead to the spread of diseases.
There are an estimated 65,000 colonies imported into the UK each year to support the soft fruit industry although some of the trade is marketed at gardeners. In 2015 Natural England tightened the regulations to prevent the use of non-native sub-species which had been permitted to be purchased by licence holders in the UK. 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records started to be collected says the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Bumblebee facts
- Bumblebee’s wings beat 130 or more times per second.
- In the winter colonies die out completely except for the queen bumblebee who goes into hibernation to establish a new colony the next spring.
- A queen bee’s sting is less harmful as the stinger is smooth and does not get embedded in the skin. They rarely sting a human but rather another queen bee.
- The male bumblebee does not sting as they don’t have the stinging anatomy. Their role is to reproduce with a fertile queen
You can help bumblebees (or any bees) by doing small things like putting insect-friendly plants in the garden. Lavender, rosemary, daffodils and tulips would be helpful. Or keep a garden section a bit wild to encourage bumblebees to build their nests.
https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/
Image Credits: National Bee Unit , © Mike Pennington (cc-by-sa/2.0) geograph.org.uk/p/954103 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.
I’m sure I won’t be the only reader to put in a word in defence of the European hornet, which is frequently mistaken for the more aggressive Asian cousin and is also becoming more widespread in the southeast. See https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/european-hornets for an expert introduction to this gentle giant. I know from living in Illinois, where hornets are common in the summer, that Rule Number One is not to approach the nest, but that even a very large nest can be passed safely at a distance (pretty scary, though). I have seen nests a metre high and a metre round!
The biggest threat to bees of all kinds in my extremely bee-friendly garden is spiders, namely the extensive and interesting variety of false widows that particularly love my greenhouse. I have rescued many a bee (and fly) from their sticky webs, but also swept up countless bee corpses. I have observed that these spiders are willing to tackle a bee many times their size, and they win unless the bee gets human help.
My primary defence against the spiders is the colonies of sparrows that nest around my neighbourhood — they feast aphids in spring, then scour our gardens and the outsides of our houses for juicy spiders, an interesting sight as they have developed a method of hovering, hummingbird-style, next to walls and under eaves. Nature has its way of restoring balance.
We live in Udimore, and following the suspected Asian hornets nest being found in our village felt we should double check a nest we had recently found in our garden. We did this online at nonnativespecies.org/asianhornet, one can also use the Asian Hornet Watch app. Both ways of reporting suspected sightings request photos in order for follow up visits to be prioritised. The British Beekeepers association website also has a useful Asian Hornet identification guide. Thankfully ours was not an Asian hornet nest, but at least now we know what to do in the future.