Killer Hornets Swarms hit France and could reach Britain
Pastor Dale Morgan
Killer Hornets Swarms hit France and could reach Britain*
By Peter Allen in Paris
Last Updated: 2:40am GMT 21/02/2007
Swarms of giant hornets renowned for their vicious stings and skill at
massacring honeybees have settled in France.
And there are now so many of the insects that entomologists fear it will
just be a matter of time before they cross to Britain.
Global warming has largely been blamed for the survival and spread of
the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina, which is thought to have arrived in
France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004.
Thousands of football-shaped hornet nests are now dotted all over the
forests of Aquitaine, the south-western region of France hugely popular
with British tourists.
"Their spread across French territory has been like lightning," said
Jean Haxaire, the entomologist who originally identified the new arrival.
He said he had recently seen 85 nests in the 40-odd miles which separate
the towns of Marmande and Podensac, in the Lot et Garonne department
where the hornets were first spotted.
The hornets can grow to up to 1.8in and, with a wingspan of 3in, are
renowned for inflicting a bite which has been compared to a hot nail
entering the body.
A handful can destroy a nest of 30,000 bees in just a couple of hours —
a major concern among the beekeeping industry.
"The problems are not necessarily public health ones, but ecological
ones. These hornets can cause immense damage to beehives," said Mr
Haxaire. The hornets are renowned for feeding their young with the
larvae of other social insects, including bees, whose nests they break
into and ransack. The French beekeeping industry has already been
decimated by pesticides and long, hot summers.
Honey production from the 1.3 million hives run by 80,000 beekeepers has
been decreasing annually — down by 60 per cent in south-western France
during the past decade.
A spokesman for the French National Been Surveillance Unit said the bee
death rate during winter was now up to six in ten.
As a result France has to import some 25,000 tons of honey annually.
"The arrival of these hornets has made the situation considerably
worse," the spokesman added. "The future of our entire industry is at
stake."
Yesterday, there was concern that it may not take long before the Asian
hornet makes its way to Britain.
"There's no doubt that these hornets are heading north and will probably
find their way to Britain at some point," said Stuart Hine, manager of
the Insect Information Service at London's Natural History Museum.
"Climate change certainly means they can cope with European summers.
However, they would still have difficulty coping with our winter frosts."
While some 40 people a year die from hornet stings — mainly because of
allergic reactions — Claire Villement, of France's Natural History
Museum, said there was no need for a "national panic about killer wasps".
Mrs Villement said: "The legend that three bites from a hornet can kill
you are totally false. People can still enjoy their picnics in the
countryside."