Asian hornets threaten ‘catastrophe’ for UK bees
Invasive species is gaining ‘foothold’ in southern England with ‘sharp rise’ in sightings

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
UK bees are in danger from “invasive hornets” who are “wreaking havoc in mainland Europe”, according to a report by leading scientists.
The Asian hornets, which feed on native bees and wasps, are threatening to get a “foothold” in the UK, with nests found in East Sussex, Kent, Devon and Dorset, said the BBC. This has raised fears of “catastrophic consequences” for the UK’s bee populations for years to come.
There has been a “sharp rise” in sightings of the invasive species in the UK this year, noted The Guardian. There were only two sightings in each of the previous two years, whereas there have been 22 confirmed so far in 2023. As the vast majority have been in Kent, some experts believe the species may have established itself there.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“It is a bit too early to say for sure but the situation looks ominous,” Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, told the paper. He warned that “if even one nest evades detection and reproduces” it will then “probably become impossible to prevent them establishing”.
This would be “terrible news” for native bees, which the hornets “dismember and eat”, said the paper. They “sit outside honeybee hives and capture bees as they enter and exit”, it added, and “chop up the smaller insects and feed their thoraxes to their young”.
Prompt destruction of nests “has so far prevented the species from becoming established” in the UK, said New Scientist.
A UN study published this week said invasive alien species are spreading across the world at “unprecedented rates”, said the i paper, threatening native plants and animals with extinction while damaging human health and livelihoods. It said invasive species have been solely responsible for 16% of the world’s animal and plant extinctions and a factor in 60%.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Lost and found
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 24, 2023
Daily Briefing Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian population to leave region amid fears of persecution, Atlantic coast remains under flood warnings from Ophelia, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
6 new horror novels to read this fall
The Explainer These upcoming releases will have you on the edge of your seat — or hiding under the covers
By David Faris Published