When I arrived in New Zealand as an immigrant (in 1978), the Asian Paperwasp arrived here too. I remember I was impressed by the New Zealand obsessions to keep these invaders out of the kiwi ecosystems.

A few years later I started working for the Ministry of Agriculture and the Asian (or Chinese) Paperwasp was still being pursued; unfortunately without success. We tried to create some pro-active techniques to stop unwanted critters making it to our wonderful country and every time some new pest arrives, I feel awful and ready to have a crack at a counter offensive. 

So – here we are …. With a real “Hornet” (Hornets are a different group of wasps): The yellow-Legged Hornet. Have a look at the pictures of these brutes: they have yellow legs and are way bigger than the wasps we are used to.

They are originally from East and South-East Asia (My birth place: Indonesia!!) and rapidly moving all over the place: the rest of Asia, Korea, Japan, Now Europe, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy Belgium and the UK.

Almost exactly 8 years ago it showed its “EU Passport” in the Netherlands; Let me tell you that the Dutch moved rather quickly to knock that hornet on the head…  Good Luck!! Rather recently it was found in Ireland – an island with perhaps better chances to eradicate it. This Hymenopteran is on the move!!

Nobody likes this beastie – it simply has no sense of humour; in terms of its dietary preference you could say that this Hornet is as selective as a vacuum cleaner.

It goes for all sorts of native insects (flies, beetles, wasps, honey bees) ripe fruits, pollen and nectar, as well as people with allergies to wasp stings.

So right now is the time to gather the Nature Nerds of our country and start our counter attack, together with the Ministry of Primary Industries.

So far we’ve found 2 adult male yellow-legged hornets in Grafton and Albany – that was some months ago. A week ago there was a female (a Queen) in Glenfield, trying to build a brand-new nest. That nest was still small and light in colour:

The very beginning of the nest, made by the queen (a so-called “primary nest”) 
This nest can grow much bigger as the colony builds up in numbers (up to 60 centimetre diameter); so far MPI haven’t found any established nests yet

So, how can we all help to give MPI a hand getting rid of this pest species:

Gardeners are usually extremely observant, when it comes to insects on the property and in this case the identification is relatively easy (especially with NatureNerd kids in the household!!)

Identification: The Hornets (on the left) are quite a bit bigger than German wasps (on the right), common wasps and our established species of paperwasps. Thorax and abdomen have different colours too. Wings rather dark and not translucent – I reckon most people can see that easily.

At this stage we simply do not have a useful treatment to kill these rotters in your garden; I’m sure some scientists as well as back-yard inventors might try their luck with all sorts of concoctions, fatal to the hornets, but in my opinion it’s best to do the following as soon as you find a nest or some big hornets in your garden:

First Report it to MPI: Contact MPI’s exotic pest and disease hotline: 0800 809 966

Carefully take a photo of the suspect insect(s)

Alternatively: report these pests online: https://report.mpi.govt.nz/pest/

Have a look at the Fact Sheet: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=keep+an+eye+out+for+yellow-legged+hornets