A nest of Asian hornets has been located in and around the southern side of Cork city. The National Parks and Wildlife Service located the nest after an exhaustive and intense search. The nest will be removed and the hornet population destroyed. The nest will be taken to the National Museum of Ireland for further investigations and testing to determine the hornets' origin. Time pressure exists because queen hornets usually leave nests later in the autumn, potentially establishing new nests. Survey and monitoring efforts have been intensified by relevant authorities.
"It was identified "in and around" where the initial Asian hornet was sighted in the "southern side of Cork city" last month, junior minister Christopher O'Sullivan said. The nest will be removed and the population of Asian hornets will be destroyed, with further tests due to be carried out on the nest to locate where the hornets may have originated."
"We suspected over the last couple of weeks that this might be the case", he said. "The good news is - and I know people may be alarmed and maybe alerted by the fact that we now have a confirmed sighting of an Asian Hornet nest because of the devastating impacts that an Asian hornet outbreak would have on biodiversity and nature in general - but it is a success story."
"You have to understand the timeline of this species. It is expected that every nest will contain a number of queen hornets. Obviously, if queen hornets get out into wider circulation, they may go build their own nests, and the population may increase that way," he said. Mr O'Sullivan said there was a time pressure to locate the nest as queen hornets usually leave their nest later in the autumn."
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