"Maps dotted with Post-it notes cover the wall in the repurposed hotel suite just off the M20 in Kent. There is no natural light: the only window looks down on an atrium below, and is partly obscured by a flip chart with the plan for the day. From here, Davies and his team run the national command centre for holding back the Asian hornet, an invasive species that preys on honeybees and other pollinators."
"Identifiable by its dark abdomen and yellow legs, the predatory wasp is native to south-east Asia and is spreading rapidly in Europe. A single female is believed to have arrived in Bordeaux in 2004 on a shipment of pottery from China, and went largely unnoticed until its spread was impossible to control. Today, there are an estimated half a million nests in France, with the numbers continuing to rise."
Peter Davies leads a national command centre based in a repurposed hotel suite in Kent to coordinate responses to Asian hornet incursions. The team uses mapped discoveries and a forward operating base to reach hotspots quickly, especially in Kent. The Asian hornet, native to south-east Asia and identifiable by a dark abdomen and yellow legs, has spread across Europe since a likely 2004 arrival in Bordeaux. France now hosts an estimated half a million nests, each consuming up to 11kg of insects per season. Sixty-four nests have been found so far this season, but year-round UK breeding remains limited, with DNA tests in 2024 showing only three overwintering-derived nests among 24 found last year.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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