First, I got a terrifying text from a friend who said they weren’t able to return home – a massive, humming hornet was in their living room, they said.
Her picture haunts me. That beast could take on a terrier, I thought.
Then, I saw a Reddit post shared to r/CasualUK – “For the third year in a row, I am terrorised in my own home,” site user pilipalaii wrote.
The accompanying image showed another frankly massive hornet trapped in a Tupperware box.
What is going on?! I wondered. Have the hornets mutated? Are they, like our veggies, coming in early this year? Or have the so-called “Asian hornets” spread further and faster than experts expected?
I asked Professor Adam Hart, ecologist, conservation scientist, entomologist, and the University of Gloucestershire’s professor of Science Communication, what was really going on.
It’s nothing to worry about
Though the sight of a particularly beefy bug can put you in fight or flight mode, Dr Hart says that there’s usually a reassuringly banal reason behind their appearance.
In the Reddit post, he says, we’re looking at a “European hornet… the reason it is large is because it is a queen hornet, establishing a new nest.”
If we do see more huge hornets right now, he adds, it’s because “The queens emerge from hibernation in late spring, start a nest and lay eggs which hatch into workers.”
In other words, it’s the busiest season for the biggest hornets at the moment. But, “As the summer starts, it will be workers that we see flying around, which although large and impressive, are smaller than the queens,” Dr Hart writes.
As for whether the species is coming in any bigger or more plentiful this year, the expert says that, “Native hornets won’t be any bigger than usual, and their annual nesting cycle will be the same as always.”
You’re probably not looking at an “Asian” hornet either
Though “Asian giant” hornets, sometimes sensationalistically called “murder hornets,” have hogged headlines in the past couple of years, Dr Hart says you’re almost certainly not going to see one.
“There are no ‘Asian giant hornets’ in the UK, or indeed in Europe. This is a classic piece of media misinformation,” he writes.
“The Asian hornet that has been heading through Europe is a different species, and it is actually a little smaller than our native hornet. It is in the UK, but in low numbers. If you see a hornet in the UK, then it is almost certain to be the native species.”
As for what to do if you spot a hulking European hornet, Dr Hart’s instructions are simple.
“Stay still and enjoy watching one of the UK’s most impressive insects,” he advises.
“They are generally not aggressive, and unless you are messing with them or their nests, they are not usually a problem for people. We have always had hornets in certain parts of the UK, and they rarely cause any issues.”
#Huge #Hornets
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