Beekeepers warn yellow-legged hornet could devastate local hives – The Front Page

Bees are tiny but mighty players in New Zealand’s environment and economy.

They pollinate our gardens, native plants and crucial crops, supporting biodiversity and food production across the country.

But an invasive threat is looming; the queen yellow-legged hornet.

Since June, Biosecurity New Zealand has confirmed several detections of these pests across Auckland.

Mahurangi Honey’s Pete Johnston told The Front Page that it isn’t the only thing threatening our bees.

“The German wasp, for example, in the past they’ve come into New Zealand. They’ve got no predators, and they’re very adaptable to the resources around them.

“We had an apiary up north for a little bit. We left them with a couple of boxes of honey on them. They were very strong, about 15 hives on that particular site.

“After harvest, so January ... we came back and there were these big German wasps there. They’d found them, and they were just nailing them. They took out about 66% of that apiary,” he said.

Johnston understands that the hornets are similar to these German wasps.

“March and February, they’ll go into a mating programme. They’ll make about 1000 to 2000 queens, and then those queens will go out and hibernate.

“After winter, they’ll come out and each queen has a potential to start a new colony.

“These hornets are pretty much the same. They don’t make as many, on average they’d make on average about 300 to 350, sometimes up to 500 queens.

“So, it’s important to nip this in the bud now,” he said.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• The importance of bees
• Threats facing bees and the industry
• Biosecurity and Government support
• The future of beekeeping.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.