The first three hornets of the year were caught last weekend, just days after spring queening traps went up around the island.
Mr Russell said the easterly winds and unseasonably warm daytime temperatures for the last two weeks has had hornet watchers worried that the invasive insects would start arriving.
The insects, which hunt honey bees and other native pollinators, have become endemic in France. Three nests were found in Guernsey last year and were treated and destroyed. While persistent local efforts have prevented the hornets getting a foothold in the island, each year the queens arrive from the European coast, looking to create nests.
‘This week we had three in 24 hours,’ Mr Russell said.
Spring queening traps are out across the island, with one trap every 500 metres. This aims to catch any queens before they can establish a nest. The traps went out on 1 April and the first hornet was caught in one on Saturday, in one of the traps near the Rockmount. Also over the weekend a woman in St Peter’s, above Rocquaine, had her windows open. When she closed them at night and let down the curtains, she found a hornet. And out near Sausmarez Manor, a man found a hornet in his shed. All the islanders caught the hornets alive and organised to get them identified by Mr Russell.
‘Hornets are unpredictable,’ he said, noting the hornets had been found in different corners of the island.
‘It’s just random.’
He said that people should not kill them – in case they are a local pollinator – or let them go.
Traps are up in the other islands, with five hornets found in Sark and 24 in Alderney. The latter island is closer to France, making for a shorter flight for the invaders. Mr Russell said he understood the team there were investing in a long lance, which will make it easier to treat any hard-to-reach nests.
Jersey shows what could happen if the issue gets out of control. Jersey has already had two primary nests this year, which Mr Russell suspects come from hornets that have overwintered on the island. This time last year Jersey had spotted 14 Asian hornets. So far this year there have been 124.
‘The worry is that with an expanding hornet population there, they will look to come here,’ Mr Russell said.
‘Jersey shows what could happen if we take our foot off the gas.’
The Guernsey sightings were slightly earlier than normal, but Mr Russell said they could not put out spring queening traps earlier as it could catch more local pollinators. The traps will stay out for 10 weeks.
Mr Russell works three days a week, but keeps the hornet mobile on him and regularly checks emails, in case any hornets are spotted by islanders.
He said it was heartening that islanders recognised the Asian hornets and knew to report them.
‘Until something happens in France, like a new predator to really reduce numbers, we have to expect an Asian hornet invasion every year, but so far it is working,’ Mr Russell said.
‘People get it.’
For more information on identifying and reporting Asian hornets, visit gov.gg/asianhornet.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.