Bee inspectors in the South East are battling to destroy Asian hornet nests before new queens hatch later this month.
The Animal Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) bee team has already discovered 10 nests in Kent and Sussex, an area of the UK mainland which has witnessed most sightings of the invasive species.
One nest could contain thousands of the predators, which are capable of killing 11kg (24lb) of insects in a season, including honeybees and other pollinators
The National Bee Unit found and destroyed 72 nests in 2023, the majority in south-east England.
During autumn, the hornets shift from foraging and nest expansion to reproduction.
Research found nests may produce up to 350 future queens and three times as many male hornets.
The newly fertilised queens will leave the nest and find somewhere suitable to surive winter, before starting new colonies in the spring.
In Alkham, Kent, inspectors have tracked a nest 30m (98ft) up a tree.
Tracy Wilson, from the APHA, said: “At this stage the queen is almost certainly one queen, but as we move into the autumn more will be laid with the intention that those ones will then disperse.
“We need to get to those nests before the additional queens can disperse.”
The number of nests so far discovered in the UK is down on 2023, but many beekeepers are sceptical eradication can ever happen.
Tony Warren, a beekeeper in Gravesend, Kent, was so concerned he set up his own alert group.
He said: “The horse has bolted. It’s out of the field. It’s into the next field and in the next village.
“Suddenly you’ll get a boom year. You’ll get all
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