The British Beekeepers Association and Welsh Beekeepers’ Association and their member associations created the Asian Hornet Teams (AHT) network to work in partnership with the NBU to help identify potential sightings of yellow legged hornets and to heighten awareness of the hornets in communities. You can find your local AHT on the BBKA Asian Hornet Team map website.

There are five ways that AHTs play a vital role across the UK to monitor and prevent yellow-legged hornet incursions. They work cooperatively to:

1.    Raise awareness with the public and beekeepers
2.    Monitor for yellow legged hornet throughout the year
3.    Follow up on potential sightings 
4.    Support the contingency response when sightings have been confirmed
5.    Provide support with surveillance following a contingency response

1. Raise awareness with the public and beekeepers

AHTs can help by engaging with people and beekeepers to make them aware of the yellow legged hornet, to assist with identification and ensure everyone knows how to report sightings. For clear guidance on identification, please view the identification sheet or A4 poster produced by the Non-native Species Secretariat (NNSS); these resources are free to download, print and circulate. Printed A4 copies can be ordered from the NBU office by emailing General Enquiries. 

AHTs can help people report sightings through the Asian hornet app, (Android via Google Play or IOS via Apple iTunes), by email, or via the Online Notification Form. Individuals can encourage others to add the Asian Hornet Watch app to their phones, such as friends, relatives, neighbours, work associates or local associations, i.e. ramblers, birdwatchers, gardening clubs, schools, dog walkers, etc.

2. Monitor for yellow legged hornet throughout the year

There are areas where the chances of a UK yellow-legged hornet incursion are higher. These risk points include:
•    ports,
•    distribution routes from Europe including lorry parks or warehouses, 
•    areas where yellow-legged hornets have previously been located.

AHTs can provide assistance with monitoring, focussing in these at-risk areas where surveillance is especially important. Monitoring stations or selective traps are best placed in sunny areas where they can be observed frequently. They are placed in a location such as:
•    at home by a window; 
•    a place of work;
•    on a regular dog walking route.

We only encourage the use of selective traps in spring, and monitoring stations with bait from summer onwards. Traps should always be checked regularly for non-target invertebrates (bycatch) and set up in a way that allows them to escape, or to enable easy release. Lethal traps kill beneficial insects and we do not recommend their use. For more details on the use of selective traps and monitoring stations for yellow-legged hornet monitoring, please view our fact sheet on yellow-legged hornet monitoring.

As the seasons change, so too does the hornet life cycle and different monitoring activities are appropriate at different times:

Season	Hornet activity	Monitoring suggestions
Spring	Yellow-legged hornet queens emerge from overwintering in March and April.	Selective monitoring traps can be placed in a sunny location. Selective traps must be checked regularly to release native insects.
	Newly emerged queens will look for somewhere to create a primary nest.	Check covered spaces (sheds, garages or under eves) for nests, especially on the south coast or anywhere hornets have been found in previous years. Yellow-legged hornets return to their nest at night, so you can see the insect associated with a primary nest in the evening.
Summer	Hornet populations increase rapidly. Hornets require protein and may predate on apiaries especially during July or August.	Use a monitoring station (not a trap) for surveillance. This will minimise the unnecessary death of non-target invertebrates caught in traps.
	Hornets may be seen: hawking at the front of bee hives, feeding on nectar and insects on flowering plants, or feeding on the insects visiting flowering ivy.	Be alert for yellow-legged hornets when out on walks or visits to the apiary.
Autumn	Hornets are more likely to forage for sources of sugar including nectar, fruit and fallen fruit (i.e. grapes, pears and apples).	Be alert for yellow-legged hornets feeding on fruit/fallen fruit and flowering ivy.
Winter	Fertilised queens will find places to overwinter until the weather becomes warmer in spring.	Maintain monitoring stations in October and November; nests have been found as late as mid-November.
	All other hornet castes die off	In the winter months, nests in deciduous trees may become visible. Yellow-legged hornet nests should be reported using the Asian Hornet Watch app with a photograph that has images of the insects in the nest. For help in yellow-legged hornet nest identification, please view our fact sheet.

If you are registered on BeeBase and using traps or monitoring stations to monitor for Yellow-legged hornets, you can update your apiary details to include this information. Simply log in to BeeBase and select ‘My Apiaries’ at the top of the screen. You will then see the details for each apiary and be able to click ‘Edit Apiary’ to update the details to include the placement of monitoring traps.

3. Follow up on leads

The National Bee Unit can only follow up on reported yellow-legged hornet sightings that include: 
•    the contact details of the individual making the report,
•    a photograph of the hornet and
•    the location of the sighting.

AHTs may be contacted by someone wanting help regarding their sighting. When an individual reports a yellow-legged hornet, they are sent an email with guidance on how to take a photo safely and how to contact their local AHT. When contacting the AHT, they may ask for help with identification. If the AHT considers that the report is credible, they will raise awareness in the local area and ask people to monitor locally as outlined above.

When AHTs follow up leads in this way, it allows us to focus on tracking flying yellow legged hornets and destroying nests.

Associations/AHTs can also help the public by:

• ensuring that their contact details are up to date on the BBKA Asian Hornet Team map;

• sending photos using the Asian Hornet Watch app, (Android via Google Play or IOS via Apple iTunes), or via the Online Notification Form;

• sending physical samples to the NBU using the instructions on the bottom of the So you think you’ve seen a yellow-legged hornet? page of BeeBase.

4. Support Contingency Response

When a contingency response is initiated, alerts will be sent out via, the Bee Health Advisory Forum, BeeBase News and Defra’s yellow-legged hornet confirmed sightings page.

During a response situation, AHTs can support the work of the NBU in a number of ways by working with the local Regional/Seasonal Bee Inspector (RBI/SBI) to:

1.    Monitor and set up selective traps or monitoring stations, as appropriate locally, ideally where they can be checked regularly. Monitoring can include observing local forage for up to an hour for yellow-legged hornet activity.
2.    Support beekeepers and members of the public who request help to monitor.
3.    Record the use of traps and monitoring stations in apiaries on BeeBase. 
4.    Organise local volunteers/teams to set up monitoring stations and traps in areas of high risk.
5.    Co-ordinate feedback (if required) from monitoring activities, to ensure results are reported.
6.    Attend meetings with the RBI/SBI in areas where yellow-legged hornets have been located to agree next steps.

5. Support following a contingency response

Once a yellow-legged hornet nest is destroyed, NBU surveillance continues in the area to determine if other nests are present. Surveillance includes the use of monitoring traps near forage and the sites of nests that have been removed. AHTs can extend NBU’s surveillance by monitoring a wider area for longer.
Individuals and nests of yellow legged hornet found in England and Wales are analysed to understand their:

•    Caste: whether it’s a queen, drone or worker and,
•    Genetic relatedness to other hornets found.

This information helps us understand the potential risk of unreported nests in an area, or whether a nest may have released queens into the environment, which may form a nest the following spring.