Further sightings of the Asian hornet in Ireland have been confirmed after the capture of one of the insects earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The survey and monitoring team put in place by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has intensified its efforts as a result, with the Asian Hornet Management Group consulting with UK experts.<\/p>\n
The location of sightings and monitoring activities are not being disclosed for operational purposes, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which oversees the NPWS, said.<\/p>\n
The insect, native to Southeast Asia, has now spread through continental Europe, where it poses a serious threat to bee populations.<\/p>\n
It kills and feeds on honeybees and wild bees, with control efforts ongoing in the UK to prevent the establishment of colonies there. <\/p>\n
The sighting of an Asian hornet earlier in August triggered the creation of a taskforce to co-ordinate the State response.<\/p>\n
The sighting marks the third in Ireland after the one in Cork earlier this month and one recorded in Dublin in 2021, which was not associated with a viable wild population, according to the NPWS. <\/p>\n
The Asian hornet is not aggressive but it will sting if provoked.<\/p>\n
Members of the public have been asked to report the location of the insect if sighted, with a photograph if possible, but not to attempt to capture it.<\/p>\n
The Asian hornet can easily be confused with non-invasive species such as the giant woodwasp, the dark giant horsefly and the common wasp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Further sightings of the Asian hornet in Ireland have been confirmed after the capture of one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[22796,18,440,22797,19,17,22798,133,22799,22800,22801],"class_list":{"0":"post-28285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-asian-hornet","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-hornet","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-pest","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-vespid-wasp","17":"tag-vespidae","18":"tag-wasp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}