Photo: 123RF
Hobbyist beekeepers are being asked to stay alert for invasive yellow-legged hornets loitering around their hives.
Biosecurity New Zealand has more than doubled its Auckland surveillance zone from 5 to 11 kilometres.
Auckland Beekeepers Club president Ken Brown said that decision was made because worker hornets were beginning to travel further to hunt.
"Because of the upcoming change in activity, they will be attracted to beehives, so that is part of why it's so important the hobbyists are involved at this stage to observe the hives to see the worker hornets," he said.
"Workers will start to then be foraging and predating on other insects and also beehives, the hornets will be what we call 'hawking' so instead of going into the hive and getting the bees they will be outside and capturing them."
Yellow-legged hornet Photo: Biosecurity NZ
He said hobbyist beekeepers would act as the eyes and ears for Biosecurity, alerting authorities when they saw a hornet.
"It is critically important that we eradicate in this year or the next. If they become established it will be devastating. All the beekeepers in Auckland will be sent a trap to put out and they will be asked to monitor the traps and regularly monitor their hives," Brown said.
"It is a notifiable pest now, so you can't move them yourself. Ideally get a photo of them and report them to MPI [Ministry of Primary Industries] so the professionals can go out there and find the nest and destroy them. They are quite dangerous, they have a much longer sting than bees and also they can spray venom into your eyes."
Brown said it seemed there was only one queen in Auckland, but that number could balloon if the threat wasn't dealt with quickly.
"The genetics seem to be likely that it could be just one queen, and she can lay a couple of hundred queens so that would be developing now so they are finding these before they develop," he said.
He said there was only one region in the world, Majorca, which had eradicated them.
"... they're an island as well, and it's ongoing surveillance so it's likely we will get rid of all of them or almost all of them... And then monitor and keep monitoring to make sure they're eradicated."
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