The invasive hornet Vespa velutina : distribution, impacts and management options

Abstract

The Asian yellow-legged hornet Vespa velutina is an invasive alien species introduced and widespread in several countries of Europe and Asia. Its diffusion generates relevant environmental and socio-economic impacts. Environmental impacts include threats to the native insect biodiversity and the pollination ecosystem services. Socio-economic impacts include threats to the apiculture sector, economic consequences for the adoption of management strategies, social concern and health issues. Different options were developed and adopted for (i) preventing the introduction of V. velutina , (ii) early detecting its presence, (iii) eradicating populations at the initial stage of invasion or (iv) controlling populations for limiting and mitigating its impacts. The aim of this review was to provide an updated overview about the distribution, impacts and options for managing V. velutina populations, through a literature review of the published academic documents. Moreover, this study highlights that some topics received little attention (impacts of V. velutina on the biodiversity, on the pollination ecosystem services, on the economy) or require further research efforts (effective control methods for V. velutina ); therefore, future research should be directed towards filling these gaps of knowledge.

On the Evidence of the European Bee-Eater (<em>Merops apiaster</em>) as a Predator of the Yellow-Legged Hornet (<em>Vespa velutina</em>) and its Potential Contribution as a Biological Control Agent

“…For this reason, on a country-wide scale, the current area of sympatry between the two species does not appear to be particularly large, namely in the Iberian Peninsula (IP), as illustrated in Figure 4, which, despite some flaws (e.g. in Eng- land), reasonably reflects the distribution of the invasive wasp [19,73,82] and the EBE [67] in Europe. Presently, in Portugal, the overlap between the areas of occurrence of the two species is not very large, as already mentioned, and in Spain the disjunction seems to be much more evident (cf.…”

“…In the rest of Europe, the same climate suitability models point, in general, to an expansion of YLH in a large number of countries, such as in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Italy where it has already arrived or settled [15,82] or in the east and southeast of this continent, where it is expected to settle in the medium-long term [13,16,17,19,20]. In turn, the EBE, which since the 1980s and 1990s has been expanding to the north and its populations have been growing in several European countries [58,79], is present in all those countries, although in most of them their populations are in generally still small or nesting is still irregular (e.g.…”

“…UK, The Netherlands, Luxembourg or Belgium) [58,67,93]. This northward expansion across the European continent, including France, has been largely attributed to climate changes and an increase in food availability as a result of these [58,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]. In Germany, where the population has grown unparalleled in Central Europe, the EBE is present in almost all country and federal states, i.e., with the exception of the 3 urban states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen [90,93].…”

Recent advances in availability and synthesis of the economic costs of biological invasions

“…It can be effective in achieving early detection and rapid response objectives (Howard et al 2022), especially if public awareness of problematic invasive species is raised. Successful examples include the case of the network set-up to monitor the invasions of two hornet species causing problems for beekeepers and wildlife: the European hornet (Vespa crabro) in Sardinia (Pusceddu et al 2019) and the yellow-legged hornet (V. velutina) in Europe (Lioy et al 2019(Lioy et al , 2022, the latter being the object of national and international projects that include public mobilisation and engagement (stopvelutina.it; vespavelutina.eu). Therefore, public engagement about the costliest species could improve their monitoring, reporting and allow for more effective management while reducing future potential costs.…”

Poor communication jeopardizes biodiversity

“…For instance, reversing the decline in native pollinator diversity is a key action but, mistakenly and unfortunately, an invasive hornet (Vespa velutina) was used to illustrate this action in a promotional video (European Commission, 2020b). This species is a voracious bee predator and a serious threat to native pollinators (Lioy et al, 2022). Likewise, the EU Commission response to the citizens' initiative Save Bees and Farmers!…”