Cath Charnock said she was not expecting to see Asian hornets in Oldham so soon after a nest was found there. Beekeepers in Greater Manchester helped track the insects after sightings triggered a search that ended with inspectors locating the nest in a tree.
Cath Charnock in Oldham
Charnock, a beekeeper, said: "We weren't expecting to see any this soon in our area." She also urged the public to report suspected sightings by saying: "see it, snap it and app it". The advice points people to Asian Hornet Watch, where sightings can be logged quickly from a phone.
Her warning came after Asian hornets were first spotted in Oldham three weeks ago. Within a short period, two credible sightings were received, and that gave local keepers and government bee inspectors enough to start tracing where the insects were moving.
Greater Manchester search
Beekeepers and inspectors used food traps to attract the hornets, then monitored the direction and timing of their flights. By repeating that process at different locations, they built up a picture of where the nest was likely to be. Government bee inspectors later used GPS radio trackers and AI-assisted cameras to narrow the search further.
Several search teams eventually converged on the same spot before inspectors used binoculars to identify the nest in a tree in Oldham. Les Latham was among the beekeepers involved in the search. The method mattered because it turned a scattered set of sightings into a location the teams could actually work from.
Asian Hornets and bees
The insects are described as a non-native invasive species that preys on honey bees and threatens biodiversity. One Asian hornet can kill up to 50 bees a day, and a single nest could consume about 15kg of insects in one season. The species poses no greater threat to humans than native hornets, but the pressure on bees makes each sighting useful to report quickly.
For anyone who sees one, the practical step is the same one Charnock gave: photograph it if possible and report it through Asian Hornet Watch. The Oldham nest shows the search has already moved from sightings to a location, but the scale of the nest remains the unanswered part of the story.
