Asian hornets that can kill 50 bees every day could invade Britain

Warnings have been issued by wildlife experts that Asian hornets could invade Britain and pose a serious threat to the beleaguered bee population because these species are more hostile than the native hornet and can kill 50 bees a day to feed their larvae. The bee population in Britain is believed to have dropped by a third since 2007.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 29 February 2016.

These Asian hornets had landed up in France accidentally in pottery 12 years ago, and from one nest they spread to Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. In all probability, these pests could cross the Channel accidentally via imported pot plants, fruit, cut flowers and timber. As cautioned by experts, like all invasive non-native species, once the Asian hornet digs in, it would be incredibly difficult and hugely costly to tackle the menace.
The Asian Hornet has a distinctive appearance – an almost entirely dark abdomen and yellow ends to its legs. It ‘poses a deadly threat to honeybees and other pollinators and any potential sightings should be immediately reported to the relevant authorities.
The Queens build nests in April and rapidly start laying eggs until the hive population reaches about 6,000 insects and, in order to feed the growing population, the hornets start hunting honey bees, chopping them up with their jaws and feeding them to larvae.
The declining population of bees worldwide is a potentially major risk to world food supplies. For some statistics - honey production in the UK fell by 34 per cent in 2015 to 21lbs per colony. This was down from 34lbs the previous year based on a survey of 1,561 beekeepers. Some of the reasons attributed are excessive wind – making it difficult for honeybees to forage.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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United States realizes that honeybees and butterflies are important and need protection

The population of honeybees and monarch butterfly is on the decline and, in order to reverse the trend, the federal government plans to make more federal land bee-friendly, and also increase spending on research. There are also plans to consider less use of pesticides.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 19 May 2015.

Bees are crucial to pollinate many crops and, this has suffered due to a combination of declining nutrition, mites, disease, and pesticides.
The federal plan envisages a strategy that calls on everyone from federal bureaucrats to citizens to do what they can to save bees. If bees are saved, it will provide more than $15 billion in value to the U.S. economy, as indicated by the White House science adviser John Holdren.
The number of monarch butterflies that spend the winter in Mexico's forests is believed to have dipped by 90 percent or more in the past two decades. Therefore, the U.S. government is working with Mexico to expand monarch habitat in the southern part of that country.
Under the plan, 7 million acres of bee habitat must be restored in the next five years. Moreover, efforts must be made to grow plants that are more varied and better for bees to eat because, in the opinion of scientists, large land tracts that grow only one crop have adversely affected bee nutrition.
The administration has earmarked proposed spending of $82.5 million on honeybee research in the upcoming budget year. (Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)