Traps set to see if Asian hornet survived NI winter

Northern Ireland holds the dubious accolade of the most northerly discovery of the Asian hornet so far. After the nest was found in County Down last year, work is underway to stop the invasive species taking hold. But rather than shooing or killing the insects, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) is hoping people will instead report possible sightings using the Asian Hornet Watch app. Thirty-four traps have been set up in a three-mile (5km) radius of where the nest was found, and 20,000 local households have received information leaflets about how to spot an Asian hornet. The NIEA's Invasive Species Team lead, Rose Muir, said monitoring would continue, regardless of what is found in the traps in the next three months. The Asian hornet poses a severe threat to the pollinators our food system relies on. It's thought to have come to Europe by accident, in a shipment of pottery from China to France in 2004. The first nest in the UK was found in 2016, and the first on the island of Ireland in County Cork last summer. Climate change is helping the species to establish further north than before, as the planet gets warmer. Muir said finding this hornet in Northern Ireland "chang