New nest found as yellow-legged hornets spread in Georgia
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Another yellow-legged hornet nest has been found in Georgia as the invasive insect expands its range, posing a danger to bees in the region.
The latest nest found was in Savannah on Wednesday.
According to the Georgia Department of Agriculture, a total of 22 yellow-legged hornet queens have been found this year.
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The busy bees are out and about. Now that summer is here, they are becoming more active by the minute.
That’s up from 12 hornets total in April – a number that included both 2023 and 2024.
The Department of Agriculture is now hiring hornet trappers.
Experts believe yellow-legged hornets hitched a ride into the U.S. on a ship that arrived at a Savannah-area port about a year ago.
Since then, they have spread along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts.
While they’re not any more dangerous to humans than any other hornet, they kill bees, which as pollinators are important to the Georgia and South Carolina agriculture industries.
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It doesn’t take long for researchers at Emory to find ticks in Georgia to study.
“Really if you think about some of Georgia’s most iconic crops, whether it’s Georgia peaches, south Georgia watermelons, blueberries, all of those crops require pollination to be successful. So. if these hornets are allowed to establish, it could potentially threaten those industries and the livelihoods of our farmers,” said Matthew Agvent, a Georgia Department of Agriculture spokesman.
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