We, the undersigned feel MPI is not taking the eradication of the yellow-legged Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) threat seriously and need to significantly lift their game.

We demand the Act Minister of Biosecurity Andrew Hoggard instruct MPI to implement these five actions immediately. We also call on Government to make available extra funds to do the work necessary. 

 

1. Increase the radius of the response to 30 km.

 

2. Give out ten thousand free VespaCatch traps, with bait, and clear instructions to households within the 30 km radius.

 

3. Supply VespaCatch traps to all beekeepers and orchardists across the North Island for widespread monitoring purposes.

 

4. Increase boots on the ground by 10 fold and make sure the response is fully staffed and working at full capacity over the Christmas and New Year breaks, including weekends.

 

5. Formally request help from the Regional sector.

 

Background:

 

Two male, predatory, bee-eating yellow-legged Asian hornets were found in June. This could only mean one thing. A queen Asian hornet had made it into the country, made a nest, and went undetected last summer. It would have produced hundreds of new queens, and each of those queens is capable of dispersing up to around thirty kilometres before hibernating over winter. There is a significant risk that some hornets have already spread well beyond the current 5km response area.

 

While many queens will have naturally died over winter, and most will have remained close to the original nest site, it only takes two or three to travel further and establish new populations. With basically no trapping or surveillance currently occurring outside the five-kilometre zone, any queens that disperse further will go undetected. This risks them becoming permanently established. If that happens, future generations of New Zealanders will face decades of expensive, labour-intensive hornet control every single summer. The economic fallout would be catastrophic, with massive losses of beehives, our mānuka industry and the collapse of pollination services that underpin our crops, pasture, and wider agricultural sector.

 

A thirty-kilometre radius grid around the epicenter, with trap spacing of five hundred meters by five hundred metres, would require approximately ten thousand traps. At present, MPI has deployed only around five hundred and fifty traps within a five-kilometre radius. This is ridiculously too small and almost guaranteed to miss some dispersed queens from last summer.

 

We only have one realistic chance this summer to eradicate this species.

 

There is also a real possibility that hibernating queens were unintentionally transported over winter in vehicles, furniture, or freight. This makes broader monitoring essential.

 

We urge MPI to immediately scale up its response and give us the best possible chance of eradicating the yellow-legged Asian hornet before it is too late.