Asian Predatory Wasp Found in Kyushu, Japan

The Ministry of Environment bared September 11 a nest of ferocious, prolific Asian predatory wasp was found in Moji, Kyushu for the fist time outside Tsushima where it was spotted three years ago.

Asian predatory wasp is an invasive alien species. The nest, 50 cm in diameter, was found on August 28 in the compound of the Municipal Sewage-treatment Plant's purification center, on a ginkgo tree 7m above the ground.

Assistant professor Takatoshi Ueno (entomology) of Kyushu University says the wasp is heavily speckled on the abdomen and is likely of the species that populates in Korea rather than Tsushima. It might have come by way of the Port of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, via freight traffic from the Port of Busan.

Asian predatory wasp is known as Asian Hornet or yellow jacket. It is smaller in size than its European counterpart, queens 30 mm in length and males 24 mm. It originates primarily from the tropical regions and as an invader has been confirmed in France, Spain, Portugal, South Korea and Japan.

Asian predatory wasp was spotted in Korea for the first time in 2003 and in Tsushima in 2013. In recent years, honeybees are reported lost in large numbers mainly due to the overdose of insecticide. But  the latest study suggests the similar loss of honeybees in Tsushima was due not so much to agricultural insecticide as to Asian predatory wasp hunting honeybees. In 2014, a project tried a trap for Asian predatory wasp and successfully guarded honeybees.

Asian predatory wasp feeds on a wide range of insects - on honeybees in particular. A wasp takes a position right above a beehive and makes it its hunting territory. Though honeybees have their tactics to fight back, like the guard bees "balling" wasps to death, but most of the time fall prey to the ferocious invaders.