Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has taken steps to identify technologies that (a) eradicate Asian hornet colonies and (b) prevent their re-establishment.

Defra is committed to exploring the use of technology to detect and eradicate Asian hornets. During 2023, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) were deployed to support the National Bee Unit (NBU) in the field but were not successful in locating any nests.

Researchers from the University of Exeter also tested newer, lighter radio tags at a site known to have multiple nests. However, this method was not successful in locating any nests despite a number of attempts. However, the track and trace method which combines a mapping App with GIS data has been successfully used by the NBU to find the large number of nests destroyed this year.

Defra is not aware of any technology that currently exists which is capable of eradicating Asian hornets or preventing their re-establishment.