The Asian hornet is a serious invasive species, larger and more predatory than the oriental hornet, and it is already wreaking havoc in Galicia

It was only a matter of time before it reached Malaga... and now it has officially arrived. The vespa velutina, also known as the Asian hornet, has been identified for the first time this summer in Malaga, specifically in the Pinos de Alhaurín urbanisation in Alhaurín de la Torre. This dangerous, invasive species is larger and more predatory than the oriental hornet, which is already fully established throughout the Costa del Sol province. In fact, it has been wreaking havoc in northern Spain for years, especially in Galicia.

The first witness to its presence was Eduardo Sáez Maldonado, a local resident. He spotted it for the first time in July, thanks to his training as a biologist, although he is not a professional biologist, and his interest in the environment and exotic species.

"Around here, I'm used to seeing invasive hornets of the two species commonly found here, the vespa orientalis and the bi-colour [black shield] wasp. But this summer I also started seeing the velutina," he says. "I knew that it had been detected for the first time in Andalucía in Algeciras in 2022, but that nest was eliminated and, since then, there has been no other official sighting recorded and it was assumed there were no specimens in Malaga."

"When I started seeing them, I became concerned, because I'm aware of the problem they pose, especially for beehives, and I brought it to the attention of the regional government's department for the environment." Eduardo Sáez filed his report, attaching photographs, and also shared his sighting on social media. Following these events, both the regional environmental agency and the Andalusian beekeepers' association contacted him and, together, they set off on a race in an attempt to locate this first nest, although without success as yet.

"We have an idea of where it might be, but it's an area of about 10,000 square metres in the Pinos de Alhaurín residential area." The situation is truly worrying and they are racing against the clock, as several individual specimens have now been spotted and it is feared that new queens could soon emerge.

"I've been seeing them every day all summer long because they go to drink at my dogs' water troughs, they've already learned of the location." Thanks to this, environmental experts and beekeepers have captured and tagged two specimens to try to follow them to the hornet's nest, but so far they have been unsuccessful.

José Antonio Víquez, the Junta's delegate for sustainability and the environment in Malaga, confirms that officers from this department are searching for this first nest of velutinas in that area, with the help of beekeepers and local residents. "We're trying to lure the hornets to lead us to their nest so as to prevent the species from spreading," he stresses.

Juan Molina, veterinarian and president of Malaga's association of beekeepers, is fully involved in the hunt for these first-time invaders to save the beekeeping trade. "As soon as we heard about the sighting of this species, which is so dangerous and has caused so much harm to beekeeping in northern Spain, we set about trying to locate the nest," he says. He warns that the unchecked spread of the Asian hornet would have very serious consequences not only for bees, but also for many other insects: research has indicated that this hornet preys on almost 2,000 species of insect.

Thus, a group of professionals and officers from the environment agency (Medio Ambiente) was set up. Firstly, on two occasions, the lure technique was used. This consisted of catching a hornet and attaching a shiny thread to its body and following it. "The problem is that they cross several boundaries and it's a very wooded area, so we always lost sight, even though there were lots of people with binoculars."

Now, they plan to apply the triangulation technique, which consists of setting up feeding stations. "The hornet's food haul is full of protein for the larvae, so it goes directly to its nest, and we get closer and closer to it."

In this way, several observers are trying to get closer to the colony's location. However, so far the search has been in vain and Molina is calling on the authorities and the public to get fully involved in the fight against this serious environmental threat in Malaga.

"Searching in the pine forest where we think the nest is located is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It could also be in one of the houses under construction in the area, where work has stopped", says the vet, adding that: "This is a countdown because, if it behaves like the oriental hornet, we expect it to be hatching queens starting in the middle of this month."

"Although we don't know how this new species will behave in Malaga, if they reach that point, then we're lost." In the case of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, they went from three to 500 nests in four years. "Now we have to pull out all the stops to remove them."

For his part, Eduardo Sáez, the first witness to this hornet's appearance in Malaga, concludes with a reflection: "The problem we have with invasive species is that, by the time they're being tackled, it's already too late, as has happened with the oriental hornet, the Argentine parakeet and Asian algae. But with the velutina, we still have time."