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Yellow-Legged Hornets: An Emerging Threat to Pollinators
17 Plays24 minutes ago
In this episode of Hort Culture, the podcast crew welcome Dr. Amanda Skidmore, Kentucky’s state apiarist, to discuss the vital role of beekeeping in agriculture and the challenges facing pollinators. Skidmore shares insights into her work supporting beekeepers through inspections, education, and outreach across the state. The conversation highlights the importance of honeybees in pollinating specialty crops and maintaining food systems.
A major focus of the episode is the emerging threat of the invasive yellow-legged hornet, a predator of honeybees that has recently been detected in the southeastern U.S. Skidmore explains its life cycle, how it spreads, and the potential ecological and economic impacts if it reaches Kentucky. Listeners also learn how to identify the hornet, report sightings, and even participate in monitoring efforts. Blending humor with urgency, the episode emphasizes awareness and collective action to protect pollinators and the agricultural systems that depend on them.
Georgia Department of Agriculture Yellow-Legged Hornet
Dr. Amanda Skidmore, Kentucky State Apiarist
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Dr. Amanda Skidmore and Bee Humor
00:00:17
Brett
Welcome, friends. We're joined here today by dr Amanda Skidmore, who's the state apiarist for Kentucky.
00:00:19
Plant People
Greetings.
00:00:25
Brett
and We're going to get into all that, but before that, I want to clear the air that out of professional respect and also the amount of time times that I'm sure Amanda experiences this, I will be refraining from all B-related puns for the duration of the episodes.
00:00:28
Plant People
Oh man.
00:00:31
Plant People
Are we airing grievances?
00:00:44
Plant People
i I do not believe that. Not for one nanosecond.
00:00:46
Brett
Because.
00:00:46
Alexis
Liar. liar
00:00:47
Brett
I almost just did a b because. sorry Because.
00:00:50
Plant People
yeah you You just slipped it in when you said you were not going to do that,
00:00:50
Amanda Skidmore
Oh.
00:00:54
Brett
But here's the thing. if If this wasn't her every day, if she weren't living in it dayto- day to day, would feel more comfortable about it. But, you know, we want to be a change of scenery. We want to be the the change we wish to see in the world.
00:01:06
Brett
That being said, i think we talked about this last time, but do you have any Amanda, any B related jokes or puns or things that don't suck and that you haven't gotten tired of hearing because they're so original?
00:01:19
Brett
And can I steal them?
00:01:20
Amanda Skidmore
Oh, gosh. You should have asked me this question like five minutes ago so that I could come up with something. But it's usually the same. You know, anytime you can replace the letter B in a word for Bs, it just comes out naturally.
00:01:32
Brett
hu
00:01:35
Amanda Skidmore
I can't help it at this point.
00:01:36
Plant People
Throw a buzz in there randomly or, you know, or um maybe honey on the, and on if you're trying to switch it up.
00:01:37
Brett
Yeah.
00:01:38
Amanda Skidmore
Yep.
00:01:43
Plant People
Yeah.
00:01:43
Brett
Sting, Stinger, Queen, Go Off Queen.
00:01:44
Plant People
Oh, sting. Yeah. That could go for music or yeah.
00:01:46
Amanda Skidmore
Yep.
00:01:48
Plant People
i'd Look, Brett.
00:01:48
Amanda Skidmore
There's all kinds of puns out there. i would say there's there's one on our website that was an unintentional pun right now.
00:01:51
Brett
Yeah.
00:01:51
Plant People
I feel like you
00:01:56
Amanda Skidmore
so
00:01:56
Alexis
but
00:01:57
Brett
I like that.
00:01:57
Plant People
did you say unintentional pun?
00:01:59
Amanda Skidmore
and Unintentional pun.
00:02:00
Plant People
the so had Okay.
Role of the State Apiarist in Kentucky
00:02:01
Brett
like that
00:02:01
Plant People
I need to know more about well how an unintentional pun on the state apiarist webpage works.
00:02:06
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, so we are...
00:02:07
Plant People
Yeah.
00:02:08
Amanda Skidmore
um going to talk hopefully a little bit about Yellow Legged Hornet and we've been developing our webpage but we wanted to get a little bit of information up there so the page currently says Yellow Legged Hornet coming soon and it should say information about Yellow Legged Hornet coming soon but it's kind of like a double meaning of like hey it's potentially coming soon so it's it's been amusing for for folks as I've talked about it and they've been like go check out the website
00:02:27
Plant People
me
00:02:31
Brett
threat
00:02:31
Plant People
Yes. ar
00:02:40
Plant People
Word is going to get out that you are dropping those things out of helicopters. I mean, it is.
00:02:44
Amanda Skidmore
No, no.
00:02:45
Plant People
Word's going to get get out.
00:02:45
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah.
00:02:46
Plant People
So, yeah. she She said they were coming soon. Absolutely. Not the meaning of that situation.
00:02:50
Brett
I had
00:02:52
Plant People
Not the meaning. Not the meaning.
00:02:53
Brett
i had 45 minutes of pun related questioning, but I guess we can pivot to, to would you mind your your friend of the pod have been on the get a bit of guests before would you mind to just remind folks ah what it what does it mean to be the state apiarist and then I think yeah let's jump right into the the imminent yellow leg torn it after that coming soon
00:02:59
Plant People
Pivot.
00:03:13
Alexis
Coming soon.
00:03:15
Plant People
Coming in soon.
00:03:15
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, um so I am the state apiast with Kentucky Department of Agriculture. It's kind of a multi-part job where um I am the state inspector for for bees. So if you are transporting bees out of the state of Kentucky, um most of the states, including all the states that surround us, like Ohio and Tennessee and Indiana, require that moving bees or even moving used equipment for bees um comes with a health certificate for the state that is then registered with their state apiary program.
00:03:48
Amanda Skidmore
So I do inspections for um folks to be able to move their bees, but I also do just regular health inspections. So if folks um want to have me come out and look at their different setups, if they've got concerns about something, if they think they have a disease issue, um they're worried that they might've had a pesticide exposure,
00:04:04
Plant People
you
00:04:08
Amanda Skidmore
Then those are all things that I come out and help investigate and spend afternoons in apiaries and talk with folks. um And then another large portion of what I do is kind of the outreach side. So talking with beekeepers, um we have 76 bee clubs in the state right now. So we have one big state association, which is the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association, and and I work really closely with them. But um There are at least 76 individual be clubs across the state and it's always fun because we find more as we get, you know, more outreach and find more people.
Beekeeping Practices and Challenges in Kentucky
00:04:40
Amanda Skidmore
ah Most are associated with their extension offices, but um it's a really great local place to find information about beekeeping in your area. So I try to make it out to those bee clubs as frequently as possible um and usually get to talk with folks and
00:04:56
Amanda Skidmore
um share what's going on in the the honeybee world. And then I also do a lot of outreach and education with um youth, so different school programs, and then of course um outreach with the general public at different festivals or different um but things like the state fair.
00:05:15
Plant People
And there's only one of you, no clones, just one of you on the road. It seems like a lot, especially certain times of the year.
00:05:20
Amanda Skidmore
Yes, yes.
00:05:22
Plant People
And we see you're broadcasting from your car today. i bet that you were off to some educational program or something, weren't you?
00:05:28
Amanda Skidmore
Yup, yup. I say it's, I cover all 120 counties.
00:05:29
Plant People
Yeah.
00:05:32
Amanda Skidmore
I try to do my best to like group things, you know, if I know I'm headed to an area to to get everything all in one day, but it can be a lot to to keep up with. There are a lot of beekeepers in Kentucky.
00:05:43
Amanda Skidmore
We estimate that there's probably close to 6,000 beekeepers and 50,000 hives um in the state. And those are probably really conservative estimates.
00:05:52
Brett
Wow. So I'm, I was just putting out, I'm fighting for my life to not make puns. And I'm, you know, this is my, this is no no no, no, no, no.
00:05:59
Plant People
You will not be successful.
00:06:00
Amanda Skidmore
Oh, go for it.
00:06:00
Plant People
You will not be.
00:06:00
Amanda Skidmore
Go for it. You won't offend me. You won't offend me.
00:06:02
Brett
I don't want to, I don't know.
00:06:03
Plant People
Maybe she needs some material.
00:06:04
Brett
It's not an offense. It's just, it's a personal, personal standard. Instead, I'll ask him maybe a dumb question. um Why would someone move bees? Like what's the, what's the moving bees? What what are the reasons why someone does that?
00:06:17
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, so most of the bees in Kentucky, once they are purchased, stay in the apiary location where um they get set up. Kentucky does not have a large commercial pollination industry. um A lot of other states do. That's where you hear about peace people sending bees to pollinate almonds in California. So they will box up their hives, put them on a big truck, send them to California for almond pollination season. and then move them around the country to wherever um the next pollen and nectar flow is going to be. um So in Kentucky, we don't see a whole lot of that. We would say 5% or less of our beekeepers would consider themselves to be commercial and moving their bees in and out of state.
00:06:59
Amanda Skidmore
um But there's other situations where um folks that maybe live on the border between Ohio and ah Kentucky ah may move their bees from one side of the river to the other. And so you have to have a certification for that. And then we have folks who maybe are moving out of state that are sending bees to their new home location. um They want to take their things with them. A lot of times we don't see huge moves. So like it um for
00:07:30
Amanda Skidmore
hobbyist beekeepers, typically if you were going to move from Kentucky to Oregon, you would probably sell the bees that you have in Kentucky and not take them with you to Oregon. um But for larger commercial folks that have hundreds of hives, that would not be uncommon.
00:07:45
Amanda Skidmore
um And then the other reason that folks will move hives in and out um is for um those pollination services. So sometimes they will move them just locally in-st state or to one of those surrounding states.
00:07:59
Plant People
I think some of our orchards kind of do that, that the big either they're set up semi-permanent at the orchard or they move in. We're talking, I guess, small commercial scale moves.
00:08:09
Amanda Skidmore
Yes.
00:08:09
Plant People
You know, it's not thousands of hives, it's dozens or what have you in orchards.
00:08:09
Amanda Skidmore
Yep.
00:08:13
Plant People
I've worked with some orchards that they'll have some kind of local service and it's usually pretty localized versus moving stuff around across states and this, that, and the other. Yeah.
00:08:22
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah. And that's, that's a great part for Kentucky because it means that we are not exposing our bees to the high levels of stress or moving a lot of bees in and out that may be bringing pests and diseases. So we have a little bit more stable um control or at least understanding of what our pests and diseases look like than than some of the areas that send bees in and out all the time.
00:08:45
Brett
as you were talking about the the moving the bees to follow the nectar flow my mind went to like old school cowboys driving the cattle across the the plains and but they're like b boys and so i don't maybe they would ride maybe they would ride horses or i don't know what maybe something flying i don't know but um
00:09:05
Plant People
The movie that plays in Brett's mind for everyone is pretty spectacular all the time.
00:09:06
Amanda Skidmore
I like it.
00:09:09
Plant People
I'm pretty sure Brett has got the best movie just playing in his mind.
00:09:12
Brett
It's vivid, it's vivid and hard to follow.
00:09:13
Plant People
he It's it' like a bee wrangle. It's like we're wrangling them bees.
00:09:15
Amanda Skidmore
yeah
00:09:17
Plant People
It's pretty probably pretty amazing. um Usually when I see that on the news, a truck is something's happened to it.
00:09:19
Alexis
Amanda is
00:09:20
Amanda Skidmore
it's It's usually on large semi-trucks that can hold up to 400 colonies. So it's it's pretty big.
00:09:26
Brett
Less romantic, but more more functional.
00:09:30
Alexis
more efficient.
00:09:32
Plant People
Every now and again, you'll see a truck on the news that's, broken down or turned over and there's just a situation and I've seen that and I always kind of, you know, that always catches my attention when I see that on the news feed, but it happens, doesn't it?
00:09:45
Plant People
I mean, yeah.
00:09:47
Amanda Skidmore
It does. um Our goal is for it to not happen, but we do have, I work really closely with um our emergency response folks in case something like that were to come up.
00:09:50
Plant People
Yeah, absolutely.
00:09:53
Alexis
Thank
00:09:57
Plant People
Okay.
00:09:57
Amanda Skidmore
um We've been in conversations about, you know, what would be the different plans for that? How, you know, if I'm on one side of the state and i need to get to the other side of the state, how could I do that? And, you know, we've walked through a lot of those planning steps and who needs to know, What and and I'm saying we can probably do a whole podcast on emergency response for bees.
00:10:16
Plant People
amazing.
00:10:16
Alexis
but
Threat of the Yellow-Legged Hornet to Kentucky
00:10:17
Plant People
Yeah. never even thought about it.
00:10:18
Alexis
Amanda, is there is there just such a need for bees that they have to pull them out of Kentucky and go? Or like, why why is why is Kentucky traveling to California? Like why, you know, I mean, Florida is a little bit closer. I know like the citrus groves, it just seems like there would be closer beekeepers, but maybe there's just not enough. Why why or that why is that usually happen? Do you know?
00:10:43
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, so it really just depends on the beekeeper and their connections. um there's There are a lot of beekeepers in Kentucky that will go to California, ah Florida, Michigan.
00:10:56
Amanda Skidmore
And when I say a lot, that's at 5%. So it's it's ah a very small number of beekeepers to begin with. Coming out of Kentucky, um there's other states like um North Dakota that have more bee colonies than they do um people in the state just because that's a ah great site for overwintering your bees.
00:11:16
Amanda Skidmore
um And it's it's very popular to move bees from those states.
00:11:17
Plant People
No.
00:11:21
Amanda Skidmore
um around, just depending on where some of those pollen and nectar flows are. So thankfully, we we don't see a lot of that movement in Kentucky just because it helps from a disease perspective. But there are um a portion a portion of our beekeepers who do go in and out of state.
00:11:38
Plant People
If, um you know, you, I know you do site inspections. i'll um What would you say if you could explain to kind of the listeners what the average beekeeper that you go out and you're doing an inspection or visiting with an agent or whatever, i mean, what does that, what does that look like?
00:11:52
Plant People
How many, you know, hives or it's pretty, it's, I'm assuming much smaller than that, what we're talking about, much smaller scale.
00:11:57
Amanda Skidmore
Yes. So a good part about um the state apiarist position is that it was created um due to the beekeepers asking for um there to be someone representing them um in Department of Agriculture. And this was back in the... 1980s, 1990s. And so part of that is that I do these inspections and they are free to beekeepers um who would like to schedule one. And so I usually will schedule them um with folks and I try to get out there as as fast as I can. But if I know I'm going to be giving a presentation in a county and we don't have like a disease issue, we just have someone who would like to ask questions or like to go through their hives. um I'll usually try to schedule it with, you know, hey, I'm going to be in your area this time. Let's see if we can meet then. um And I will show up. I will work with the beekeeper. Typically, I will have them handle most of their equipment, most of their bees. i would like to use their equipment, mostly because even though I have a truckload of equipment sitting behind me, I um take that all over the state. So I don't want to accidentally expose someone's bees to potential pests or diseases. um So I like to use their equipment and I will have them open their hives up and we'll start going through and look for things like honey resources. We'll go down to where we're looking for um if we've got any disease signs of diseases. um The brood area um where the queen is laying her eggs and the the nurse bees are taking care of those eggs is a really um important spot for finding different diseases. We're looking for signs of diseases. You can tell a lot of things by getting into the brood area. If the queen is actively laying eggs, if there's any you know signs of a bacterial or viral infection, a lot of those things become really visible when you get down to that brood area. So I will work with them to get to those areas of their hives and um have conversations about what's going on. If there's something that
00:14:05
Amanda Skidmore
um I can't visually identify. We have a great relationship with Florida Department of Agriculture, which actually has a bee diagnostic center. um And so we send samples down to Florida Department of Agriculture for identification of things like viruses, which there's over 20 bee viruses that bees can potentially um pick up from mites or exposure to different things.
00:14:30
Amanda Skidmore
And those are really hard to be able to like visually diagnose.
00:14:35
Brett
Mm-hmm.
00:14:35
Amanda Skidmore
um in a lot of cases. So you really do have to have some of those molecular tools to be able to to know exactly what is potentially harming the bees.
00:14:44
Brett
Well, for, for anybody who's, who's tuning in and thinking, wait a second, this is a hort culture. I thought we were, what are we talking about bees? It's interesting to note that the USDA actually call it, classifies honey as a specialty crop, along with all of our fruits, vegetables, nursery crops, and all that kind of stuff.
00:15:00
Brett
ah In addition to the fact that it fits really well with, with horticultural crops and um people who are interested in one are often interested in the other, but um not to be the negative.
00:15:07
Amanda Skidmore
and say
00:15:08
Brett
Oh, go ahead. Yeah.
00:15:09
Amanda Skidmore
Oh, no, I was just going to add the 80% of our our specialty crops are pollinated by bees, particularly honeybees in the U.S. So there's a lot of importance to having pollinators around.
00:15:19
Brett
Yeah.
00:15:22
Brett
Well, now you've added even more gravity to me being in the negative Norbert here, Amanda, because you're yes, you're here to tell us about all the wonderful and amazing things that you do. And we're really appreciative to have you working for it for the producers in the state.
00:15:32
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:15:35
Brett
But you have some, what do we say, concerning news or some some concern on the horizon about these these yellow-legged hornets. So can you give us the rundown on what's what's going on?
00:15:51
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, so yellow-leged hornet is an invasive species that um comes from Southeast Asia. And in the summer of 2023, a beekeeper, he was a first-year beekeeper in the state of Georgia near Savannah, um was outside watching his beehive one evening and noticed that there was a large insect that was coming and stealing his bees ah from the hive before they could go inside. And he got really upset by this, so he took a big stick and he knocked them ah down and he collected this sample that he then took to his county extension office for identification. um And it eventually got to the USDA. And when I say eventually, it only took a ah couple days to get it to the USDA. to be identified as this invasive hornet species.
00:16:44
Amanda Skidmore
And um since then, there have been eradication efforts by Georgia Department of Agriculture and now South Carolina Department of Agriculture to try to eradicate this species from ah North America.
00:16:58
Amanda Skidmore
And um there are currently reports in counties near Savannah, Tybee Island, Charleston, Hilton Head. And the reason that I kind of highlight those areas is that these are very um ah popular areas for people to go on vacation. And if we've talked about invasive species at all, um they like to hitchhike. And so one of the major concerns is that folks that are maybe traveling to one of those areas ah may, you know, set a camper up for two weeks and then ah a, you
00:17:32
Amanda Skidmore
potential hitchhiker will catch a ride, you know, back to Kentucky and and start nests. um And this was a theory that they had for a long time, that this hitchhiking could be how this hornet spreads, not only naturally on its own, it can move 40 miles a year if it was not being contained. um But with this, this carrying them from place to place. So right before Christmas um in York County, South Carolina, um It's a county that is about 250 miles, um a little bit further away than any other reports in the state. So it's kind of this oddball report. um And it wasn't that just an individual was found, but that an entire reproductive nest of these hornets was found. um And the scary part for us in Kentucky is that that's less than 250 miles as the crow flies from ah the the corner of our state. the eastern corner. um So they're much, much closer. They did kill a lot of those reproductives when they removed that nest around Christmas time, but um uncertain how many potential queens um might be um overwintering. So it's something that is putting us on high alert to me, making people aware of um and kind of talking about
00:18:52
Amanda Skidmore
what what to do if you find one, see one, what they look like, how they how they operate, why they're such a big deal. So that's kind of the the background to where they came from and why they're they're concerned.
00:19:02
Plant People
And you say nest, are they ground nest or are they like typical bald faced corner kind of nets up high or what are people looking
Identification and Management of Yellow-Legged Hornets
00:19:10
Plant People
or whatever what are we looking for?
00:19:10
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, that's a great question. So they are very unique in that they can have up to three different nests in a given year. So their life cycle typically starts if we start in the spring, because we're in the spring now. um March and April, the queens that overwintered are going to be coming out of their um hibernation. So they typically overwinter in like old potted plants or ah mulch or any kind of protected area that they can find. Then they will begin to start an embryo nest um and those embryo nests tend to be about um baseball sized as the queen is working on them.
00:19:52
Amanda Skidmore
It also looks very similar to the embryo nest of yellow jackets. um So the queens start these embryo nests and they can be on the eaves of houses.
00:19:58
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:20:02
Amanda Skidmore
They can be on bushes They can be um inside things like people's grills they have found, like their backyard grills. um and And we've had some people find them in like beekeeping equipment um as well, just because association.
00:20:21
Amanda Skidmore
And so they will start these embryo nests in the spring. And once she lays her eggs, they will have the first generation of workers. um They begin to either build out that embryo nest or they move to a new location and start a primary nest. They will build up this primary nest across the summer. Those typically get to be about basketball sized.
00:20:46
Amanda Skidmore
And then when we move towards the end of the summer and they get ready to start making reproductives, um they will relocate that primary nest, creating what is called a secondary nest, um typically um so above 60 feet in the air. um Georgia has seen a close association with pine trees. We don't know that that will be where we find them, but we're kind of tracking, you know, what we see is happening in Georgia.
00:21:14
Amanda Skidmore
And those nests by the end of the summer can get to be the size of a car tire or bigger.
00:21:18
Plant People
Oh,
00:21:19
Amanda Skidmore
um and can hold up to 6,000 individuals. So that is um a very stressful time. They will kind of be hanging like a bald-faced hornet's nest.
00:21:31
Amanda Skidmore
um And they are different from bald-faced hornets, which are here native in Kentucky. Those are the hornets that have the really white faces and white coloring. um and they're different from the European hornet, which is also here in Kentucky. um European hornets are a little bit larger and they're kind of mahogany colored, um kind of this really red-brown with bright yellow coloring. The yellow-legged hornet gets its name because the ends of its feet are bright yellow um and its body is typically very dark um and its its abdomen, the very end of the the bug, um
00:22:09
Amanda Skidmore
has yellow bands around it. um But it's very identifiable by its by its feet. So that's why it has the name yellow-legged hornet. But it's important for people to know, um because this hornet was established in Europe for many, many years, um it is also known as the Asian hornet.
00:22:27
Amanda Skidmore
So if you're doing your research and you're looking up information on this species and you kind of want to know what's going on, or you see it being referred to as Asian hornet, it's it's the same insect.
00:22:27
Plant People
Yes.
00:22:37
Amanda Skidmore
It's just here in the United States, we call it yellow-legged hornet.
00:22:41
Alexis
on
00:22:44
Brett
So I, uh, I'll just say the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia are built different, man.
00:22:52
Plant People
yes
00:22:52
Brett
There's so many things that are some of the invasives and they're just so, they have such strong competitive advantage. It seems like in so many different ways, it's just, it's always pretty, well, I mean, you could step away from the, yes, this is going to have negative impacts for us, but There's also a certain, i don't know, awe that I feel at sometimes about the natural just power of these.
00:23:11
Brett
Anyway, um so about, go ahead.
00:23:12
Amanda Skidmore
I say, well, they deal with the exact opposite, right? They get problems from the insects that we have in the U.S. that go there that are also confusing.
00:23:20
Brett
Hmm.
00:23:22
Plant People
So we trade back and forth.
00:23:22
Brett
So you can you tell me like yeah ah about how big these are?
00:23:22
Amanda Skidmore
and Yep.
00:23:27
Brett
they noticeably bigger than other things? or they and I'm especially thinking people, anybody sees a hornet, they're going to kill it.
00:23:30
Plant People
Yeah, I'm wondering about lookalocks and things.
00:23:33
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah.
00:23:34
Brett
Don't do that. But um yeah.
00:23:36
Amanda Skidmore
Yes.
00:23:36
Brett
Yeah.
00:23:37
Amanda Skidmore
oh So we are working on a lookalikes document. There are really great information um already on
00:23:40
Plant People
Oh, good.
00:23:45
Amanda Skidmore
South Carolina and Georgia Department of Agriculture's websites for folks if they want to start looking. um We are working on one with folks at UK. We're working with the state entomologist's office. um But these hornets are going to be similar in size to bald-faced hornet, um about an inch. And then they are going to be a little bit smaller than the um European hornets that we have. So um important things to know is that they do have a pretty painful
Economic Impact of Invasive Species and Prevention Strategies
00:24:15
Amanda Skidmore
sting. So if you do think that you have one, be very careful with collecting that specimen. um
00:24:21
Amanda Skidmore
Or if you think you have a nest, make sure that you're not just shooting it out of the tree. that's That would be very dangerous for someone. um Feel free to give us a call and we can help with not only trying to identify what species is there, but also um helping with resources for that nest removal that would be safe. um Because we don't want to see people getting stung and hurt um if we can avoid it.
00:24:47
Plant People
So first steps, I mean, you just mentioned submission. What's the first steps if someone suspects at home that they may have something that may be the yellow-legged hornet? I mean, what what do they do?
00:24:57
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah.
00:24:57
Plant People
Who do they contact?
00:24:58
Amanda Skidmore
So... So if they are able to, we would love for them to be able to take some pictures. um A lot of folks have smartphones and cameras right there with them. So a picture would be super helpful of the hornet itself, if there's a potential nest nearby. um if it's safe to collect one and someone feels comfortable collecting one, they can bring that to county extension and you guys will be helping us ah make those connections. um ah We are working on getting our website ready to go. um Hopefully by the end of the month, we will have a reporting tool on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture website. Like I mentioned, we have our coming soon page. um But for now, folks are more than welcome to reach out to me um with anything they have that is concerning, and I'm happy to take a look at it um and help with the identification process. Because our goal would be to identify that
00:25:55
Amanda Skidmore
we have the hornet here in Kentucky, which we currently don't know if we do. We do not believe that we do, and we don't want to try to convince people that we do. right We want to be clear that um it's still just a potential invasive species, um but because of how close that nest was found to us, it's a much more real potential that the species could get here. so um Eradication would be our first step, right?
00:26:22
Amanda Skidmore
Identifying that we have the hornet and then finding where that nest is so that we can take the nest out and any of those reproductives that would continue the population in the future.
00:26:33
Amanda Skidmore
um The biggest concern and and the biggest concern that we see for our beekeepers is that the hornet's diet is um in urban areas documented at 70% honeybees. so it is a predator of of honeybees. And then in like agriculture or forested area, only 30% of its diet is honeybees. But then you have to start thinking about what else makes up its diet. And that's a lot of our native pollinators.
00:27:03
Amanda Skidmore
um And so not only are we going to potentially see impacts on um the honeybee population and the honeybee industry. We're going to have impacts on those native pollinator species here in Kentucky. um And then those could even, you know, if it builds up enough, lead to economic impacts to our specialty crop producers who rely on those pollinators to pollinate their crops.
00:27:29
Amanda Skidmore
um So there's a lot of, ah lot of connections.
00:27:29
Plant People
Are we talking? a I was just ah sorry. I was just going to ask, ah you know, if I'm in Georgia and I have, you know, these yellow legged hornets around, what does that look like for my B yard?
00:27:42
Plant People
Is it just complete decimation or complete wipeout or is it just weak halves? What is that exactly? Press first percentage loss or whatever.
00:27:48
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, so so it's easier to look at the example that has happened in Europe um So the same situation began in France in 2003 and has progressively spread across um most of the um European continent.
00:28:09
Amanda Skidmore
um Last year, Portugal reported 35% loss to their honey, um like their honey sales because they were not able to get enough honey.
00:28:15
Plant People
Oh, wow. ah hundred
00:28:19
Amanda Skidmore
um We are also seeing some countries reporting up to 30% losses to their bee colonies. um And that if you have a hornet's nest very closely located to your apiary, it can knock out 80% of your hives if you've got it but very, very close to you.
00:28:37
Amanda Skidmore
um We have not gotten a lot of reports from Georgia and South Carolina yet about what they're seeing on the ground. And a lot of that just comes with time and time.
00:28:49
Amanda Skidmore
ah getting that information distributed to folks. um But we also see that it took um this large buildup of time for them to see this economic impact that's happening in Europe right now. And I think it's a good warning sign for us that if this is something that we don't take seriously now in 10, 15, 20 years, it could be something that's really impacting our food supply.
00:29:13
Plant People
Well, is there any, ah oh, go ahead, Alexis.
00:29:14
Alexis
Amanda, you said they're called the, you said, Ray, I'm trying to ask a question.
00:29:20
Plant People
Listen, no.
00:29:20
Alexis
um You said they're also called the Asian Hornet, but just like for our listeners, this is different than when we saw the giant Asian Hornet, aka the murder hornet that we heard about a couple years ago, right?
00:29:29
Amanda Skidmore
Correct. Correct.
00:29:33
Alexis
Okay. Okay.
00:29:33
Amanda Skidmore
Yes, this Vespa velutina, which is different than the um northern hornet. um which is the the large hornet that was up in Oregon, or not Oregon, up in Washington state.
00:29:51
Amanda Skidmore
and They've not reported it um being present in Washington state since 2022.
00:29:51
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:29:58
Amanda Skidmore
So they're pretty confident in their eradication process working to remove it at least from the US. i'm not I haven't had any updates from the Canadian side, but I know they've been working on it as well.
00:30:09
Amanda Skidmore
So yes, these are two different species.
00:30:10
Brett
Well, now you say Vespa, and now I'm thinking a Italian riding around eating gelato on the little Vespa.
00:30:12
Plant People
Once
00:30:16
Brett
but so
00:30:18
Plant People
once again,
00:30:18
Amanda Skidmore
Well, we have a lot of, um, Vespid wasps. So like the family of Vespid wasps, um, that's including your paper wasps, all your hornets, um, the the black and red wasps that fly around and make the little nests on people's porches, like the the smaller ones. So there's a lot of relatives. And um that's one of the things that they have documented is that most of Kentucky falls within um the range that would be habitable for the hornet. So several years ago, there was a study done that kind of modeled areas of the world that um would be good host habitat.
00:30:59
Amanda Skidmore
um And almost the entire state of Kentucky and the entire southeastern United States is highlighted as being very prime habitat for this hornet species.
00:31:10
Amanda Skidmore
And um that study came out before um we moved our like growing zones to And kind of really looked at like, hey, we're getting warmer um winters than what was expected.
00:31:22
Amanda Skidmore
And so more than likely that map is going to shift upward as well um into states like Ohio um and Indiana, much more so than than where it's at currently.
00:31:27
Plant People
Murder.
00:31:34
Brett
So i think this is, you know, I'll step in and and say, I think this is the power of of marketing because I can remember you couldn't, you couldn't turn around and see, not see something about the murder hornet.
00:31:47
Amanda Skidmore
Yes.
00:31:47
Brett
Um, and instead instead we have this.
00:31:48
Plant People
murder
00:31:50
Brett
And so tell me if this is a fair characterization, the murder hornet got a lot of public visibility. This thing is significantly more concerning to entomologists at this point.
00:32:01
Brett
Is that fair to say?
00:32:03
Amanda Skidmore
Yes and no. I think that there's a lot of publicity that's gone on in South Carolina and Georgia because that's where the focus for eradication has been happening. um But it doesn't have a fancy name.
00:32:15
Amanda Skidmore
And it's one of those balances, right? With a fancy name that really gets people's attention, ah of course, it's going to be on all the blogs and everyone's going to be talking about it. But then it gets, you know, I still get calls from people saying, oh, I swear I saw a murder hornet.
00:32:27
Plant People
<unk> Yeah.
00:32:29
Amanda Skidmore
And so there's kind of that balance we need to find because there's some really great large species of pollinating wasps that live in Kentucky that are doing really great things.
00:32:40
Amanda Skidmore
um One in particular that a lot of times gets confused with other hornets um is the cicada killer. We have the eastern cicada killer here in Kentucky, and it's got ah a scary name, right?
00:32:49
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:32:53
Amanda Skidmore
Cicada killer. But um what it does is it is going to be looking for those dog day cicadas in summer. um And it will be taking them, picking them up, and um it will sting them and kind of paralyze them, take them back to their nests and feed those to their young.
00:33:12
Amanda Skidmore
So it's really great for helping with that cicada control. And um they are just really cool pollinators, but they're really, really big wasps.
00:33:23
Amanda Skidmore
um So being familiar with the differences between some of our good wasps um and things that we like to see um it versus this invasive species is going to be important for
Monitoring and Public Engagement in Hornet Prevention
00:33:35
Amanda Skidmore
folks.
00:33:35
Plant People
like its name's too cute.
00:33:35
Brett
Cicada Killer ciricatic killer kind of sounds like ah like a bluegrass metal fusion band.
00:33:37
Plant People
i mean
00:33:41
Brett
You know, just like mandolin electric mandolin.
00:33:42
Plant People
a
00:33:42
Alexis
I love it.
00:33:43
Plant People
They have these aggressive names.
00:33:45
Brett
Yeah.
00:33:45
Plant People
I love it.
00:33:45
Alexis
I love it.
00:33:46
Amanda Skidmore
I say they they they are really cool.
00:33:47
Brett
how How big are those, how big are those you know, relatively speaking compared to these others?
00:33:51
Amanda Skidmore
Cicada killers can be up to two to three inches. So they can be much, much larger than this particular...
00:33:55
Brett
Wow. Wow.
00:33:57
Amanda Skidmore
um yellow leg toward it. um These are the ones, and you guys, you see them a lot when you go to, like, campgrounds, um and they are about waist to knee high, and they will, like, dive bomb people.
00:34:04
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Sandy areas.
00:34:10
Amanda Skidmore
They actually have a really interesting, very territorial behavior that's been documented um to try and ah keep their territory clear of other cicada killers.
00:34:21
Amanda Skidmore
um And so they will do this dive bombing, but very, very rarely will anyone be stung by them. they They're very dirty, very fast. They don't want to be around humans, ah but they will kind of let you know that they're there.
00:34:35
Alexis
Yeah.
00:34:36
Plant People
Is ah all of this going on, is ah is this affecting the industry like package bees movement or anything like that? How's that affecting like order sources and things? Because I know a lot of those are or ah located kind of down southish.
00:34:46
Amanda Skidmore
hu
00:34:49
Amanda Skidmore
So that's one of the conversations that we had earlier this spring being concerned with package movement because we do get a lot of our bee packages. So you can either buy bees locally from a beekeeper um in the spring, catch them locally through a swarm, or purchase them in packages that come up from beekeepers in typically southern states.
00:35:00
Plant People
Okay.
00:35:10
Amanda Skidmore
um ah Talking with Georgia Department of Agriculture, The areas of Georgia, the counties in Georgia where those packages are coming from um are on the opposite side of the state um from where their eradication zone is.
00:35:18
Alexis
Thank you.
00:35:27
Amanda Skidmore
um They also... by the time the packages are moving to Kentucky, those queens should have already been establishing their nests in Georgia. So the likelihood of um a queen coming in on a package truck is very, very low.
00:35:42
Amanda Skidmore
um But it's something that we've been talking with some of the folks that are are selling packages.
00:35:43
Plant People
Gotcha.
00:35:47
Amanda Skidmore
Just, hey, keep an eye out um just in case you see something that's that's off.
00:35:52
Plant People
Gotcha.
00:35:52
Amanda Skidmore
um And throughout the summer, for folks that are are interested, we're really encouraging people to put out monitoring traps, especially if they are beekeepers.
00:35:59
Alexis
And
00:36:02
Amanda Skidmore
um But anyone can participate in this. um And it's just taking an old juice bottle. um And there's a couple different really good... um how-to videos from Georgia Department of Ag and South Carolina to Department of Agriculture on how to um turn those juice bottles into traps for for hornet species. um And then we use a bait that's called Georgia Juice. It gets its name because Georgia did all the testing to figure out what was the most attractive bait for
00:36:36
Amanda Skidmore
Hornets. um And it's a mixture of um two two parts grape juice to one part brown sugar. So if you've got half a cup of brown sugar, you'd use a full cup of grape juice. um And that sounds very sweet and like it would attract honeybees and potentially be risky to keeping near an apiary. um But once that starts to ferment, the honeybees are not interested in it any longer. um So even if you were to make it put it in your garage for a couple days and let it get a little funky.
00:37:08
Amanda Skidmore
um The hornets are very interested in that breakdown of um rotting things. um In Georgia, they've found these hornets, you know, on roadkill on the sides of the road before, um or dead fish, or in grills, because people, when they grill, right, you've got
00:37:14
Plant People
Hmm.
00:37:25
Amanda Skidmore
leftover residue of kind of that that meat. um And so they have found the most effective thing is to use this Georgia juice mixture um and then monitor um those containers to to see if yellow leag hornet is in a particular area.
00:37:44
Plant People
Now, if I get a question from my extension treasurer and on my receipts, it says Georgia juice. I'm going to send her questions to you.
00:37:52
Brett
Well, yeah.
00:37:52
Plant People
going to be like, why are you making, why is this Georgia juice? I'm like, oh, listen, listen.
00:37:56
Amanda Skidmore
that's That's something, we're just we're just calling it bait.
00:37:58
Alexis
Hornet hooch.
00:38:00
Amanda Skidmore
Oof.
00:38:00
Plant People
It's marketing.
00:38:00
Brett
i
00:38:01
Amanda Skidmore
Oof.
00:38:01
Brett
horn Hornet hooch, Alexis said. I like that.
00:38:03
Plant People
Oh, Hornet Hooch.
00:38:03
Brett
i was not I was not expecting to get my cocktail of the summer recipe from this episode, Amanda, but heavily fermented grapefruit juice and brown sugar.
00:38:05
Plant People
Perfect.
00:38:09
Plant People
I did not realize this was going to, this...
00:38:09
Amanda Skidmore
Oof. o
00:38:15
Brett
ah Yeah, but that would do that would do numbers in the Pacific Northwest at a cocktail bar, 100%.
00:38:15
Plant People
And not only not only are they not good, they're very fun. I mean, they drink Georgia juice and Hornet hooch or what have you. so yeah.
00:38:25
Amanda Skidmore
i hey I like that that. I haven't heard it called that before. So there you go.
00:38:28
Plant People
Well, Alexis may have coined a phrase.
00:38:28
Amanda Skidmore
That's what you
00:38:29
Brett
Alexis.
00:38:30
Plant People
So in Kentucky, we make Hornet hooch.
00:38:32
Alexis
I'm just like, it's, I'm just imagining like, um prison hooch.
00:38:33
Amanda Skidmore
like.
00:38:33
Plant People
Yeah.
00:38:37
Alexis
Like, that's just what this makes me think of.
00:38:39
Brett
Yeah. Or like a like you go show up to a party in college and there's like a garbage can full of some liquid that you're allegedly supposed to drink.
00:38:42
Alexis
A party. and The bathtub.
00:38:45
Plant People
Hornet hooch.
00:38:46
Alexis
Yeah.
00:38:46
Amanda Skidmore
Ouch.
00:38:47
Brett
Yeah.
00:38:48
Plant People
Yeah, allegedly. Yeah.
00:38:49
Brett
Or whatever. I just, I've read about it.
00:38:51
Plant People
Yeah. Red Sot Online on one of the entomology forums.
00:38:51
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah.
00:38:55
Plant People
Yeah. On one of the entomology websites. Oh my goodness. So yeah.
00:38:59
Brett
Well, Amanda, what are there what what else would you want people to know?
00:38:59
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah.
00:39:03
Brett
you know our Our listeners are kind of a blend of there's some some farmers and producers. there's probably some I'd imagine there's some beekeepers. There's extension folks. Is there anything else that you kind of we haven't covered that you would definitely want people to know?
00:39:15
Amanda Skidmore
I think that it's mostly just being aware that this species is going to be um a threat to the agriculture industry as a whole, not just to beekeepers. It's not just one that's going to be impacting honeybees, but it's got some downstream effects. So even folks that are interested in protecting native pollinators um should be interested or folks that require pollination for their crops.
00:39:42
Amanda Skidmore
um So it's going to be a group effort um should this hornet get here to be able to push it out. So just staying alert if folks are interested in setting a monitoring trap up.
00:39:53
Amanda Skidmore
um and just keeping an eye out for the Hornet this summer. We'll probably have more information on that coming out um as we get things um off the ground. um It takes a while to get some of these programs, ah you know especially when we've got um a smaller team of folks working on getting this information out, um that um it's it's not as fast as we want, but um hopefully we will have some monitoring resources for folks um here in the next few weeks.
00:40:24
Brett
Well, if you're if you're looking for ideas, if you get into a meeting and you're pitching, we need to really up the up the marketing of this. You might consider Death Hornet, Apocalypse Hornet, Demon Hornet, Beelzebuzz, perhaps.
00:40:34
Plant People
Yes, Apocalypse Yellow-Legged Apocalypse Hornet, yeah.
00:40:39
Plant People
Ooh, Beelzebub.
00:40:41
Alexis
Yeah.
00:40:41
Plant People
Now you're talking.
00:40:42
Brett
If you want a little bit more off-axis kind of idea.
00:40:43
Plant People
That's going to get the people going. And they only drink Hornet Hooch, okay?
00:40:46
Brett
um Yeah, they drink Hornet Hooch.
00:40:48
Plant People
Yeah, they're fun.
00:40:49
Amanda Skidmore
In it.
00:40:50
Plant People
They're fun hornets, but dangerous, yeah.
00:40:52
Amanda Skidmore
it yeah
00:40:52
Brett
Yeah. And like um you get the the hot sauce that has, you know, Hornet hooch in it. And it's sort of like the sting of the apocalypse Hornet or what, I don't know, something we'll just have to think about it.
00:40:56
Amanda Skidmore
and it
00:41:01
Plant People
brett Brett is going to get the people going.
00:41:02
Brett
We're, we're trying to laugh because there's so many serious things happening and this is a very one.
00:41:03
Plant People
He is. He's going to the
00:41:06
Amanda Skidmore
Oh, yeah.
00:41:07
Brett
And so and and and we're not taking, you know, making light of it, but I, I just learned about it not long ago and, and was really glad we were going to be able to talk to you.
00:41:07
Plant People
people going.
00:41:08
Amanda Skidmore
Yes.
00:41:16
Brett
So,
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:41:17
Brett
so quickly about it because it's,
00:41:17
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah. Well, thanks for for letting me share what we know right now. I'm happy as we learn more to come back and share more. Yep.
00:41:25
Plant People
I guess if they want to keep up to date, it's pretty a pretty good time to plug. We've gotten many positive comments from people that have taken part. Are you still doing your monthly sessions, your online sessions? What's the schedule or how do people get plugged into that?
00:41:37
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, so um I do a monthly state apiarist meeting. um They are on the fourth Tuesdays of the month um at lunchtime. It's kind of like a lunch and learn. um So it's noon Eastern, 11 central. um If folks are interested in participating, they can reach out to me um through my email, which is pretty simple. It's my first name, Amanda.
00:42:02
Amanda Skidmore
with a period, skidmore at ky.gov. So more than happy to have folks reach out to me um and I can get them up to date. We go through all sorts of different things. I kind of cover what events are happening in the states related to beekeeping, different places that I'm going to be, um talk about what's going on in hives at that particular time of the year, and then if there's any big pieces of news or information. i think maybe the biggest thing for folks folks um who are beekeepers to be aware of is that we do have the U.S. Beekeeping Survey that's going to be open again in April. So if folks are interested in participating in that, happy to get them connected.
00:42:42
Plant People
Awesome. Thank you.
00:42:45
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah, thank you guys.
00:42:46
Plant People
brett Brett's thinking of another pun. I can see it on his face. I mean, what do you got, Brett?
00:42:49
Brett
No, I have tried.
00:42:50
Amanda Skidmore
Yeah.
00:42:51
Brett
I did my best. i almost made it out.
00:42:52
Plant People
You kind of blew it out with ah the Beelzebub, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:57
Brett
I did the best. i held off as long as I could.
00:42:59
Plant People
You did. he did You did.
00:43:00
Alexis
I'm busy looking up how to make Hornet hooch.
00:43:00
Brett
Alexis, you want to...
00:43:02
Alexis
So um
00:43:03
Plant People
but don't know if you should have that on your browsing history, Alexis.
00:43:06
Alexis
ah
00:43:06
Plant People
I'm just going to go on record and say it, Hornet Hooch.
00:43:08
Alexis
but but
00:43:09
Plant People
But I'd say it's not being assertable.
00:43:10
Alexis
listen, I have the information to back it up. So
00:43:13
Plant People
Yeah, it's a technical recipe we're making. It's going to show up on recipes across the state.
00:43:18
Alexis
I'm trying to stay an AP or it's okay. I don't want to hear anybody sass about it.
00:43:20
Plant People
Amanda said that it was fine.
00:43:21
Brett
This is expert. This is expert review.
00:43:21
Alexis
All right.
00:43:22
Plant People
This this this receipt is fine.
00:43:23
Amanda Skidmore
I can see some t-shirts coming out of this. so
00:43:26
Plant People
Hornet hooch, yeah.
00:43:26
Alexis
I, yeah, well, and like, ah think about a ah college team who's the Hornets, you know, making Hornet hooch. I don't know.
00:43:34
Plant People
We'll do a collab.
00:43:35
Alexis
Just.
00:43:35
Amanda Skidmore
ah
00:43:35
Plant People
hor People love Hornet Hooch.
00:43:37
Amanda Skidmore
it
00:43:38
Plant People
ah Yeah, it's going to be a collaboration. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Whatever it takes to bring awareness.
00:43:42
Amanda Skidmore
With the clarification of please don't drink this, it will it won't make you sick.
00:43:45
Plant People
Yes, no, do not drink this.
00:43:45
Alexis
Yeah, yeah, please. Amanda's like, oh, no. Oh, no, no.
00:43:48
Brett
ah
00:43:48
Amanda Skidmore
yeah
00:43:50
Plant People
Roughly based on Georgia juice, which raises its own questions, okay?
00:43:51
Alexis
This has gone very south, very fast.
00:43:54
Plant People
we will We'll kick the can back to Georgia on that morere like, listen, Georgia started this, yes. Thank you, Georgia, for coming up with that recipe.
00:44:01
Alexis
They had to just ferment everything down there.
00:44:02
Plant People
It sounds amazing. Absolutely.
00:44:05
Brett
All right, I'm going to save us and take us out here.
00:44:05
Plant People
Absolutely.
00:44:07
Brett
So if you if you enjoyed the episode, be sure to give us a like or a rating on your local podcasting app that you have done, or that you use.
00:44:07
Plant People
Thank you, Brett. Thank you.
00:44:15
Brett
If you have not done that, if you've been listening for a long time and you just haven't taken the time, it takes a few seconds and it really helps us out to keep justifying doing this. um You can email us at hortculturepodcast at gmail.com.
00:44:26
Brett
You can find us on all the on ah Instagram at hortculturepodcast. leave us a like, leave us, ah give us a follow comment below or comment on this episode or there about what you might want to see in future episodes.
00:44:38
Brett
Thank you again to Amanda for joining us and and learning us real good about the yellow legged Hornet and as well as the support that you provide for the bee community in Kentucky, which I think is absolutely amazing.
00:44:45
Alexis
and but
00:44:52
Brett
Thank you all very much. And we'll see you down the road.