Asian hornets could pose a bigger threat than we realised, as they have been found to love snacking on hundreds of other insects including important pollinators.
Researchers had the stomach-churning task of analysing food found in the guts of hornet larvae.
This would have all been fed to them by adults, who caught prey to taken it back to the nest.
Their favourite food is honeybees – but they weren’t fussy.
The scientists found 1,449 different bits of prey, 55% of which could be identified as a particular species.
Honeybees, common wasps and blow flies were most common, but there was also a wide range of flies, bees, butterflies, moths and spiders.
Europe’s top three crop pollinators – the honeybee, buff-tailed bumblebee and the red-tailed bumblebee – were all among the top 50 prey species identified by their DNA.
The study authors say that ‘only very low levels of predation on bumblebees have so far been reported’, so they could pose more of a threat than we realised.
Native insects were already under pressure from farming, changes in land use and chemical pollution, and now they have to worry about being hunted down and fed to baby hornets too.
The loss of pollinators is not just a problem for them, but for us, as it could make farming crops more difficult.
The Asian hornet, or yellow-legged hornet, arrived in France in a cargo of pottery from China about 20 years ago, spreading rapidly across the continent.
It was first seen in the UK in 2016, and there have been regular sightings since, including 44 confirmed in 2024, largely in Kent and East Sussex.
A rapid response approach to destroy hornets and their nests has stopped its spread throughout Britain… so far.
The University of Exeter researchers used DNA analysis to identify prey in the guts of more than 1,500 hornet larvae from 103 nests in Jersey, France, Spain, and the UK.
Lead author Siffreya Pedersen said: ‘Asian hornets are known to prey on honey bees, but until now the full range of their diet hasn’t been tested.
‘The diet varied strongly over the seasons and between regions, showing that they are highly flexible predators.
‘Insects play vital roles in enabling ecosystems to function – including pollination, decomposition and pest control.
‘The expanding area inhabited by Asian hornets poses an extra threat.’
The study is published in the journal Science Of The Total Environment.
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