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Welcome again to the Faith Pest Control podcast. Hi, I’m Mike Stewart, your host and we’re here today with pest expert Fred Talley of Faith Pest Control, Faith Pest Control services all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia, Blue Ridge, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia and pretty much anywhere in the North Georgia mountains. If you have a pest problem, Fred Talley is the man to take care of those problems. And now here’s Fred Talley.
Fred Talley
So I have just returned home from a two day continuing education conference for Georgia pest control operators. And one of the presentations was by an employee the Georgia Department of Agriculture. I think his name was Mike Evans. I’m not positive about that. But anyway, he discussed the discovery by Savannah Georgia beekeeper of the yellow legged Hornet. He said that the beekeeper noticed and unusual be around that was hanging around his beehives and reported this to the Georgia Department of Agriculture. I do not know who who got the specimen. I don’t remember if it was the beekeeper, or representative from the Department of Ag. But anyway, a specimen was retrieved and it has been identified as a yellow legged Hornet. And that’s what we’ll be talking about today. Now, according to Mr. Evans, the Georgia Department of Agriculture has a trapping program in place around the area where the beekeepers discovered what was identified as the yellow legged Hornet. And there have been four positive identifications and or eradications of nest in that geographic area which is down around Savannah Thunderbolt more specifically, I believe. Mind you, though, the initial discovery of the yellow legged Hornet in our state was just a couple months ago is August of 2023. I don’t know what you would really call this maybe a public service announcement or something similar. But anyway, I found this information. And I’m quoting this not necessarily exactly but pretty close to word for word from an article on the Georgia Department of Agriculture website, if you’d like to see the pictures attached and I strongly encourage you to do it, that are attached to this article. The pictures that are attached to this article, though, the web addresses agr.ga.gov/yellow legged Hornet that’s AGR ga.gov/yellow legged Hornet, and the pictures may be helpful to you for for to help you identify what you might think as the yellow legged Hornet, and August 2023. Again, the Georgia Department of Agriculture in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the University of Georgia confirm the presence of the yellow legged Hornet near Savannah, Georgia. This is the very first time that a live specimen of this species has been detected in the open United States. The problem is the yellow legged Hornet poses a threat to honey bees, as well as other pollinators in the state. The pollinate these pollinators play a significant role in Georgia’s agriculture industry, which is the state’s main economic driver. And it’s imperative that these invasive invasive pests are tracked and eradicated. The Georgia Department of Agriculture is working with the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and University of Georgia trap track and eradicate these bees. And it will continue to or Hornets, if you will, will continue to assess the situation as needed. Information become as new information becomes available and allocate the necessary resources. The public does play an important role in in all of this. And the Department of Ag is asking the Georgia Department of Agriculture is asking all Georgians to report sightings of the yellow legged Hornet using an online reporting form. I started to put that website on here but there was a string of letters and numbers probably 20 or 30 long and I knew I’d mess it up. So to find this form, you can go to the Georgia Department of Ag website, which is AGR ga.gov. And in the search bar, just type yellow legged Hornet and you’ll be directed to the article that I’m referring to, and the online reporting form is embedded in the article. The article does States Department of Ag urges the public to be cautious in the event they come across a suspected yellow legged Hornet. Mr. Evans, in his discussion, said that none of them have none. None under the Department of Ag, people that have worked with this program have been stung. And he said there have been plenty opportunities for them to be stung so they don’t appear to be an aggressive species. But the article goes on to say that if you can, if you feel safe and doing it take a photo of what you believe may be the yellow legged Hornet and so the because of the photo can help them weed out things that they know aren’t the yellow legged Hornet. This again is the first detection of a live specimen in the open United States. It is a native to tropical and subtropical areas of Southeast Asia. The yellow legged Hornet is generally smaller than the northern giant Hornet. The workers can be about half the size of the Northern giant Hornet and the Queen’s can be around three quarters the size. Their legs are partially yellow, so hence the name yellow legged Hornet. What we learned in class is the legs have three segments and the bottom segment or the last segment away from the body is generally yellow, and then on the thorax, which is the rear end the pointy end of the Hornet. It is segmented on the fourth segment from the body, it’s yellow. The other three segments may have bits of yellow, but they’re primarily black in the fourth segment is primarily yellow. The body and the head coloration can vary. This is a social wasp that constructs egg shaped paper nests above the ground. In trees, the nest can become large housing an average of 6000 workers. Based on pictures we saw at the conference there, their nests can be as large as or larger than a five gallon bucket and at least one of the pictures we saw the nest was approximately 90 to 100 feet off the ground. The yellow legged Hornet feeds on a variety of insects but their primary source of nutrition is the honeybee during Mr. Evans presentation he had a video of the yellow legged Hornet is hanging around the entrance of a honey honey bee hive and it saw and we saw the the Hornet capture a honey bee. Mr. Evans shared with us that the honey bee was the primary source of nutrition for yellow legged Hornet larva. If allowed to establish in United States this this invasive species could threaten honey production is well is a native pollinators. Honey bees aren’t native to even the United States. I believe they are a European thing that came from Europe. But we do have native pollinators and the yellow legged Hornet can can threaten their population. These native pollinators play a vital role in the state’s agriculture industry. If you believe you’ve seen a yellow legged Hornet in your area, the Georgia Department of Ed ag encourages you to complete the online reporting form. And again, you can go to the US the Georgia Department of Ag website, which is a gr ga.gov. And in the search bar, just type yellow legged Hornet and you’ll be directed to the article and the online reporting form is embedded in the article. There are many domestic look alikes that are that are native to the United States and that do not pose a threat to honey bees. In many of these are valuable pollinators as well. If you are happen to be listening to this podcast, and you are not in the state of Georgia, in youth site what you feel like because a yellow legged Hornet please report your sighting to your local extension office or the Department of Agriculture in your state. At faith pest control, we offer a free consultation and a 100% make you happy money back guarantee. If you hire faith pest control, get rid of your bug problem. And then at the end of the day, 30 days you are not 100% Happy we’ll come back and retrieve your home for free and we’ll keep on trading it for free. And you until you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy.
We’ll give you back every penny spent on the original treatment. Plus we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time and trouble just for fooling with us. Bottom line is this you’ll be happy with the service we provide or you won’t pay a penny period. If you feel like what I said makes sense, please call faith pest control. today. It’s 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me Fred Talley. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
