As of 4th September, the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit (NBU) informed us that they have received further credible reports of YLH’s. This means that currently there has been a total of 384 sightings in 2025.
Since the last update, 10 more nests have been discovered.
Kent
Deal
Broadstairs
Folkestone
Blean
Capel le Ferne
Church Hougham – 2 nests
Greater London
Bromley
East Sussex
Brighton
Chelwood Gate
As of 4th September, 96 confirmed nests have been found this year.
The NBU are following up the other credible reports and anticipate finding further nests.
Communication changes
There will be a change in approach to YLH sighting updates on BeeBase and Gov.uk.
Since the beginning of May 2025, there have been a high number of credible sightings of yellow-legged hornets in the UK. Due to the extensive work in the field and the corresponding laboratory analysis it is not possible to provide a meaningful figure for the number of confirmed sightings as the information quickly becomes out of date as nests are found. The focus of the contingency action is on finding and destroying nests. Not all of the credible sightings will be linked to nests so until contingency action has finished, updates will only be provided on the nests found and destroyed.
