Invasive hornets spreading exponentially in the Lowcountry

BLUFFTON, S.C. (WTOC) - Beekeepers in Bluffton will have to keep a watchful eye on their hives for yellow legged hornets, an invasive species that started in Savannah, Georgia coming in from the ports, and has now traveled all the way to South Carolina into Bluffton.

“What the overall impact is going to be is one of the biggest unknowns right now with the yellow legged hornets,” said South Carolina Honeybee Inspector Brad Cavin.

A city worker found a nest in Bluffton on a Calhoun street on Tuesday.

“This was our first one we came across,” said Bluffton Director of Public Services, Larry Beckler. “We were pruning palm fronds and one of our techs came across the hive there and called and reported it right away.”

Cavin, and Clemson University’s Public Service and Agriculture program took the nest. Cavin says they’ve already found 65 nests this year, up from 16 the year before with none in 2023.

“Each nest has the capability of dispersing 1-350 queens a year and so the growth rate is exponential,” Cavin said.

“These could wipe out the honeybees and I know there are numerous local honeybee businesses around here so it could wipe their hives out and their business,” Beckler said.

WTOC spoke with a beekeeper in the area, he says beekeepers have been extremely cautious. He even showed me this video of a yellow legged hornet “hawking” bees, which is a term that describes where the hornet waits to murder the honeybee until it comes back from pollinating.

Cavin told WTOC that this is going to be an extremely hard problem to solve, and it’s gonna have to take a lot of community cooperation to figure it out.

If you see a yellow legged hornet nest, you should make a report on Clemson University’s website for invasive species.

You can leave a report at the link here.