Last spring Auckland was visited by the terrifying Asian or Yellow-legged Hornet. They eat bees and sting people. I haven’t seen one… apparently they’re much bigger than regular hornets.

Now, there are traps like these all over the place, monitoring for the spread of the invader. Beekeepers were pretty freaked out, and thought the government didn’t do nearly enough to control this outbreak.

Remarkably, if one of the hornets is caught alive, they glue a teensy-weensy tracker on it so they can find the nest.

They will be going dormant for the winter now, and next spring we’ll know if we have an ongoing infestation or if it was just some tourists.