Asian Hornet Spread in Europe
Live map of Vespa velutina confirmed sightings across Europe. Data from GBIF citizen science and official monitoring networks. Updated daily.
Vespa velutina in Europe: confirmed spread since 2004
Vespa velutina arrived in southwest France around 2004, almost certainly in a freight shipment from China. It took about 15 years to reach the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern Italy. Then the pace changed. Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary all recorded first confirmed sightings between 2023 and 2024. Four new countries in two years, after a decade and a half of gradual spread.
EPPO’s 2025 update attributes part of this acceleration to freight transport rather than natural dispersal. A mated queen can survive a long truck journey. Natural spread from established nests moves at roughly 60-80 km per year. Freight does not respect that rate.
Impact on bee colonies
The hornet hawks at hive entrances, catching foragers mid-flight. French research from INRAE found colonies under sustained predation reduce foraging activity significantly during attack periods. The direct effect on winter survival varies in the literature, which reflects real variation in predation pressure. A single nest 500 meters away is a different situation from three nests on adjacent properties.
Direct colony kills are documented but not the typical outcome. The more common pattern is cumulative stress on colonies that were already marginal going into winter. Combined with varroa pressure, the margin gets smaller.
When to act: seasonality
The window between these two phases matters. A queen stopped in April means no colony in August. Most beekeeping associations in affected regions now run coordinated spring trapping programs. Individual traps help. Coordinated removal across an area works considerably better.
About the data
The map loads up to 300 recent georeferenced European sightings directly from the GBIF public API each time you open it. No database on our end. Data refreshes with each page load.
GBIF aggregates from iNaturalist, national biodiversity platforms, and official monitoring programs. Most points represent a confirmed nest, a trap catch, or a photograph validated by an entomologist. Some represent single specimens photographed by beekeepers and submitted to citizen science platforms.
The map has a known blind spot: it shows where people looked and found hornets, not where hornets are and nobody has checked. Regions with lower citizen science density are likely underrepresented. The “established / spreading / detected” country status follows EPPO official distribution records, not GBIF count alone.