Hornet hunters: the crack squad keeping an invasive species at bay on Jersey

A retired police detective and a band of volunteers are all that’s stopping the Asian hornet, a voracious predator of flying insects, from spreading across the island to mainland Britain

John De Carteret has already taken a call about three captured Asian hornets when we meet on a gloriously sunny morning on the Channel Island of Jersey. The retired police forensics detective is the linchpin of the Jersey Asian Hornet Group (JAHG), a band of two dozen volunteers. These mostly retirees are the frontline troops in a seemingly unwinnable war against an invasive foe – a voracious predator of honeybees and all other flying insects, which has rapidly conquered the west European mainland.

But De Carteret, who sports a JAHG polo-shirt and a lanyard showing he is authorised by the government to catch and release Asian hornets (more about the releasing later), is undaunted. “You can’t take your foot off. You’ve got to be dynamic and aggressive. If we get a report, we’re there within half an hour,” he says.