iHORNETS

iHORNETS: Spatio-temporal monitoring of invasive hornets in apiaries

Building on the insights from the VELUTINA ALERT project, the iHORNETS initiative aims to develop a user-friendly mobile app to monitor the abundance of exotic hornets in apiaries. In addition to Vespa velutina, our app will track other invasive hornet species from the Vespa genus that pose a threat to apiaries.

The app will be made available to the beekeeping community across Europe and beyond. At launch, it will support English, French, and Spanish, with additional languages planned for future updates.

To encourage widespread adoption, we will reach out to beekeeping associations and researchers across Europe. This will help us build a strong network of practitioners, enabling direct collaboration to identify potential barriers to app use and to share our findings effectively. Once the network is in place, we will launch a series of outreach activities aimed at engaging beekeepers and introducing the mobile app.

While a single beekeeper’s data may offer limited insight, combining reports from across the network will create a powerful tool. Through an easy-to-use interface, users will be able to see real-time patterns in hornet distribution, both in space and over time. This shared data will help beekeepers make smarter, more informed decisions—like when and where to concentrate efforts to protect honeybee colonies.

More information at: https://beeguardia.uib.es/

Funded by:

Project PID2023-149487OA-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF/EU.