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Asian hornet likely to have become established in UK, say experts | Invasive species
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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I don't think that the factor here is climate change, but rather shipping stuff around the world and a few hitching a ride.
We apparently had some make it to the US recently, too.
https://theconversation.com/what-are-asian-giant-hornets-and-are-they-really-that-dangerous-5-questions-answered-137954
They are known to hitch rides in pot plant soil. The EU has banned import of pot plant soil originating from the UK for this reason.
There is an established population in France. Have we reciprocally banned the import of pot plant soil from France? Of course not.
https://www.bali.org.uk/news/import-controls-on-plants-and-plant-products-postponed-to-2023/
Biosecurity is overseen by DEFRA. How well has DEFRA been funded under Tory austerity?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/11/defra-hit-by-largest-budget-cuts-of-any-uk-government-department-analysis-shows
In theory, yeah, I guess that that Brexit would permit for customs checks to be done.
But in practice, you've got the Republic of Ireland, which I assume will have free interchange with parts of the EU where the hornets are established, and I don't think that hornets are going to care much about the Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland border, even if you guys and the Irish did come up with some kind of way to do checks there, despite the Good Friday Agreement.
And they managed to get into Canada, and looking online, it looks like Canada doesn't allow import of soil from anywhere other than the US, and we in the US don't allow it from anywhere at all.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/import-information/permits/plant-pests/sa_soil
https://inspection.canada.ca/plant-health/horticulture/questions-and-answers/eng/1396453190750/1396453225939
I suspect that if soil restrictions weren't sufficient to stop them there, they probably also won't stop them from traveling from the EU to UK, even were such restrictions to exist in your case.