Asian hornet nests in France: drone surveys, commissioning removal and running the season

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November 2026latest revision of this guide

• Primary sources: Légifrance, EUR-Lex, Géoportail.
• Every figure linked to its source, dated in the last chapter.
• Dated updates: you always read the latest version.

Who it is for

• French communes and inter-municipal bodies that organise reporting, surveys and nest destruction, or prepare an application to the national plan's funding window
• Beekeepers and beekeeping health groups in France who want to find the nests hunting at their apiaries
• Pest-control companies that receive reports to locate, or want to add drone surveys to their services
• Managers of campsites, gîtes, parks, schools, industrial or farm sites, and owners of large properties in France who must keep a busy place safe
• Drone pilots, French or foreign, who offer nest surveys and want to deliver a record sheet the pest controller can use without calling back

In pictures

Illustrative photos, published by their authors under free licences.

Contents of the complete guide

1. The season calendar: when to search, what to look for, when to stop (free extract below)
2. Finding a nest: methods compared and their limits under foliage
3. Flight rules for a survey mission in France
4. Who does what: commune, préfet, beekeeper, landowner, pest controller
5. Commissioning a survey campaign: specification, record sheet and deliverables
6. From survey to destruction: hand over, prioritise, check
7. Tracking the season: map, indicators and review
8. Four templates to copy
9. Official sources and dates consulted

Included: 13 checklist items and 15 decision or reference tables.

Introduction

Every autumn, the same scene plays out in thousands of French communes. An Asian hornet nest finally shows up, grey and bulky, in the crown of an oak that has just lost its leaves. It has been there since summer, twenty metres up, above a schoolyard, a footpath or an apiary. Nobody saw it. The workers have hunted all summer, and the future queens have already left: destroying the nest now achieves nothing.

This guide is written to prevent that scene. It is for those who organise the response in France or work in it: communes, inter-municipal bodies, beekeepers, pest-control companies, managers of busy sites, owners of large properties, and drone pilots. It times the search to the hornet's cycle, compares survey methods (ground search, flight-line tracking, thermal camera, visible camera) and says honestly what each one sees under foliage, sets out the flight rules for a drone near houses, assigns roles according to the French texts, then organises ordering, recording, handover to the pest controller and season tracking. It ends with a specification, a geotagged record sheet and four templates: request for intervention, purchase order, survey report and campaign tracking sheet.

The guide is up to date as of 7 November 2026. It reflects law no. 2025-237 of 14 March 2025, decree no. 2025-1377 of 29 December 2025 and the national plan adopted by the order of 9 September 2026, published in the Official Journal on 16 September 2026, whose département plans are being drafted. The calculations (thermal camera resolution, area covered, nest height, coordinate precision) are worked through in the text with their assumptions written out: redo them with your own equipment and terrain. Read it once in order; after that, chapter 1 (calendar), chapter 5 (ordering and record sheet) and the templates are enough for each season.

The season calendar: when to search, what to look for, when to stop

An annual insect, two nests, one deadline

The yellow-legged Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) arrived in France in 2004, in Lot-et-Garonne, probably with a shipment of pottery from China. According to the national plan, it is now present in every département of mainland France, with its establishment in Corsica not yet complete. The same plan states that eradication is no longer achievable with current means: the aim is to limit its impact on apiaries, on public safety and on biodiversity.

Everything that follows comes from one biological fact: a colony lives for one season only. The national plan, in its annex on the species' biology, describes four phases.

These dates are guides for mainland France. They shift by several weeks between the south-west and the north-east, and from year to year with the weather. The technical sheets of the French sanitary and environmental association (AFSE), annexed to the plan, give an indicative date of 15 November after which destroying a nest no longer serves any purpose, to be adapted locally. The plan adds that it can even harm the environment depending on the technique, since the brood of a winter nest is food for birds.

What a nest found is worth, month by month

• In May, a primary nest destroyed with its queen removes a whole colony before it produces thousands of workers. It is the most effective action of the season, and the least spectacular.
• In August, a secondary nest destroyed relieves hunting pressure on nearby apiaries for the rest of the season and removes the hundreds of queens it would have produced in autumn.
• In early October, hunting pressure peaks: the plan places the predation peak in early October. A nest destroyed then still protects apiaries and removes the queens, if they have not left.
• After mid-November, the nest is at the end of its life: there is nothing to gain by destroying it. Recording it on a map is still useful: it shows where pressure was high and where to search next season.

A commune's work calendar

Here is how these phases translate into tasks. The table is an example; the months adapt to your region and your département plan.

Where the drone helps, and where it does not

The drone is not a tool for the whole season. It is useful when the nest is high and hidden, that is from June to November, in large trees, in sectors where you already roughly know where to look. It is of little or no use for spring primary nests, which sit at head height under an eave, and for winter nests, which are visible to the naked eye once the leaves have fallen.

It is also the worst tool for sweeping a whole area at random. A drone flying over a commune with no starting hypothesis spends its batteries on thousands of trees without seeing what hides inside the crowns. Chapter 2 shows why, and how to narrow the search area first.

Signs that should trigger a search

• Hornets hovering in front of the hives of an apiary, day after day;
• many hornets on a food source (fallen fruit, flowering ivy in autumn, bins);
• a steady flow of hornets in the same direction over a garden or a street;
• a primary nest destroyed in spring without the queen being found;
• secondary nests found the previous winter in the same sector.

Our free guide to finding an Asian hornet nest with a drone presents the survey service; this guide goes into organising a full campaign, from search to tracking.

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Frequently asked questions

What does “Asian hornet nests in France: drone surveys, commissioning removal and running the season” contain and how much is it?

For €29 VAT included (€24.17 excl. VAT), you get asian hornet nests in France: drone surveys, commissioning removal and running the season: 8 chapters online, about 30 printable A4 pages and 4 ready-to-copy templates, to organise a campaign against the yellow-legged Asian hornet in France as a commune, an inter-municipal body, a beekeeper, a pest-control company, a site manager or a property owner: time the search to the calendar of primary and secondary nests, choose the survey method according to foliage and height (ground search, flight-line tracking, thermal camera, visible camera), fly a drone legally near homes and over private property, know who does what under the law of 14 March 2025, the national plan of September 2026 and the Certibiocide order, commission the survey with a specification, record each nest on a geotagged sheet, hand it over to the pest controller, then track the season with indicators.

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Yes. The guide's page is updated when the rules change; your access stays valid and you always read the latest version.

Which texts is the guide based on?

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