Systematic review and South Korean field study document 17 predators of invasive yellow-legged hornet

A systematic review combined with field observations in South Korea identified 17 predator species of the invasive yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina, including one unidentified taxon. Ten species had been reported previously, while seven were newly confirmed as predators in South Korea. The findings indicate that the hornet is consumed by mammals, birds, an amphibian and another social wasp, with predation occurring at several levels, from individual captures to attacks on whole nests.

The review searched Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and the Korean Citation Index using combinations of terms including “Vespa velutina predator,” “yellow-legged hornet predation,” “Vespa nest predation,” “honey buzzard Vespa velutina,” “hornet predator Asia” and “colony predation Vespidae.” After duplicate records were removed, the researchers included only studies offering direct evidence through observations, photographic or video records, or stomach-content or fecal analysis. The resulting predator records spanned four classes, seven orders and 11 families. The South Korean component combined field surveys conducted from 2023 to 2025 in Muju, Andong and Uiseong with natural-history documentary footage and records from the Naturing biodiversity platform.

Mammal feeding evidence came from a fecal sample collected in Muju on 11 August 2023. Its morphology identified the producer as an Asian badger, Meles leucurus, and examination under a stereomicroscope found 11 V. velutina head capsules and several abdominal fragments. Because that badger record came from a single fecal sample, it did not establish that badgers regularly attack colonies.

The researchers said the concentration of hornet remains made nest-level exploitation plausible, especially for small or early-stage colonies, but additional records and evidence on feeding circumstances and digestion would be needed to classify the behavior as colony-level predation. Bird records included attacks by the crested honey buzzard, Pernis ptilorhynchus, shown in a Korean Broadcasting Company EBS documentary. The footage recorded the bird breaking open V. velutina nest envelopes and consuming exposed brood, confirming honey buzzard predation in South Korea.

In Europe, the related European honey buzzard, P. apivorus, has attacked 15–61 V. velutina nests in a single breeding season, and quantitative analysis cited by the study found that about 89% of attacked nests subsequently collapsed. Winter monitoring in December 2023 and December 2024 recorded 313 secondary nests, many with partial damage to their envelopes. The grey-headed woodpecker, Picus canus, drilled through envelopes or captured adult hornets through existing openings, with observations made in Andong and Uiseong in 2024.

A great spotted woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, was also recorded perforating a nest envelope in Seoul. Other birds were filmed or observed consuming hornets or accessing their nests. Brown-eared bulbuls, Hypsipetes amaurotis, perforated nest envelopes or enlarged existing openings to consume adults and brood, with records in Uiseong in December 2023 and Daegu in December 2025.

A varied tit, Sittiparus varius, subsequently used existing perforations to access adult hornets, larvae and pupae. These observations support a pattern of sequential winter nest exploitation, although the evidence was insufficient to quantify the respective contributions of woodpeckers and bulbuls in urban and rural settings. The study also confirmed intraguild predation by the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia.

In October 2023, V. mandarinia captured V. velutina workers foraging at an apiary in Andong, masticated them into pellets and carried them away. In a separate observation, V. mandarinia repeatedly invaded an experimental V. velutina nest installed about 2 metres above the ground, removing adults and collecting larvae and pupae. The colony contained fewer than 100 individuals, and attacks continued for two to three days.

The authors therefore described the species as a possible colony-level predator under favorable ecological conditions rather than a general control mechanism. Across the evidence assembled, the authors classified the interactions as opportunistic individual predation, colony-level nest predation and winter nest intrusion. These modes may have different effects on V. velutina populations, but the available South Korean records include limited observations, one badger fecal sample, documentary and citizen-science evidence, and an experimental nest smaller than a mature colony.

The findings support localized top-down effects and complementary regulation involving early nest survival, worker activity and colony productivity, rather than demonstrating that natural predators reduce invasive-hornet populations across a region.

Subject of Research: Systematic review and South Korean field documentation of natural predators of the invasive yellow-legged hornet

Article Title: A systematic review of predators of the invasive hornet Vespa velutina ( Vespidae : Hymenoptera ) and newly confirmed predation records from South Korea

Article References: Kim, J., Ha, J.-O., Kang, H.-G., Kim, C.-J., & Choi, M. B. (2026). A systematic review of predators of the invasive hornet Vespa velutina (Vespidae: Hymenoptera) and newly confirmed predation records from South Korea. Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 99, 605-620. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.99.186607

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jhr.99.186607

Keywords: yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina, systematic review, predator records, South Korea, nest predation, intraguild predation, honey buzzard, woodpeckers, invasive species, systematic, review