According to the Porto district council, Matosinhos City Council used a new poisoning-based extermination method in 2024 to eradicate 488 Asian hornet nests. The municipality in the Porto area, headed by socialist Luísa Salgueiro, said on its official website that it had started utilising this novel technique, which attempts to prevent nests from being physically removed to stop new colonies from reoccupying them.

According to the municipality, the entire colony is eradicated by injecting a solution made of “caloric attractant and specific poison”. As Luísa Salgueiro explained, the procedure uses carbon canes and an electrical system that is coupled to a pumping system. As she further shared, “Even wasps that do not return to the nest at the time of application find the venom active when they return in the following days”.

505 of the 766 alarms for Asian hornet nests that were received in 2024 were removed successfully. Since the remaining 261 requests involved nests of other species, such as native wasps, birds, or sightings of individual specimens, these were validated but did not lead to interventions. Out of all the nests that were eradicated, 236 were in trees, 82 on roofs, 60 were on walls and 46 were within buildings.

Although there have been indications of the existence of the Asian hornet in Portugal since 2011, during the last few years their distribution across Portugal has intensified. Because of its mostly black abdomen, the Asian hornet can be easily distinguished from the European species. Matosinhos’ local government encourages citizens to work together to detect Asian hornet nests by contacting the Civil Protection Centre via email at protecao.civil@cm-matosinhos.pt or by phoning 800 208 545 or 229 398 560.