According to Darrouzet, the species used to spread 60–80 km annually in France. He claims that, although control campaigns have slowed this pace, the hornet is still making leaps and bounds, sometimes due to human transport.
‘That’s probably how they crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, ended up in England and recently in Hungary. We must have transported it,’ Darrouzet said.
Is it too late to get rid of Asian hornets?
There are places where Asian hornet populations have successfully disappeared, such as Mallorca in 2020. But according to Darrouzet, ‘the hornet’s playground is now too large in Europe’ and the prospects for eradication are virtually nil.
‘If we are effective, we can reduce the population to a socially acceptable level and limit its impact on agriculture, beekeeping, human health and biodiversity,’ says the researcher, who is working on a new trapping system.
In August 2023, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture Plant & Animal Health Inspection Service and the University of Georgia, confirmed the presence of a yellow-legged hornet near Savannah, Ga. This is the first time a live specimen of this species has been detected in the United States.[19] This was followed by the first report of the species from South Carolina in November 2023, and the discovery of nests in 2024.[20][21]
Some other Asian hornet also established itself in Europe in the past decade.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/12/18/asian-hornet-everything-you-need-to-know-about-europes-invasion
goes looking for name
That was apparently Vespa velutina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_hornet
Looks like it just showed up in the US too: