The Asian hornet in Portugal: how to recognise it, what to do if you are stung and where to report a nest
On 9 September 2026 in Jugueiros, in the Felgueiras area near Porto, a hornet stung a 69-year-old man on the head while he was picking grapes. The alarm was raised at 14:39; by the time help arrived his heart had already stopped, and it could not be restarted. The Asian hornet has been in the country since 2011, and its nests are at their largest in autumn, just when people head out to the garden, the vineyard and to prune trees. Here, step by step: how to tell it from an ordinary wasp, what to do in the first minutes after a sting, which signs mean you should call 112, who gets prescribed an adrenaline auto-injector and how much it costs, and where to report a nest. You must not remove it yourself: that is the municipality's job.
What we are dealing with and why it is in the news right now
Vespa velutina nigrithorax is the Asian hornet, in Portuguese vespa asiática or vespa das patas amarelas, “the yellow-legged hornet”. It reached Europe by accident: it was found in France in 2004, and in Portugal and Belgium in 2011. It is most common in the north and the centre: according to the ICNF count at the start of 2018, of eleven thousand confirmed nests almost all were in the districts of Porto, Viana do Castelo, Braga and Aveiro, while south of Coimbra only a handful were found. ICNF accepts reports from all of mainland Portugal.
The main harm it does is not to people but to bees: it catches them in flight at the hive entrance, and the colony weakens. That is where the whole state plan began: it was written by ICNF (the institute for nature conservation and forests) together with the veterinary service DGAV.
For people, the plan says one thing worth remembering in full: on its own, this hornet is no more dangerous than the European one. What is dangerous is its nest. The colony responds to a threat or vibration within five metres all at once and can chase the source of the noise for some five hundred metres. So trouble comes not to someone who sees a hornet on the balcony, but to someone who hits a nest with secateurs or a strimmer.
On 9 September 2026 in Jugueiros near Felgueiras, a 69-year-old man was picking grapes by a wall when a hornet stung him on the head. The alarm was raised at 14:39; when help arrived, his heart had already stopped. This was reported to the Lusa agency by the local fire brigade commander, Júlio Pereira.
“Girls, for the second day running now, something keeps flying in at our place - I’ve worked it out. Some of them died in our dungeons, some I managed to show out the window. In the photo you can clearly see- that it’s an Asian Hornet- which can kill the local bees. And without bees, you know yourselves- coconuts won’t grow and generally things could get sad. So I’m flagging it anyway, so you don’t panic but react sensibly.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkflowersPortugal25.03.2023
“So that’s who’s killing the bees, I think. My neighbour said that not far from us some nasty wasps wiped out all the little bees at an apiary(”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkflowersPortugal31.03.2026
How to tell it from an ordinary wasp and from the European hornet
There are three things to look at, and all three show up in a photo taken on a phone.
The legs. The Asian hornet has yellow leg tips, hence the nickname “yellow legs”. The European hornet (Vespa crabro) has brown legs.
The thorax and head. The Asian hornet has a dark, almost black thorax, the top of its head is dark too, and its “face” is orange. The European hornet has a brown thorax and the top of its head is yellow.
The abdomen. On the Asian hornet it is dark and velvety, with one noticeable orange-yellow band. The European hornet has a lot of yellow on its abdomen, in broad stripes.
Size on its own proves nothing, although that is exactly how people identify it in chats: a worker is just over 2.5 cm, males up to 3 cm, a queen up to 3.5 cm, while a European hornet worker is 1.8–2.3 cm. So a “huge wasp” could be either.
The species is identified for certain under a stereo microscope at the INIAV institute, from small details such as the shape of a notch on the male’s abdomen. Nobody expects that of you: just photograph the insect or the nest on your phone and attach the photo to your report.
“Be very careful with Asian wasps (hornets), they’re dangerous and they sting really painfully. You can tell them by size, it’s a huge wasp. If they keep flying in at your place, there may be a nest of theirs somewhere.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkflowersPortugal25.03.2023
The nest: what it looks like and why the one under your eaves is usually not theirs
There are two kinds of nest in a year. In spring, in February–March, the queen that has survived the winter builds the first nest on her own: a ball 5–10 cm across in a sheltered spot, with an opening at the bottom. In summer the colony moves to a second nest, a ball or pear shape about 60 by 80 cm, sometimes up to a metre high, with a small side entrance. Inside there can be from two to thirteen thousand hornets and more than a hundred and fifty future queens.
Where they are found: 73% in trees higher than ten metres, 10% on buildings, 3% in hedges. These figures come from the ICNF sheet, and they lead to the main point for anyone living in town: a nest in a shutter box, under the eaves or in the ground is almost certainly not the Asian hornet’s.
So as not to mix them up: the European hornet’s nest is a cylinder with a wide opening at the bottom, usually in a tree hollow or a chimney, about 30 by 60 cm. The common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) builds a cone-shaped nest, 30 by 35 cm, in the ground or in a crack in a building, with a hidden entrance at the bottom. The wasp Dolichovespula media builds a cone in bushes about two metres up.
The practical conclusion is simple: it is worth reporting in any case, since you are not the one who identifies it, but do not expect a municipal team to come and remove a wasp nest from under your windowsill. That works differently: you agree it with your landlord and call in pest control.
“found some info that if you find a wasp nest you can contact the junta, they’ll remove it especially if it turns out to be the invasive Asian hornet ...”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkflowersPortugal10.07.2024
Found a nest? Move away and do nothing yourself
The first rule is distance. The colony already treats five metres from the nest as a threat and rises all at once, and it can chase the source of the noise for some five hundred metres, so you will not outrun it. Do not knock on the trunk, do not start a strimmer or chainsaw nearby, and take children and dogs away.
What the plan explicitly forbids: destroying the nest partly and shooting it down. Both scatter the colony around the area, and the surviving workers produce new queens, so instead of one nest next year you get several.
The home remedies people recommend to each other in chats belong here too: a can of insecticide spray overnight, boiling water, burning rags, expanding foam. With an ordinary wasp nest in the ground this sometimes works; with an Asian hornet nest in a ten-metre tree it does not, and falling off a stepladder in front of a swarm is especially unfortunate.
How those whose job it is do it: they approach quietly, at dusk or at night, wearing two beekeeping suits, spray the entrance with a product from a telescopic pole, then take the nest down, put it in a bag and burn it. The product must be from the list of biocides authorised by DGS, and by law only someone who does pest control professionally may use it. A small spring nest can also be killed by cold: more than 48 hours at minus fifteen.
“Hmm.. If they were wasps then insecticide after sunset, when they’re asleep. But I feel sorry for the bees😔with such a barbaric method(”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatalgarve19.04.2024
Where to report: the STOP Vespa platform
The state platform is called STOP Vespa and is run by ICNF: stopvespa.icnf.pt. No registration is needed, and filling it in takes a couple of minutes on your phone, right there on the spot.
What the “Vespa Velutina — Cidadão” form asks for: the date of the sighting; what you found, a nest or the hornet itself; a point on the map within your concelho (municipality); how to reach the spot, on foot, by car or no access; a photo; consent to data processing. Name, email and phone are optional, and it is worth giving them: local services sometimes need to check exactly where the nest is. You get a report number straight away, and you use it later to see what has happened with it.
If you have no internet to hand, there are two other ways. Call the SOS Ambiente e Território line on 808 200 520, where they will explain the procedure. Or go to your junta de freguesia (parish council): the paper form can be filled in there too.
The report then goes to your câmara municipal (town council), which handles the case. If the photo does not make clear what it is, the insect is sent to INIAV for identification, and the result comes back to the platform. All recorded sightings and nests can be seen on a shared map.
“there’s even a website for reporting nests, and lads with flamethrowers”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto29.04.2025
Who removes the nest and who pays
Under the ICNF plan, destroying a nest is the duty of the câmara municipal for the area where the nest was found, or of whoever it has authorised to do so; where possible, this should be done in the presence of the owner or tenant of the property. In other words, you report it and wait; you do not look for someone to do it yourself or pay for a call-out.
The state has topped up municipalities’ funds for this: an order of 1 February 2019 allocated one million euros to a national campaign to destroy nests, and in July of the same year another 400 thousand. We have not found any more recent decisions of this kind in the Diário da República, so it would be dishonest to promise that your municipality will come tomorrow and for free: each câmara has its own procedure and queue, and you need to ask it about them.
The plan sets no deadlines at all, and in conversations the timescales mentioned are these: in Porto (04.2025) a nest reported in summer was removed in September, and nests are more often burned from autumn to spring, when the trees are bare and the nest is easy to see.
Private pest control firms remove nests too; adverts of this kind are common in Portugal. We cannot say how much it costs: in four years of conversations nobody has mentioned a single price for removing a nest.
“I’ve personally seen guys with flamethrowers. The only thing is, they burn them when the trees have no leaves - from autumn to spring, basically. But a nest reported in summer was destroyed in September.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto29.04.2025
Stung? What to do in the first minutes
Get well away from the spot before doing anything else: one sting often means there is a nest nearby, and the second and third will arrive within seconds.
There is no need to look for a sting. A bee leaves its sting in the skin, but wasps and hornets do not; they can sting as many times as they like. If a sting is sticking out, it was a bee: scrape it out with the edge of a bank card or a fingernail, rather than squeezing it with your fingers or pulling it with tweezers, which squeezes the rest of the venom out of the sac.
After that, INEM advises simple things: put something cold on the sting and do not put strain on the arm or leg that was stung; if it is serious, see a doctor. It is worth washing the area with soap and water. Take off rings, bracelets and watches straight away: the swelling builds quickly, and later you will not get them off.
For the first hour or hour and a half after a sting, do not stay alone and do not drive: a severe reaction usually starts in the first few minutes, but it can also be delayed. An ordinary sting hurts, goes red and swells around the spot, and that on its own is no reason to go to hospital.
If you are not sure what stung you and how dangerous it is, there is medical advice by phone: SNS 24 on 808 24 24 24, and for poisons and stings CIAV, the INEM poison information centre, on 800 250 250.
When it is 112, not ‘I’ll lie down and it will pass’
Call 112 immediately if anything at all from this list appears (it is taken from the leaflet that comes with an adrenaline auto-injector, which lists the signs of anaphylaxis, in Portuguese anafilaxia): itching all over the body, hives, redness, swelling of the lips, tongue, throat, hands and feet, wheezing or laboured breathing, a hoarse voice, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, feeling faint and loss of consciousness.
Separately, regardless of allergy: a sting in the mouth, tongue or throat; a sting on the head or neck; many stings at once; a child has been stung; someone who has had a strong reaction to a sting before has been stung. The man in Felgueiras was stung on the head.
How the call goes: 112 is the single emergency number; they answer in Portuguese, but you can speak English and ask for a doctor. The dispatcher will ask what happened, where you are and your utente number if you have one. Then they decide: an INEM team or the bombeiros (firefighters) will come, or you will be told to go to A&E yourself.
If the person has already been prescribed an adrenaline pen, inject it straight away without waiting for the ambulance, and only then call. Antihistamine tablets do not stop anaphylaxis, and neither does an asthma inhaler.
“by the way, a common misconception about Pulmicort, I used to have it too. It’s not a first aid drug, it works well in other cases. The ambulance will get there faster than it kicks in. If a baby has been exposed to an allergen -> rapidly worsening difficulty breathing, wheezing, hoarseness, swelling of the tongue/throat, lethargy or signs of circulation problems, that’s suspected anaphylaxis. In that situation, being scared of adrenaline is a much bigger problem than the adrenaline itself (it’s not as scary as its name).”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal26.08.2026
“If (God forbid) someone is in a critical, life-threatening condition, then calling sns24 is just wasting precious time. Call 112. That’s the ambulance number. You can speak English if you can’t describe the problem clearly and precisely in Portuguese. We had a situation like that with my mother-in-law (suspected stroke). Literally 5 minutes later the bombeiros arrived and worked out that her blood sugar had dropped to a critical level. They started giving her syrup, but the sugar wouldn’t go up. They called real doctors, they put her on a drip and injected something.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatleiria08.08.2026
The adrenaline auto-injector: who gets one and how much it costs
This is not something to keep in the first aid kit “just in case”, but a prescription medicine for someone who has already had a severe reaction or who is at higher risk of one. It is prescribed by a doctor, either a GP or an immunoallergologist. In Portugal a prescription is required: both Epipen and Anapen are listed in the Infarmed database as prescription-only medicines.
Prices as of 11 September 2026: Epipen, whether 0.15 mg or 0.3 mg, costs €60.34 per pen, the state reimburses 37%, so you pay about €38. Anapen is cheaper: €45.80 per 0.15 mg pen and €44.56 for 0.3 mg, packs of two cost €79.23 and €71.44, with the same discount.
How to use it (according to the leaflet): press it firmly against the outer side of the thigh, which you can do straight through clothing, hold for three seconds, remove it and massage the spot for ten seconds. Then call 112 and say it is anaphylaxis. Never inject into the buttock. The pen is single-use; if there is no improvement within 5–15 minutes, a second one is needed, which is why doctors advise carrying two.
Doses by weight: 0.15 mg for a child from 15 to 30 kg, 0.3 mg for anyone over 30 kg; for a child under 15 kg the doctor decides. If a pen has been prescribed for a child, the family, the childminder and the nursery teacher should all learn how to use it.
“should buy one, yeah.) What scares me most is anaphylaxis, I read up, apparently it’s only “treated” with adrenaline, you need a prescription for adrenaline (obviously), and for a prescription you need grounds, namely severe food allergies in a parent or close relatives, so basically no way round it here.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkpequenos_PT20.06.2025
“Try googling “comprar epipen” - see if that’s it. Quite likely the results pages will say something about a prescription.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkschoolinportugal30.05.2024
How to see an allergy doctor
You start with your GP at your centro de saúde: they write a referral to imunoalergologia, which is what the allergy speciality is called here. How to get a GP and what to do while you do not have one is covered separately: A family doctor in Portugal.
If a severe reaction has already happened and you were brought to A&E, the request to a specialist is made from there, based on the examination and tests.
You can get into a private clinic faster, but even there people do not usually go to an allergist straight off the street. As for tests and allergy tests, the doctor orders them; there is no point going to have them done yourself “just in case”.
On how a doctor’s appointment works, how long you wait to book and what to do in an emergency, we have How to see a doctor and What to do in an emergency.
“At any big hospital, but without a referral from a doctor they won’t book you for that even without insurance paying in full, first to an allergist and they’ll give you all the referrals you need.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa14.06.2026
“You’ll end up in A&E (surgery or general medicine), there they’ll examine you and do tests. If it’s indicated, they’ll make a request to an immunologist.”
Translated from Ukrainian; the original is at the linkukrporto06.07.2026
A nest at a rented flat or in a shared courtyard
Anyone can report on STOP Vespa: you do not need to be the owner, and the form does not even ask. Do it yourself and straight away, since how quickly the nest is found depends on it.
At the same time, write to your landlord by email or message, and keep the correspondence. Under the ICNF plan, the nest is removed where possible in the presence of the owner or tenant: someone will need to open the door and show the spot. By law, keeping the property in good repair is the landlord’s job unless the contract says otherwise (Article 1074 of the Civil Code), so you should not pay for the work yourself and then claim the money back: write to them first.
If the nest is in a common part of the building, on the roof, in a passageway or in a tree in the courtyard, it is a matter for the condominium: tell the building manager, and report it on the platform anyway.
We cover the landlord’s and tenant’s duties under the contract in detail: How to rent a home in Portugal and How to let out a property yourself.
What people say about it in chats, and where they get it wrong
The first thing a newcomer hears usually sounds scarier than the truth: “two stings and you’re dead”. That is not so. The ICNF plan says plainly that on its own this hornet is no more dangerous to people than the European one. Two things can be fatal: a severe allergy, which causes a reaction even to a single sting, and multiple stings when a nest has been disturbed.
The second is “I’ll call the firefighters, they’ll remove it”. Reports are taken not by them but by the ICNF platform, and the municipality decides; firefighters are called on 112 when a person needs help, not when there is a nest hanging in a tree.
What is missing from the conversations, we will say honestly. In four years of open chats we have not found a single detailed account of someone filing a report and how it ended: how long they waited, whether anyone came, whether they were charged. There are no prices for private pest control either. There are a few observations from the sidelines, “I’ve seen guys with flamethrowers”, and questions with no answers. That is why this guide describes the procedure according to the state plan rather than other people’s experience: there is almost no experience in the archive.
“In Espinho the only thing they warned us about was the Asian wasps, they’re big and after a sting you need to see a doctor, two stings can be fatal.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkukrporto02.05.2022
“However these flies need serious looking after, they also sting if anything, but that’s nothing compared to the fact that these flies are hunted by other big flies called vespa asiática (Asian hornet), I think you’ve probably heard of this big fly, these big flies are even more trouble, since they wreck the families of the little flies, I mean the bees. And fighting them takes no small physical and financial outlay, otherwise I don’t do anything.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkRussosEmPortugal21.08.2024
What to bring
- A photo of the insect or the nest: without it the species cannot be identified, and the form accepts one
- The exact address and a landmark: a nest in a tree in a field is hard to describe in words
- An idea of how to reach the spot, on foot, by car or no access: the form asks about this
- The report number STOP Vespa gives you: you use it later to ask what has happened with your report
- Your utente number: you will be asked for it when you call 112
- A prescription and two adrenaline pens, if a doctor has prescribed them
Where people most often trip up
- Five metres from the nest is already a threat to the colony: vibration from a strimmer or knocking on the trunk makes it rise all at once
- Do not knock down or partly destroy a nest: the surviving hornets disperse and build new nests the following year
- A nest in a shutter box, under the eaves or in the ground is almost certainly an ordinary wasp’s, not the Asian hornet’s: 73% of its nests are in trees higher than ten metres
- It is a bee that leaves its sting in the skin, not a wasp or a hornet, and you should not squeeze it out with your fingers
- A severe reaction starts in the first few minutes: for an hour after a sting it is best not to be alone and not to drive
- Antihistamine tablets and an asthma inhaler do not stop anaphylaxis: adrenaline and 112 do
- One pen may not be enough: a second is given after 5–15 minutes, which is why people carry two
- The pen is injected into the outer side of the thigh, and you can do it through clothing; never into the buttock
- No deadline for the municipality to remove a nest is set anywhere: one reported in summer may be removed in autumn
- “Two stings are fatal” is chat talk, not a rule: according to the ICNF plan, this hornet on its own is no more dangerous than the European one