Rome prompts telephone quantity to report hornet sightings.

After the seagulls and wild boar, Rome is grappling with its newest “invasion” from the animal world: the Oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis).

The big bugs – not seen within the Italian capital because the Nineteen Fifties – have been sighted in quite a few areas of the centre in latest days, with media stories of the hornets flying off with canine kibble left on balconies.

The town has activated a freephone quantity – 800 854 854 – for residents to report sightings of the reddish-brown and yellow bugs and their nests.

Oriental hornets are attracted by garbage – together with spoiled meat and fish – they usually make their nests underground in addition to in hollows and crevices.

Rome’s civil safety authorities, along with the municipal waste assortment service AMA, are monitoring the scenario and “intervening instantly in each case reported to us”, mentioned town’s surroundings councillor Sabrina Alfonsi.

Interventions have been carried out within the Aventino, Colle Oppio, San Saba and Piramide districts close to the centre, with sightings reported within the Monteverde, Prati and EUR areas as nicely.

AMA can also be busy finishing up inspections within the metropolis’s colleges earlier than the brand new educational yr will get underway, in response to Italian information stories.