The invasive yellow legged Asian hornet arrived in Georgia in 2023 and spread to South Carolina the same year. Efforts to eradicate all of the nests and overwintering queens have not been 100% successful, so we need to begin a monitoring program along the Southern states of the Atlantic Coast to see where else they might be. Queens will overwinter and shelter in pots or patio furniture shipped into ports.  This is likely how they arrived in Georgia.  In late winter the foundress queen will seek a spot to make her new nest. It looks like the typical "paper ball hornet-shaped" nest but it is about the size of a tennis ball.  Early on, the queen will have to care for all of the larvae and go hunting for nectar and protein to feed them. Once the colony size is about 40 workers, the hornets will move their nest far up into the tree tops to create a massive basketball size nest that houses thousands of hornets.  Their constant need for protein to feed the larvae is a drain on our beneficial pollinators, like honey bees.