Researchers claim to have found more than 1,400 species in the guts of Asian hornets.

A study from the University of Exeter discovered a grisly buffet of bees, wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies, and moths inside the invasive beasts.

Scientists dissected samples from France, Spain, Jersey, and the UK, tracking the hornets' feast across their active season.

Asian hornets, now swarming western Europe, are a scourge authorities can't squash, with nests torched yearly on the UK mainland.

Lead author Siffreya Pedersen said: 'They're known to prey on honey bees, but until now, we didn't grasp their full menu. It shifts wildly by season and region—they're ruthless, adaptable hunters.'

Using deep sequencing, the team probed over 1,500 larvae guts, fed by adult hornets. Of the top 50 prey species, 43 flirt with flowers—including Europe's big three pollinators: the European honey bee, buff-tailed bumblebee, and red-tailed bumblebee.

'Insects keep ecosystems ticking—pollination, decomposition, pest control. Most are already crumbling under habitat loss and pollution. These hornets pile on the pain,' she added.

Dr Peter Kennedy from Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute said: 'This is hard proof of the menace Asian hornets pose as they invade Europe.'

The study, backed by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the British Beekeepers Association, pegged 1,449 operational taxonomic units in the larvae—over half identified as specific species, though some remain a mystery.

Published in Science of the Total Environment under the title 'Broad ecological threats of an invasive hornet revealed through a deep sequencing approach,' this research—fueled by samples from the Jersey Asian Hornet Group, INRAe, University of Vigo, and DEFRA—sounds a dire alarm as these predators chew through nature's backbone.