Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[BridgetB]

There has been an official identification of an Asian Hornet in Tetbury, Glocestershire - see Beebase.

We shall be needing to be making asian hornet traps this winter to put out in February. Plans on Beebase. Spring capture of them is making a huge reduction in the numbers of Asian hornets in France.

[Ollie]

Hi Bridget.

Have you a link to the page for the traps? I want to be prepared even though I'm in Ireland.

Thanks

Ollie

[Adam Rose]

Tetbury is surprisingly far north and not particularly near a major port for a first confirmed case. That suggests it's more widespread than we currently think.

[yellowbelly]

[AndyC]

I am in Sussex and have caught several hornets around my hive.

I set up a trap and there were three in it when I got back off three weeks holiday so have decided to monitor the trap more closely.

One question, the design on the website clearly catches them alive.

What do I do with a trap full of mildly miffed hornets, either European or Asian?

[BridgetB]

If you look on the Beebase website www.nationalbeeunit.com it describes how to build the trap which excludes the larger European Hornet and allows smaller insects to escape. It describes how to catch the live insects out of the trap into a plastic bag. Hopefully you can then let the other insects out of the bag before freezing it and then sending the dead Asian Hornet to DEFRA I think - anyhow all the instructions are there on the website.

[Adam Rose]

Until I watched that, I thought I would be OK up here in Manchester, but the speaker said they would go right up into Scotland

[Ollie]

Thanks Bridget. Ill get on to making a few ...'just in case they cross the channel'.
I did look on bee base but didn't see the link.

Thanks again

Ollie

[BridgetB]

Beebase home page, Latest NBU news - Asian Hornet Click on "read more"
It says "Further guidance may be found on "Asian Hornet" page. Click on that link, then click on "guidance notes for monitoring" Tedious!

I have emailed Beebase suggesting they put the link on their home page.
Bridget

[AndyC]

Now I read on Facebook we are supposed to photograph and release a hornet we suspect of being Asian.

Anyone else seen this recommended?

[madasafish]

You are supposed to catch any Hornet you identify as Asian.. (if safe),,, and keep it safe dead or alive and inform a BI..

Test of traps.
https://www.apimondia.com/congresses/2009/Bee-Health/Symposia/Comparison%20of%20trap%20designs%20against%20the%20Yellow-legged%20hornet%20Vespa%20velutina%20nigrithorax%20-%20MAHER%20Nevile.pdf

[00buzzbee]

I have been following the spread and the destruction these disgusting creatures have been causing for the last couple of years and have been dreading the day they arrive in this country.

I have been trying to source the materials to construct the trap as indicated on the bee base website but the issue I have found is the diameter of a standard vented soil pipe is 110mm.

Just about every empty drinks bottle I find lying around in our village has a diameter of 100mm so to get a good fit is going to be difficult.

I don't really want to wander around Tesco as yet with a tape measure to get the diameter of all the different makes of drinks bottles so if anyone knows of a particular brand with the correct diameter then please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Buzzbee

[AndyC]

Not sure the soil pipe is needed and the cost of the pipe fitting is a bit prohibitive.

There is another design using just the bottle without the soil pipe fitting and I have dispensed with the mesh too.

I have caught three European hornets in one of the simple yellow wasp traps and can report they are not good swimmers . . . . . . ...

Will get half a dozen ready over the winter ready for early next year. . . .

[00buzzbee]

[AndyC]

The design with the bottle bottom held on with a plastic-covered wire pin is probably easier to refill and clean and a spare bottom makes it even easier and a lot cheaper than buying the waste pipe fittings IMHO.

Try it, you won't be dissapointed.

[AndyC]

Been to our BKA apiary this morning.

Long discussion on guess what?

The idea of a trap that catches the Asian Hornet alive is so they can be sprayed with slow acting flea spray and released to spread the insecticide through the nest.

Anyone got more on this, type of spray etc etc?

[Ollie]

Hi Not heard of that spray before but the spray for fleas is FRONTLINE. Not sure it would work but would it be worth the chance.

Thank goodness no reports here in Ireland .... YET but they will come.

I'm hoping I'm in a lucky area because I don't get hornets of any description here just the common ole wasp and not many of them about this year for some reason, might be our damp climate......


*********** oh my god just seen I'm now a Foraging bee.... getting old...*******

[AndyC]

My reading suggests a low dose pyrethrum treatment dusted or sprayed onto the trapped hornet before release will be passed into the nest and spread by contact.

My understanding is very little of the active ingredient is needed to reduce hornet foraging numbers and I guess that results in decreasing activity and losses to the immature grubs in the hornet nest.

Early spring trapping of the emerging queens is the most effective control according to the experience of the French, I understand.

[Barbara]

You would need to be very careful about when you sprayed and released them if you are going to treat them with something like that. You don't want them heading off into someone's hive after being sprayed.
Not sure I like the idea of it.

[AndyC]

The experts suggest the Asian hornets don't enter hives during the early stages of an attack unlike our domestic wasps but 'hawk' outside and pick bees off as they approach (this is mentioned in the lecture) same as our domestic hornets do, hence the strategy outlined should be perfectly safe in regard to collateral damage.

And anyway if the hornet has been in the trap with other insects it's likely to have already taken up its share of food for its nest so is unlikely to continue feeding on release.

[Beeblebrox]

Flea sprays are often neonics, you don't want to use them anywhere near your hives. I have used Frontline and similar products on my cats but heard recently their urine is absorbed by plants and reappears in their nectar eventually... argh... I suppose this is the same kind of balancing act farmers face: treat the cats, one of whom is allergic to fleas and gets a terrible rash, and put the bees at risk? There's no "right answer".

Interestingly there is more than one type of Asian Hornet. A national newspaper published a picture of the brightly coloured Giant Asian Hornet next to its "we're all doomed" story, but the species which has arrived in the UK is the Asian Hornet, which has a dark body and looks much more boring. The NBU has some excellent ID charts to avoid confusion here: http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageId=208

Speaking for myself, I would not want to release an angry live hornet whether I was wearing a bee suit or not...

[AndyC]

[00buzzbee]

Found this article after searching online for ideas on what types of Asian Hornet traps are out there.

http://www.vita-europe.com/news/asian-hornet-trap-launched-combat-latest-honeybee-pest/

It might be worth adapting one of these traps to fit on the bottom of a top bar hive.

[AndyC]

I was looking at that design too but with five hives its way to expensive for me.

Still think the idea of trapping the emerging queens around the apiary early in the season is way better than trying to trap them in a hive based system later on.

[Adam Rose]

They have found the nest : https://twitter.com/LondonBeeKeeper/status/782152989830152192

Does anyone know when the colony would send out queens ? In other words, is it too late ?

[Adam Rose]

Ah - answered my own question. http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/downloadDocument.cfm?id=544 has a diagram which says :

Emergence of Sexual Adults : Mid July to November
Mating - leading to production of numerous mated queens : September to November.

[Ollie]

if that's the actual nest.... its huge, lets hope they got them all but its soo big I doubt they will have... if anything like wasps ive already seen a few new queen wasps flying about here......

shame in one way, after all it is nature....

[00buzzbee]

I'm sure they will have already sent out new queens for next year.

[00buzzbee]

Will there be a time when we will have to import Asian Honey Bees to pollinate our crops and fend off the Asian Hornets?

[AndyC]

Hopefully they examined the nest when they had the chance as I understand that's the only way to tell if mature queens have been raised and left.

Prof Martin mentions this in his lecture and French experience suggests it may have been found in time especially as the weather has been warmer than usual.

See this.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=vespa+velutina+life+cycle&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=cmObfc3W74fKTM%3A