Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[00buzzbee]

Just received an e mail from NBU. Asian Hornets identified in North Somerset

Let battle commence!

[00buzzbee]

The NBU have also issued these instructions for this simple design for making traps.

dhttp://www.nationalbeeunit.com/downloadNews.cfm?id=145esign

[Adam Rose]

http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/asian-hornet-sighting-confirmed-in-mendip-hills-of-somerset-as-defra-aims-to-destroy-threat-to-bees/story-29776677-detail/story.html

[AndyC]

Saw a European hornet yesterday at Standen House in Sussex that was HUGE and I mean about 40mm long.

I was going to catch it but it wouldn't fit in the pint glass I was holding .

[00buzzbee]

I have plenty of European Hornets visiting my hives throughout the season trying to grab my bees. They are often successful but if I'm about I manage to catch one or two and euthanise them.

[AndyC]

Traps around the place early in the year to catch the emerging queens might help.

[00buzzbee]

I will be going out to collect some empty plastic bottles from around our village. There is usually a good selection on our local rec as the kids just dump them by the skateboard area.

I will be trying as many different combinations as possible to come up with the best traps I can make.

[AndyC]

Good idea.

I also see in the local papers around Tetbury they are suggesting Asian hornets pose no greater threat to humans than bees.

I do hope this doesn't mean some idiot tries spraying a nest with a garden hose, as I have seen with bee swarms or kids throwing stones at them.

[00buzzbee]

First Asian Hornet trap completed. I will be making a few more before they go out in February.

[Chippy]

Traps are now going out in Cornwall.

[Chippy]

[AndyC]

No Sir.

Does anyone know what triggers new Asian hornet queens to emerge?

E.g., Is it just temperature driven?

[Chippy]

[AndyC]

[Chippy]

[AndyC]

From that paper.

At the end of hibernation emergent queens have a raised energy requirement and show a preference for sweet foods. In early spring such food resources are comparatively rare in the environment, so this means that sweet baits are highly attractive for the early capture of Asian hornet queens. French beekeepers often use a mixture of dark beer, mixed with 25ml of strawberry syrup and 25ml of orange liqueur.

[Chippy]

At the seminar that I attended given by the GB Non-native Species Secretariat apple juice was the suggested early season bait. If you wish to prepare a cocktail for the queens then good luck to you though in tests on captured queens from France apple juice was found to suffice.

[charentejohn]

Hi, I live in France (central) and have seen my first one a week ago. Managed to kill it using s stick when it landed but another has appeared now.
The hive I have is 'wild' in that I leave them to their own devices in a sealed box. Their choice as I have a nicer hive but they prefer the other.

I went out a few weeks ago to check on them and considerd the entrance was too big. A few lethargic bees at the entrance on a cold damp morning. I then noticed an asian hornet hovering, so I panicked and contacted Chris Luck (link below) who is excellent on french wildlife and who keeps bees.

He advised that nothing to panic about, just kill any I see. True enough as I modified the entrance and they have now set up a defence and the single hornet is not getting anywhere. Now has 1cm mesh grille and currenlty partly covered with a bit of polystyrene to further restrict for winter.

At the moment the entrance is full of guards, loads of bees out foraging, and the hornet keeps returning but can't seem to catch anything. If anything they are dive bombing it, it appears, it is attacked (they can't hurt it I think) then flies off and returns later.

I asked Chris (planetepassion) and he said that at this time of year it could be a queen pre hibernation, or maybe a general nest member, but either way kill anything I see between now and May as when queens are about. No definitive time for queens to leave now but early next year any loners will likely be queens.

I have to agree with him on live and let live for the native species though. I have had a couple of european hornets take the occasional bee, Wasps not a problem so far, a few appear but usually chased off as the bees are strong despite the bad hive setup.
I will use hornet traps in the new year but have said I will remove them if they trap non asian hornets.

One thing I did think of is using a vacuum cleaner to remove the asian hornet from a distance, end of the long tube. I have to wait for a few days after a shoulder op but will try next week. Should be able to selectively pick one out of the air as they manouvre around.
I have a hoover I use in the garage so will try that, better still would be a battery one with long tube, but a bit expensive. May end up with a bag of live hornets but if an old hoover was used the inlet could be sprayed with raid to carry to the bag ?
An alternative would be the battery powered leaf blowers ? I have a mains one which shreds the leaves but a bit bulky.

I will definitely try the 'muzzle' as well as can be made to clip on-off easily and I can see the logic of making a hornet that wants to hover go into a space where it can't. If it catches a bee it will be too big to leave with it.

Just to let you know my thoughts and I will post any success or failures I have

John

A couple of links I found
One which gives a good trick of putting a 'muzzle' on the entrance so asian hornets can not hover. They prefer a mixed approach, kill, block, trap.
https://honeybeesuite.com/beekeeping-with-asian-hornets/

One with a good writeup and also a plea not to harm other hornet specis if possible.
http://www.planetepassion.eu/wildlife-in-france/asian-hornet_vespa-velutina-nigrithorax_frelon%20asiatique_france.html

[AndyC]

I let the grass and weeds grow in front of the hives right up against the landing boards/fronts as my apiary is near a farmhouse and they had a native hornet colony in a shed roof and they were hanging around the apiary.

They don’t seem to be able to deal with the vegetation in front of the hives as they can’t hawk there and I didn’t see any bees taken.

It makes it harder to watch the bee traffic though and I might chop it back when the hornets are not about.

[charentejohn]

I had read that stopping them hovering is a good deterrent. I think the more things the better.
I had thought of a wall of strings dangling down but grass sounds better. The hive is on gravel but I can put some tall grass in pots in front of the hive, that should help. I guess the stringiest waviest grass is best.

I was surprised to see individual bees going for the hornet, from time to time one would bounce off it's head rather than just passively be taken by it. Would be different if there were several hornets though.

[catchercradle]

Certainly, there are more of them around. When Bee inspector came to see my apiary the other week, he said seasonal bee inspectors were now working an extra two weeks into the autumn because of them and they would all get called when there was a case of them to search out and destroy the nest.

[AndyC]

[charentejohn]

I did wonder if just putting a branch in front of the hive would also work, like when relocating a hive. Simple and effective.

I have been trying to find some info I had on how the Japanese do this, seems logical as they have to live with these anyway. I believe they make a rectangle of wood about 2cm deep and covered in fine mesh, about 6cm wide and length of the hive entrance. This fits over the entrance slot and has a slot in the side of the rectangle big enough for bees to enter.
Hard to explain but basically moves the entrance to the side of the rectangle, so they enter via the rectangle and walk down to the hive entrance.

I think this is a similar idea to the 'muzzle' of mesh. Basically to enter the hive the hornet has to go into a very tight space where they can be easily attacked as they have no room to manouvre. Japanese beekeepers must have a solution or there would be no bees there.

[AndyC]

I have used a bit more than just a single branch.

The Japanese bees have lived with this for millions of years and the beekeepers for as long as they have been keeping bees in hives, so I guess both have developed strategies to deal with it.

We have our own hornets and those damn wasps too so as I don’t think we need panic and as long as the losses don’t start getting out of hand I guess we can love with it.

I just aim to give the girls an advantage.

[charentejohn]

That is how I see it, this is nature and it sorts itself out given time, we can take the pressure off but there is no total solution just lending a hand.
Good luck with the defences.

[charentejohn]

Just an update, I read of someone using a butterfly net to catch hornets in front of the hive. Looked online but most are small, sure I can come up with one with a loop of wire and a net curtain, just big enough to swipe one out of the air at a safe distance. Just talking the spring queens here I think.
Just catch without disturbing other insets and bees, then dump in a bucket of water to kill them. Should work, just another thing to consider.

[AndyC]

I have a kids fishing net on a pole that works pretty well.
It’s about 300mm diameter.

Wasps are pretty easy to catch but hornets see you coming.

I am going to have some baited traps handy next year to put in front of the hives for when I see the hornets, more to catch them for monitoring purposes, rather than killing them.

They are all part of nature’s rich tapestry. 😊