Apishield - wasp or hornet trap floor

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Believe me, here in France the Asiatic Hornet is a real problem.
They can pheromone mark a hive so more and more return to predate.
Ultimately they will sit on the landing board and take bees as they come to investigate the vibration. I have two beekeeping friends who lost entire hives to raids by these marauders last year ....
 
I talked to the suppliers at Bee Tradex. The price was in the region of £70. I made a quick calculation and reckoned I would need to spend around £1000. They hope the price will fall with a growing market. I felt they were just testing the waters. It is quite an elaborate design and current manufacturing costs must be quite high.

Vita rep at Harper Adams Convention said the hornet trap is advised for one per 5 hives. Not sure of the logic/evidence for this.....
 
£75 with delivery can only purchase from Vita they have no distributor.
 
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I saw the new Apishield hornet trap in April Beecraft, p44 but details on the Vita web site if you don't get the mag. It appears to be marketed as an Asian Hornet trap, but claimed to be effective against wasps, robber bees, even wax moths.

Interesting idea, anybody aware of anything along those lines before? I mean using the bee hive as bait but with cones and alternative false entrances to attract and trap pests. Nicely constricted bit of woodwork with a below floor Dartington style entrance and a trap box below and to the rear. Can't see any for sale online which would give a price but doesn't look cheap. How difficult would it be to retro fit something similar to an existing floor?

Add: timing of marketing odd, it seems to have missed the big annual catalogues and some of the trade exhibitions, maybe delayed?
I have tried this trap in Provence, France, where my hives were under attack from the Asian Hornet in 2015, and did not trap a single hornet! Neither did it trap the bees actually. Well made, but a waste of money.
 
Thanks for that info Chemin.

I was looking at these last year wondering if they were worth the investment. Obviously not.

I am going to try the protected entrance guard made with 13mm square wire which was in the November edition of Abeilles de France. Supposedly it keeps the hornets from getting too close to the entrance and therefore the bees are more relaxed. It doesn't stop the hornets from hawking, but it does give the bees a protected space in front of the hive.
 
Any chance of some info on this entrance guard?

Thanks for that info Chemin.

I was looking at these last year wondering if they were worth the investment. Obviously not.

I am going to try the protected entrance guard made with 13mm square wire which was in the November edition of Abeilles de France. Supposedly it keeps the hornets from getting too close to the entrance and therefore the bees are more relaxed. It doesn't stop the hornets from hawking, but it does give the bees a protected space in front of the hive.
 
Yes, of course. I am away from home at the moment and do not have the magazine with me, but I will do a scan of it asap and post it. Unfortunately it will be in French, but you can get the general idea from the photos


Essentailly you create a 'foyer' in front of the landing board which the hornets do not readily penetrate. The wire used is 13mm which I think is more than large enough for them to get through, but apparently they are put off by the barrier. The article does say that you get the occasional hornet passing through but it stops the majority of them.

Anything is worth a try for a bit of DIY!

I will be putting out my hornet traps very soon if this warm weather continues!!
 
Thank you, John, so really there is never likely to be a real problem with these Hornets when they get here any way, no different than our European Hornets with regards taking bees, so no traps of any kind will be needed, same as they are not really needed for wasps.

Edit....doubt these floor traps would catch many of them anyway if they do not go near the hives very much, never notice the European Hornets round the hives, or trying to enter them, more on the outskirts of the Apiaries, or in the back of my truck, lots of these Hornets around here, bumbles and wasps do hang around the hives though, and try and get in.


:iagree:

This is our second year of Asian Hornets here. Where we didn't trap in the spring ( Dismissive one of two hive owners that didn't do anything there was a major nest near) Beekeepers who trapped queens in the spring had much less of a problem.
Its Important to say that as much as The Vespa Crabbo Common European Hornet) does take a few bees, it has a major part in insect control from what we would call pest species. ( flies and mosquitos to name but a few.) and has its place in nature.
The Asian hornet will enter in to a hive, especially later in the year when hive numbers decrease and Asians are still flying. Last year i had them in to November. Mostly
We have a" Green "plastic entrance reducer, made by Nicot. which does block the passage of the Asian Hornet and also reduce stress in the colony.I dont like to use these on a flow, as it severely restricts the flow of bees and above all, traps drones. Its one of those tools , if used at the right time, its a help.

I did a couple of videos on Making traps etc. heres the link.

https://youtu.be/Yin1eGivY3A

https://youtu.be/44-rV7kqhdk

Chickens do a good job too!! https://youtu.be/JfQF8HxZqXY

This is what their like, great video, Nice Narration!! and also important to point out two things, firstly, how the control specialist is in agreement with how the common hornet , shown first , isn't a general problem. and secondly the difference in nest. The common hornet very often makes nests in half a tree trunk, or cavity. Asian hornets, usually in the open, and generally much higher. this one was low , unusually!
https://youtu.be/PO5_povzoP4



Its only my point of view, I dont know it all. Its like everything , changes all the time. However these bottle traps do work!!!
I will be putting a minimum of 3 per apiary this year,. we've had quite a few large nests that have become visible since leaf fall, High up in the tree canopy, so those colonies have released about 60 queens in to the environment)
so Far, I think I have seen 8 on my travels in radius of about 100 km Radius and that a very low numbers. Lots have been destroyed near me, approximately 250 nests during the summer (south of Dinan here )


Can you spot this nest?this is the reality of it!! Apologies it on its side!!

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=12676&stc=1&d=1454401953
The Asian hornet might well make its presence known in England in a few years, even next year, but personally , with many areas being much highly populated ( i am generalising here) I think that the control will be more effective and nests possible easier to find, with beekeepers more numerous per square mile, therefore, trapping may be more effective.
Theres also recent news, released this year to say that the drone quality of the Asian hornet, is generally poor, which is good news for their future. It was a study done in France last year.
 

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'An anti-hornet protection for the hive'

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay, however this is the article I mentioned in an earlier post.

I think it speaks for itself (although it is in French). The author does however mention a couple of things that are important to note:

The protection does not stop the hornets 100%, but it reduces their activity on the landing board or close to the hive entrance. He also notes that if the wire you use is coted in green plastic, they tend to pass through more frequently. He is not sure why, however he suspects the colour.

He also advises to continue to use the anti-hornet entrance guard in case of the odd hornet passing through the meche.

He states that it takes the bees 1 day to adjust to the protection and after a few days they pass through the wire with no problems.

Finally he does recommend to continue catching the hornets in spring to reduce numbers.
 

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I think I mentioned these traps before on this forum and I'm sure someone pointed out to me that they trap the hornet/wasps alive, and they wouldn't wanted distressed hornets/ wasps releasing pheromones directly under their bees. Would this be a problem?
 
Certainly something that I would caution about. Hornets predate on wasps equally as effectively as they do on honeybees. The assaulted wasps will release distress pheromone which will send any wasps in the vicinity loopy. It will also help attract more wasps/hornets to the hive to help rescue their mates with the potential for collateral harm to the hive. Notwithstanding all of this the honeybees will be stressed which may have all manner of other repercussions such as reduced honey yields, stroppy bees on inspection or even down regulation of their fight response due to persistent exposure to alarm pheromones.
 
Certainly something that I would caution about. Hornets predate on wasps equally as effectively as they do on honeybees. The assaulted wasps will release distress pheromone which will send any wasps in the vicinity loopy. It will also help attract more wasps/hornets to the hive to help rescue their mates with the potential for collateral harm to the hive. Notwithstanding all of this the honeybees will be stressed which may have all manner of other repercussions such as reduced honey yields, stroppy bees on inspection or even down regulation of their fight response due to persistent exposure to alarm pheromones.

I imagine any that do get trapped underneath would soon get distressed when they couldn't get free, and could smell all of those juicy bees just out of reach lol
 
How about a video in use rather than one in the office?

It would be interesting to see just what proportion of velutina the trap actually catches given that velutina is an ambush hunter outside of the hive!
 
How about a video in use rather than one in the office?

It would be interesting to see just what proportion of velutina the trap actually catches given that velutina is an ambush hunter outside of the hive!

There are some studies at the bottom of the page. They are claiming decent results.

http://www.vita-europe.com/products/apishield-hornet-trap/

I don't know anyone who uses them it would be interesting to hear first hand feedback.

edit - probably worth pointing out the inventor of this floor is a well respected honey bee researcher and has authored and co-authored some interesting papers on asian hornet and honey bee interactions.

This one - https://www.researchgate.net/public...ive_collective_defence_against_a_new_predator - shows that the hornets tend to act alone when hunting.
 
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I'm not entirely comfortable providing a commentary on a competitor product. I remain of the opinion that having live wasps and hornets trapped within a hive stresses the hive as a consequence of alarm pheromones and the persistent presence of wasps and hornets. The results of the studies need to be read with a little caution as well. Neither of the papers demonstrated improved survival. In the first paper it is not clear what the split was between wasps and hornets captured in the funnel traps vs those captured in the Apiburg trap. I suspect that the numbers were amalgamated.
 
I'm lucky that I've never had an issue with wasps or hornets attacking my hives.

I think if the asian hornet did arrive here I'd start off with the NBU trap and put some honey in it. The smell of honey seems to be a major attractant for the little buggers.

If free didn't work I'd maybe try one of these floors as it appears quite elegant.
 
If velutina were to establish itself in the UK which I very much doubt that it ever will then we'd release new technology for its control.
 
If velutina were to establish itself in the UK which I very much doubt that it ever will then we'd release new technology for its control.

Why do you doubt it will?
 

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