Asian Hornet Alderney confirmed

[mazzamazda]

I was informed by someone who used to work at the NBU unit at Sand Hutton who is/was part of the early response unit for any mainland UK sightings/nests, so I presumed he knew what he was talking about. If the hornets find what they think will be a suitable prey, such as a beehive, a "bivouac" nest is built for some of the hornets. Their strategy is to deploy a few "hawkers" who pick off the occasional bee. Their preying actions tend to prevent the bees from foraging properly and keeps them confined in the hive so they use up their stores and become too weak to defend themselves further. Once too weak they all move in and eat the lot. A long term war of attrition.

Interesting, thanks. My observations are from apiaries with 30-45 colonies each so very different to how VV would attack a few hives and that might be the difference in how they react. I've noticed they don't care if the hive is strong or weak, very rarely go in the hive, think I've seen it twice. I have regularly seen 4-5 hornets hovering per hive. Some have a favourite hive which is an easy ambush and some others just patrol the line of hives. I would set traps and kill approx 100 each visit, last year I spent around 4 days a week, July to October, killing hornets and didnt make a dent. The bees definitely are more confined to the hive. I think to date I have only ever lost a two frame nuc and the bees do bounce back but the amount of work and bees lost surely runs into the millions.
This year I have seen 3 hornets all year, 2 of those have been dispatched!

 

[OursonAnglaise]

I saw my first 2 VV for this year last weekend. They have arrived later than last year, and I hope that some of that is down to my early spring trapping (where unfortunately I also caught a LOT of native hornets).

My experience of VV matched Mazzamazda's although I only have 2 hives. We get 3-4 hawking around the entrance, but my bees don't seem to feel too threatenend and seem to quite like playing doge hornet. I also find that when there is more than 1 hornet they will spend quite a lot of time fighting with each other for prime spot, which allows the bees time to escape and return.

Last year, like Mazza, between myself and my husband we caught hundreds with an electric bat (which is very satisfying), but they just kept coming. The good news was that bees survived the experience!

As for France getting to grips with the situation, I had understood that they had given up - it is no longer the responsibility of the local Mairie/ fire-service to deal with the problem. If a nest is found, it is down to the homeowner to call in the experts to deal with them at a cost.

 

[user 3509]

Now a on firmed sighting in Jersey.