Asian Hornet Alert

[grizzly]

They are HUGE !!!!

Im gonna need a bigger Blowtorch.

 

[MJBee]

Sorry for the delay - non stop visitors at this time of year Now see if I can get the pic on here View attachment 822

 

[ribblesbees]

Thanks for the picture MJBee.

No wonder they need such big nests

 

[MJBee]

With hindsight I should have put a ruler next to them to give some idea of size - much bigger than a wasp but not as big as their European cousins.
A French company - Thomas - now produce a hornet guard in green plastic which they claim is effective but as Jean said seriously hinders the bees.
They have been snooping around for 3 days now but have made no effort to actually invade the hive and so far have only appeared in pairs, not mob handed as we were led to expect.
The colony they are taking an interest in is one that we literally cut out of a concrete box housing a water meter measuring 24"x18"x24". The comb containing honey was removed and the comb containing brood was tied into empty frames (6) and placed in a Dadant brood box. The bees were very docile and went onto the frames without a problem. The 9 miles home was taken very slowly - 3 boxes of honey and a brood of bees plus many more loose in the car
It was while siting the colony that the hornets appeared attracted probably by the smell of honey which we and everything else were liberally coated in.
I'll keep you posted, Mike

 

[DrNick]

Asian Hornet

 

[grizzly]

Hi MJB

You say these are smaller than the European Hornet, i thought the Asian Hornets were supposed to be Monsters ?

 

[Onge]

FFS !!!! and these are in France !!!!! /gulp

 

[jezd]

Asian Hornet

possibly one of the scariest things I have seen

 

[East Yorks New Bee]

The European hornet Vespa crabro, commonly known simply as the "hornet", is the largest European eusocial wasp. The queen measures 25 to 35 mm (1–1.4 in) long; males and workers are smaller

The Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, also known as the Japanese hornet and known colloquially as the yak-killer hornet, is the world's largest hornet, native to temperate and tropical Eastern Asia. Its body length is approximately 50 mm (2 in), with a wingspan of about 76 mm (3 in).Queens may reach a length of 55 mm (2.2 in).

The scariest thing I found out about the asian hornet was this:
The hornets can devastate a colony of honey bees: a single hornet can kill as many as 40 honey bees per minute thanks to their large mandibles which can quickly strike and decapitate a bee. It takes only a few of these hornets a few hours to exterminate the population of a 30,000-member hive, leaving a trail of severed insect heads and limbs.

The stinger of the Asian giant hornet is about 6 mm (¼ in) in length,and injects an especially potent venom that contains, like many bee and wasp venoms, a cytolytic peptide (specifically, a mastoparan) that can damage tissue by stimulating phospholipase action, in addition to its own intrinsic phospholipase.Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University near Tokyo, described the sensation as feeling "like a hot nail being driven into my leg."

An allergic human stung by the giant hornet may die from an allergic reaction to the venom, but the venom contains a neurotoxin called mandaratoxin which can be lethal even to people who are not allergic if the dose is sufficient. Between 20 and 40 people die each year in Japan after being stung by giant hornets.

 

[Geoff]

These are not the Asian giant hornet. They are a different specie

http://zoologie.umh.ac.be/asef/pdf/...rard_et_al_ASEF_2009_45_1_119_127_compact.pdf

 

[Hombre]

Gosh; at that sort of size I can see some poor male beekeeper having a quick tinkle in the hedge dying of shock, just at the prospect of getting stung, if one of those appeared in his field of vision during his short visit.

 

[MJBee]

I admit that I was surprised by the size of this variety of the Asian Hornet Vespa nigrithorax, like most people I was expecting a king sized version of the European as shown by the BBC and Utube. My (much younger) apprentice has good hand/eye co-ordination and has despatched another half dozen using a badminton racquet Up to now the more common European hornet is causing more problems.

 

[MJBee]

The "aurhorities" are really taking this threat seriously - I reported the sighting to the Mayor at 0900 Monday and by 1200 2 ministry men had arrived and were inspecting the wasp traps and searching the surrounding woods. They put up one of their own traps - baited with beer soaked sugar cubes!! - no luck finding the nest(s) we suspect more than one nest as the hornets were arriving and departing form two distinct directions - the search continues.

 

[Hawklord]

Judging by the size of them you could probably put a tracker on one.

 

[jean]

Mike, how far are you from the last sightings? And how long ago were they?
Regards.

 

[jezd]

Judging by the size of them you could probably put a tracker on one.

lol. so true!

 

[mark s]

sod a tracker........ get a saddle on the big blighter

 

[shonabee]

Asian Hornet

Urrcchhgg! At least it's unlikely you'd fail to spot them.

 

[MJBee]

Jean - My hives are only 800mtrs from the sighting My apprentice has had wasp traps ringing his hives and has been catching wasps and European hornets for a while, the first asian nigrithorax were seen/swatted/trapped 24 July. I have been spending a lot of time watching my hives and so far have not seen any wasps or hornets, and my traps are only catching flies and moths. - assumption - they just have not found me YET.
Mike

 

[jean]

Mike, I have a PDF file by Jacques Blot which among other things gives details of building traps for VVN. If you're interested, pm me an email address and I'll send it.
Regards.