Asian Hornet heads up for the Scots

[kevrhcfag]

Thanks for the post Poly Hive.

I've circulated it to our club members. Traps will be in place tomorrow in my apiary.

We all need to be vigilant

Why?

Its always been a case of when not if, just depends on their range.

You might aswell set bear traps tomorrow, in case one of them hides away in something and while your on, dig a very deep pit to catch Big Foot I heard it was sited in lancs last week.

 

[Pete D]

It's been confirmed today that the Asian Hornet found in Scotland was an overwintering queen.
It has been sent to the National Bee Unit York for DNA analysis.

Who by ?

 

[Poly Hive]

The SG.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/farmingrural/Agriculture/animal-welfare/bee/News/AsianHornet

PH

 

[Nige.Coll]

Blame the royal beekeeper.
sorry.
I wouldn't worry, you can't build with paper in the rain.


Seriously though .
Bee vigilant .
Bee lucky.
Bee informed.

 

[B+.]

Seriously though .
Bee vigilant .
Bee lucky.
Bee informed.

Bee educated?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bee educated?

 

[Into the lions den]

Blame the royal beekeeper.
sorry.
I wouldn't worry, you can't build with paper in the rain.


Seriously though .
Bee vigilant .
Bee lucky.
Bee informed.

The 'alleged' Royal Beekeeper is not amused!!!! (well actually he is....)

My only addition is 'Bee calm'.

Like with lots of other things the internet goes off with alarm and the 'end of the world as we know it' statements with people you would hope would have known better trying to scare and worry (motivate?) the inexperienced and the easily alarmed.

The hornet will not be the worst thing ever to get here and affect our bees. That is and will probably always remain the triumvirate of varroa and nosema.....and foolish beekeepers.

Friends in France are carrying on. Pretty well unhindered, although it IS a serious pest in a few pockets. One of them has badminton rackets in all his trucks. They don't think it does much good except to them as the ping of a hornet off the strings does satisfy.

We WILL be extra vigilant around our southern bees in future, but not expecting any kind of carnage.

 

[Nige.Coll]

I kind of hoped bee informed covered that

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[Karol]

I have no wish to get drawn back into the forum but I think this issue deserves comment because of the potential for wider environmental impact.

IMHO the advice to set traps in spring is plain wrong, naïve, ecologically destructive and absolutely counter productive.

In the fight against Velutina, the best friends that honey bees and bee keepers have are native species of wasp. Why?

Quite simply because wasps compete with Velutina. Remove wasp populations by killing queens in traps set in spring and you create the space which Velutina needs to establish itself. If you have healthy wasp populations they will suppress insect populations that would otherwise support Velutina and they will also compete aggressively and fight with Velutina.

I suspect that the UK has had hundreds of Velutina queens imported silently over the past decade in goods from France and elsewhere but they have failed to establish themselves. The last thing that beekeepers should be doing is creating optimum conditions for Velutina to establish itself by removing the native competition.

Moreover, native wasps around the hive are comparatively easy to deal with if you have the right knowledge. Just ask Millet! Velutina is much harder to control around hives so every little bit helps and that includes maintaining a healthy wasp population.

The best thing to do is simply monitor your hives for signs of hawking Velutina. If and when you see Velutina, that'll be the time to act. Don't be sucked into the maelstrom of paranoia circulated in the media and don't set spring traps on the off chance.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Sadly I found 2 native hornets in a wasp trap from last year. No idea how long they had been in there but they looked in good condition other than being dead.

I like the native hornets but hate the wasps. Last year the smaller wasps started it off, then the large ones germanicus? And then both at the same time .
Real fun time.


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[birdsandbees]

I have no wish to get drawn back into the forum but I think this issue deserves comment because of the potential for wider environmental impact.

IMHO the advice to set traps in spring is plain wrong, naïve, ecologically destructive and absolutely counter productive.

In the fight against Velutina, the best friends that honey bees and bee keepers have are native species of wasp. Why?

Quite simply because wasps compete with Velutina. Remove wasp populations by killing queens in traps set in spring and you create the space which Velutina needs to establish itself. If you have healthy wasp populations they will suppress insect populations that would otherwise support Velutina and they will also compete aggressively and fight with Velutina.

I suspect that the UK has had hundreds of Velutina queens imported silently over the past decade in goods from France and elsewhere but they have failed to establish themselves. The last thing that beekeepers should be doing is creating optimum conditions for Velutina to establish itself by removing the native competition.

Moreover, native wasps around the hive are comparatively easy to deal with if you have the right knowledge. Just ask Millet! Velutina is much harder to control around hives so every little bit helps and that includes maintaining a healthy wasp population.

The best thing to do is simply monitor your hives for signs of hawking Velutina. If and when you see Velutina, that'll be the time to act. Don't be sucked into the maelstrom of paranoia circulated in the media and don't set spring traps on the off chance.

I absolutely agree with this and have made the same point numerous times to other Beekeepers, catch and kill traps are not good and as you have said will remove the competition and could create ecological problems.
catch and release traps would be a more sensible approach but will require daily monitoring, not possible for most with out apiaries.

 

[B+.]

The best thing to do is simply monitor your hives for signs of hawking Velutina. If and when you see Velutina, that'll be the time to act. Don't be sucked into the maelstrom of paranoia circulated in the media and don't set spring traps on the off chance.

As always, Karols knowledge and experience cuts right to the heart of the matter.

 

[Beefriendly]

I thought the idea of spring traps at the moment was not control, as we don't have enough colonies (if any) to control (yet), but to determine if they are present and if they are becoming established within the UK. And if so where!
This to me is of major importance.

 

[Nige.Coll]

There is a map on bee base showing the current danger areas. Spring traps were for catching queens I thought.

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[domino]

I'll trap when they arrive in my local area.

 

[Beefriendly]

There is a new smart phone app "Asian Hornet Watch" that allows you to photograph and report any potential sightings. The pictures are good and they will allow you distinguish between the Asian hornet and Common hornet plus a couple of other similar looking species.

 

[Karol]

I thought the idea of spring traps at the moment was not control, as we don't have enough colonies (if any) to control (yet), but to determine if they are present and if they are becoming established within the UK. And if so where!
This to me is of major importance.

I would respectfully suggest that what is of significantly more importance to you is that Velutina does not establish itself in the UK.

The monitoring traps will kill native species at an unacceptably high rate with little if any confidence in their ability to detect Velutina at sporadic sub established levels.

Put it this way.

The average vulgaris or Germanic nest requires circa 4 to 5 metric tonnes of insects to mature. There are maximally 1000 nests per square mile depending on topography.

Velutina requires nominally circa 10 to 15 metric tonnes of insects to mature based on a comparison of optimal biomass based on nest equivalents (i.e. all three species optimally operate at between 2,000 to 5,000 adults per nest)

If you set spring traps and kill three native queens you will be generating sufficient insect surpluses to feed a colony of Velutina. Spring trapping has the potential to vastly kill more native queens than that.

In my own research I have completely denuded local areas of native wasps with spring trapping with horrendous environmental consequences. The thought of bee keepers proactively trapping wasps all over the country terrifies me not only because of the wider rebound pest problem that it will create affecting crops, horticulture, human health etc but also because it will open the door to Velutina to establish itself in areas where normally there would be insufficient insects to support it.

And what will spring trapping achieve above and beyond simply monitoring your hives for the presence of Velutina - nothing!

Now is the time for bee keepers to act responsibly. Spring trapping is irresponsible in the absence of confirmed established Velutina populations.

 

[pargyle]

As always, Karols knowledge and experience cuts right to the heart of the matter.

+ 1 ... Nice to see you posting Karol if only on an occasional basis ...

 

[Beefriendly]

The average vulgaris or Germanic nest requires circa 4 to 5 metric tonnes of insects to mature.

Really!
A mature elephant weights about 1 metric tonne so it's like them sticking 5 elephants into a small paper bag over a period of a few short months. Amazing how they manage to do that. That means in an average nest each wasp larvae, weighing around 0.1g, eats its way through approx 500g of dead insects, 5000x their own weight in 12-18 days.
Isn't nature wonderful.
But wouldn't the laws of physics dictate that the hanging wasps nests couldn't hold that amount of weight and would fall to the ground. Doh!

 

[beebopper]

Well I guess the wasps in France have been a little lazy.