Asian Hornet - Update

[MartinL]

Fleas with giant penises!?!?! Whatever next?!

According to the R.S.P.B. we have giant hornets too!
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38174

Picture of Japanese Hornet (V Mandarinia) in the latest Mag

How do I load pics onto the forum??

 

[madasafish]

According to the R.S.P.B. we have giant hornets too!
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38174

Picture of Japanese Hornet (V Mandarinia) in the latest Mag

How do I load pics onto the forum??

Manage Attachments below

 

[For want of a better word]

just underneath the first headline "'Super-fleas' with giant penises are set to invade Cornwall this autumn"

Thanks to Bayer our two Collies and Springer have managed to avoid them.... well that and the extortionate price of second homes hereabouts!!

Yeghes da

 

[Plenty of honey]

Save that the catch treat and release method is far more likely to prevent nests reaching maturation and therefore prevent queens from ever being released so the need for spring trapping is removed. It is important however that the technique is employed even if numbers of hornets fall to low levels where it becomes an effort. That's when you're most likely to eradicate the problem entirely. As for your colleagues having problems where they've not been spring trapping the catch treat and release method would as mazzamazda has neatly illustrated, quickly bring their problem under control.

The problem is Karol, you will never entirely eradicate the problem. Yes I would agree that it is an excellent control however, on the ground, practically it's a lot of work at a time of year when we're harvesting and processing. At this time in my beekeeping career, I and many others would certainly not be happy to sit back and wait for all over wintered Asian queens to start their nests and subsequently build up until they become a real problem. I feel their would be so many nests that the amount of hornets would be enormous!!
Beekeepers with only a few hives may well indeed have more time to concentrate on the problem and catch and treat when numbers are low but to me, I would rather catch queens, easily and without any real work, before they turn in to problem nests. Then concentrate on the other method if necessary later in the season. Queens can still be found and caught flying in late May here, so potentially the catch period is around 8 weeks. Attractant works and lasts a long time as it's cooler than the summer months.
Your not wrong in your approach. We need to have a coordinated and well proven protocol that we can put in place once we've found the best control method.
If the French government had ploughed money in to a catch and release policy at the start, we wouldn't be having this problem, the U.K. Authorities have reacted well, in a timely fashion .

It is however, as we've said before, a matter of when, not if we see other infestations.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Heard today that some SBIs have been informed they may be kept on for a little longer this year to go hornet hunting.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Heard today that some SBIs have been informed they may be kept on for a little longer this year to go hornet hunting.

Thought they had killed all of them...or are they sending the seasonal bee inspectors over to France.

 

[Karol]

The problem is Karol, you will never entirely eradicate the problem.

Not sure that I agree. Beekeepers are excellent sentinels and if enough beekeepers get on board then I think it would be possible to eradicate the problem entirely.

Yes I would agree that it is an excellent control however, on the ground, practically it's a lot of work at a time of year when we're harvesting and processing.

But ideally one would want to be catching, treating and releasing at the earliest moment that hornets start hawking around the hives. Presumably that'll be before harvesting.

At this time in my beekeeping career, I and many others would certainly not be happy to sit back and wait for all over wintered Asian queens to start their nests and subsequently build up until they become a real problem. I feel their would be so many nests that the amount of hornets would be enormous!!

The number of nests would be self limiting but I agree this could be at a much higher level if left unchecked but that's not what is being suggested. The use of spring traps is not specific to velutina and that's the problem. The catch and release method is. Whilst I can see the attraction of using spring traps in areas of high pressure, it's not a clever way to go on a sustained basis because of the potential for the collateral harm it could do.

Beekeepers with only a few hives may well indeed have more time to concentrate on the problem and catch and treat when numbers are low but to me, I would rather catch queens, easily and without any real work, before they turn in to problem nests. Then concentrate on the other method if necessary later in the season. Queens can still be found and caught flying in late May here, so potentially the catch period is around 8 weeks. Attractant works and lasts a long time as it's cooler than the summer months.

When I first ventured into wasp control I tried setting traps in spring. At the time I was naïve about the ecological importance of wasps. The spring trapping exercise was highly successful in the location that it was deployed and the wasp population crashed. Unfortunately so did the fruit crops that the traps were set to protect. The crops were completely riddled with pests. I had never seen plums roiling with maggots before - perhaps the odd maggot here and there - but it was like something out of a horror movie. It took two seasons for the wasp population to recover to the point where fruit yields returned to acceptable levels.

Your not wrong in your approach. We need to have a coordinated and well proven protocol that we can put in place once we've found the best control method.
If the French government had ploughed money in to a catch and release policy at the start, we wouldn't be having this problem, the U.K. Authorities have reacted well, in a timely fashion.

As you say the UK is in a different position not just in it's approach but also because IMHO it will be much harder for velutina to establish itself here.

It is however, as we've said before, a matter of when, not if we see other infestations.

It's inevitable that velutina will make landfall in the UK whilst there's a reservoir in neighbouring European countries but that does not mean that it will successfully colonize the UK. And there's every prospect that beekeepers in neighbouring countries will form the bulwark against velutina once the efficacy of the capture, treat and release method is understood.

Still think that adapting the method to daub laced syrup/syrup paste would improve efficacy.

 

[Karol]

Catching hundreds of queen Asian Hornets in spring sounds like it has made a difference in the part of France where Richard is based... would there of been less Asian Hornet nests and therefore less of a problem for his bees if he had not killed those queens in spring?

Only reporting that I'd seen a paper to the effect that spring trapping hadn't been effective. Given the vagaries of different trap designs and techniques I wouldn't put much store into the results of the paper. That said there is the possibility of regional variations in local populations which could also account for lower numbers - not that I'm suggesting that to be the case in this instance.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thought they had killed all of them...or are they sending the seasonal bee inspectors over to France.

Tetbury - but then I suppose Engerlund is a foreign country.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Only reporting that I'd seen a paper to the effect that spring trapping hadn't been effective. Given the vagaries of different trap designs and techniques I wouldn't put much store into the results of the paper. That said there is the possibility of regional variations in local populations which could also account for lower numbers - not that I'm suggesting that to be the case in this instance.

I completely see your point of view Karol, However these traps i use dont seem to attract wasps or queen wasps. Their hop and grape attractant base, which dosent seem to be an attractive for wasps, you would know far more about that!!
I would say it is effective, will have to agree to differ on this one. To me if your only catching the target pest, with no chemicals involved, whats the issue.
I did omit to say that when i trap in the spring, there is a period very early in the season when Asian queens seem to fly and the common hornet queens dont. This year i was getting four or five queens per 5 days in each trap and no common hornets ( over a 3 week period), not until it warmed up in may did i start to catch a few common hornet queens. so i would say that for me, personally i would say that spring trapping is effective.
I cannot be in 8 apiaries at once and theres no sign in a fall in population of common hornets and also a build up of other nuisance pests.
its a no brainer for me at the moment.
Theres no doubt we dont want to encourage mass panic trapping with the wrong type of traps, targeting anything else that Asian hornet queens. I am with you on that one!!!

 

[Brian Bush]

I appreciate Karol's comments about the dangers of trapping and the harm this will do to our native species. We have to maintain a balance in our actions.
I have been thinking long and hard about this dilemma since reading the updates earlier today.
Following the talk by our NBI last year on the Asian hornet which he had been to France to study control of I made a few notes.
He said that the Asian hornet was so ravenous in its predation of all insects that there is a massive drop in the numbers of mosquitos, hoverflies, wasps etc. in infested areas.
Therefore I think that it would be a responsible course of action to trap next Spring, with a possible effect on local insect populations to ensure that this years episode at Tetbury was truly a one off.
As I said in an earlier post this has been a catalyst for members of this forum to stop their petty quarrels and everyone pull together.
All those forum members who are 'under the radar' for whatever reason should apply a little common sense and register all hive locations with Beebase immediately. There is no logical reason for anyone being irresponsible in this manner. (I moaned before about irresponsible people putting other beekeepers at risk during outbreaks of foul brood)
We should all be congratulating our fellow BEEKS on their vigilance and praising them for finding the first dead pest and locating the general area of the nest.
Next year I will place traps in all my apiaries to ensure that their are none lurking in the wider community. If there are no more reports next year then I will cease the practice until the next emergency.
I will definitely be more vigilant next year and ask SWMBO for one of these electronic badminton racquets for Crimbo.
If I am unfortunate enough to encounter one of the pests I am persuaded that the insecticide and release method has the best chance of controlling the hornets. It is also specific and should have minimal effect on other wildlife. (I do not know whether wax moths show any interest in abandoned/killed hornet nests?)
If this nest is not a one off ,beekeepers are the only group with the motivation, numbers and resources to combat them in any meaningful way. Tracking down this one nest took several days, many man hours and probably ate a large proportion of limited budgets.
Fellow Beeks I urge you to all review your plans and have a solid idea of how you will contribute in this task.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Kitty-Kat as bait mixed with a few mils of Fipronil also appears to be one of the ways to wipe out wasp nests.

Fipronil available from Amazon, E Bay and many leading hardware and department stores.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8...hvtargid=kwd-541121368&ref=pd_sl_4jgcr2plee_e

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_n...rvr_id=1103552090767&poi=&adpos=1o1&geo_id=32

 

[Karol]

If as you say Richard, your trap is highly selective for velutina queens then I agree I can't see the problem either. BUT that requires a common standard to be followed by everyone and extensive testing to prove the point.

As for your comment about not being able to guard all eight apiaries all the time then I think that that's a misnomer. With the capture, treat and release method you'd only have to do it on the occasions that you visit the apiaries as a campaigned routine. If this were multiplied up for each beekeeper then I remain convinced that within three years you'd be free of velutina.

 

[Karol]

Brian I think we will have to agree to disagree. With no evidence of colonisation I think it is foolhardy to deploy spring trapping.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

All those forum members who are 'under the radar' for whatever reason should apply a little common sense and register all hive locations with Beebase immediately.

With the added threat of persecution from the VMD I think we'll find the opposite happening.

 

[Brigsy]

Indeed. My association forwards the nbu emails so People would be aware of outbreaks. And would notify likewise.

Not that I have yet....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gilberdyke John]

With the added threat of persecution from the VMD I think we'll find the opposite happening.

I would think that's a racing certainty

 

[maddydog]

With the added threat of persecution from the VMD I think we'll find the opposite happening.

Exactly

 

[madasafish]

I would think that's a racing certainty

Well they have my honey sample. If I am persecuted I'll blame all forum members as I cannot be at fault - ever..

 

[Karol]

Kitty-Kat as bait mixed with a few mils of Fipronil also appears to be one of the ways to wipe out wasp nests.

Fipronil available from Amazon, E Bay and many leading hardware and department stores.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8...hvtargid=kwd-541121368&ref=pd_sl_4jgcr2plee_e

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_n...rvr_id=1103552090767&poi=&adpos=1o1&geo_id=32

And highly irresponsible. Thought you were better than this Hivemaker!

There are lots of non target species that'll take kitty-kat. Please anyone reading this, don't do this - it's irresponsible and ecologically insensitive.