Asian Hornet update

[Karol]

You keep banging on about this - it's sounding more and more like a sales pitch by the day. Is this going to be the latest waspbane product?

No. Purely philanthropic. Have no wish to get involved commercially with pesticides. Legally it would take years to register such a product and currently it is illegal to sell fipronil for off label use or to provide off label pest control services.

And just so that you know we don't sell traps for VV because we do not believe it to be ecologically sound to do so.

 

[Karol]

Isn't it more like:

Diploid Drones are produced from unfertilized eggs laid by a queen who's mother has mated with sibling (uncle) drones ...

ie diploid drones result from incestuous mating by the drones' grandparents (and/or previous generations?).

Thank you for pointing out my mistake. Meant to say from fertilized eggs.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...FjAMegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw0HtYJc4pCh40rGPltbHSxd

And I acknowledge and thank you for pointing out that diploid males can also be produced in unfertilized eggs from incestually mated grandparents.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

And just so that you know we don't sell traps for VV because we do not believe it to be ecologically sound to do so.

But splashing dog flea killer around like Henry Cooper with a bottle of Brut 33 is?

 

[Karol]

It's not splashing anything around.

 

[Stiffy]

It's not splashing anything around.

May I suggest the ‘ignore’ function, works well with petulant Trolls ?
S

 

[domino]

Would it be fair to say the hornet has established itself in the UK?

 

[Karol]

I would say not. We've had a number of incursions but no evidence of sustained successful propagation from one season to the next.

 

[Pete D]

No not yet.
We don't seem to have had several nests in the same area that have come from a previous years nest.
We have had several hitch hikers this year and 3 colonies (4 nests).
Its been a really good year for wasps and European hornets so it probably follows that its been good for the Asian Hornets too.
Spring monitoring trapping will be important again in 2019. As will public awareness, we cant just rely on beekeepers. Only 1 of the nests found this year was because of a report from a beekeeper.
Have we missed a nest, quite possibly, is every beekeeper and AHAT still monitoring traps, apiaries and forage sites, probably not.
Despite all the news and awareness on AH we still have beekeepers reporting Europeans, wood wasps and hover flies.
Are we all doing our bit. Did Asian Hornet week make any ripples.
Are all associations banging the drum on hornets...............
Are we are all in this together ? Guess we will be soon.

 

[domino]

Its been a really good year for wasps and European hornets so it probably follows that its been good for the Asian Hornets too.

I've seen loads of European hornets this year, it has been good fun to watch them at work.

 

[madasafish]

I've seen loads of European hornets this year, it has been good fun to watch them at work.

+1
First year I have seen one flying (Association Apiary)
First time I have caught one in trap in garden.

Don't want to have firsts like above with Asian hornet.

 

[enrico]

Was watching a large spider n the centre of its web. A hornet flew past me and hit the spider hard. Flew off with it. Never seen that before!
E

 

[user 819]

Awareness among the general public I find is very low.
Those with an interest and proactive in nature or landowners may be aware.


I mentioned it to a tree surgeon I know who generally is knowledgeable and he hadn't a clue. Also I made a thread of it on a non beek forum and most on there were unaware.


In my mind any awareness campaign is having little effect or the general public aren't interested or care. Once V.v get a hold proper in the country and nests are found in the suburbs with our close density sprawl of housing then they will start bleating we didn't know.

 

[Brian Bush]

I've seen loads of European hornets this year, it has been good fun to watch them at work.

Earlier this year I encountered 1 in my garden this is only the second time in 20 years.
In June I was working in an out apiary and found European hornets nesting in an empty beehive. Fortunately they had built their nest on a queen excluder and could not fly up to meet me.
They were hawking a NC hive and reluctantly I felt it best to destroy them. I have a picture of the nest. I do not think it was complete as the lower end was open.

 

[Stiffy]

Never seen a hornet in the far SW , so any which turned up would get very close inspection.
S

 

[For want of a better word]

Never seen a hornet in the far SW , so any which turned up would get very close inspection.
S

Hornets.....Still out and about this morning up by the cheese factory... about as far SW as I go.
Acquaintance in St Agnes commented that hornets were going for the feeder sides of his Paynes polly nucs!

Yeghes da

 

[Pete D]

Awareness among the general public I find is very low.
I mentioned it to a tree surgeon I know who generally is knowledgeable and he hadn't a clue. Also I made a thread of it on a non beek forum and most on there were unaware.

In my mind any awareness campaign is having little effect or the general public aren't interested or care. Once V.v get a hold proper in the country and nests are found in the suburbs with our close density sprawl of housing then they will start bleating we didn't know.

It needs to be on countryfile, ie look out for these eating pollinators in your garden or eating rotting fruit
or and Springwatch / Autumn watch
One show
and in the Sun and daily mail

 

[Stiffy]

Hornets.....Still out and about this morning up by the cheese factory... about as far SW as I go.
Acquaintance in St Agnes commented that hornets were going for the feeder sides of his Paynes polly nucs!

Yeghes da

I would advise whoever your acquaintance is to have a good look to ensure they are not VV as there are only 4 records of European hornets SW of Bodmin and they are from 1989 and 2009.
S

 

[Erichalfbee]

It needs to be on countryfile, ie look out for these eating pollinators in your garden or eating rotting fruit
or and Springwatch / Autumn watch
One show
and in the Sun and daily mail

Was watching a large spider n the centre of its web. A hornet flew past me and hit the spider hard. Flew off with it. Never seen that before!
E

Wow! Now that I would have loved to see.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

I would advise whoever your acquaintance is to have a good look to ensure they are not VV as there are only 4 records of European hornets SW of Bodmin and they are from 1989 and 2009.
S

I don't know what part of Cornwall you're in but in the south-east corner, we've been inundated with European Hornets (EH) this year. In the apiary near Liskeard where one Asian Hornet (AH) was found, the local AHAT helped the SBIs by watching the hive areas while they were out interviewing landowners and putting up traps. The EHs in that apiary were a real problem, taking bees and wasps on the wing just like we've seen AHs do the same.

We reckoned that there were at least 4, possibly more, nests contributing to the influx of EH, judging by the directions in which they were flying off. At one stage I calculated that the EHs were taking one bee every 3 minutes from 4 hives that I was watching. In another apiary, on the Rame Peninsular, we had one trap that had 30 European Hornets in it, collected over 2 days. The hornets were changing bee behaviour in both apiaries.

Since I've been beekeeping in Cornwall (5 years) I've seen no more than one or two EH a year so this year has been exceptional.

I'd be interested to hear from somebody with knowledge of AHs when it would be reasonable to stop monitoring the traps and to put them away until next spring.

Regarding the traps, the stuff they're using as an attractant in Jersey, Sutera, though costly, has been found to be a very effective attractant for wasps and hornets.

CVB

 

[Ian123]

Ok what’s sutera I googled it and got a place in Italy and a plant