Asian hornets

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
It appears that Jean Pierre from NW France has invented an Asian hornet trap that consists of what looks like a sort of plastic queen excluder type material on two opposite sides of a box with two carefully made conical entrances that allow the hornets in but they cannot find their way out (a bit like clearer board). I could not figure out how he kills them once they're in the box.

The bait is made of honey (looks like honey and beeswax to me). JP has somehow persuaded the local young people to help make these things. They are very successful with very few European Hornets caught in the trap - 90 to 95% Asian Hornets.

I knew the 'O' level French would come in useful one day!

CVB
 
Would I be right in thinking that the feeding and foraging habits of honey bees tend towards them being 'on' something -- rasberry flowers, yellow rattle -- rather than 'in' it, for example the flowers of the foxglove or the antirrhinum (snap dragon), whereas those habits of the wasp, asian hornet and bumble bees tends towards the 'in' rather than the 'on'? Should this be the case then anything that has a narrow entrance with a suitable bait on the other side should form a trap for the second group of creatures and making the hole in the trap of a small enough size would prevent the ingress of bumblebees?

Also, would I be right in thinking that the threat from AH's with respect to honey bees does not arise in the early part of the spring and summer but only towards the autumn?

Just thinking out loud really and trying to mentally devise a trap for all the stingy, bitey creatures I don't like and excluding all those that I do.
 
ShinySideUp said:
Would I be right in thinking that the feeding and foraging habits of honey bees tend towards them being 'on' something -- rasberry flowers, yellow rattle -- rather than 'in' it, for example the flowers of the foxglove or the antirrhinum (snap dragon),.
Click to expand...

Not really, think HB and bees go in them. The answer lies in the distance to the nectar. Bees don't have long enpough tongues to reach the nectar in foxgloves or normal Buddleigh, whereas bumble bees and butterflies do.
 
Sadly the flaw with this trapping system is that it targets VV during the sweet feeding phase after the sexual progeny have left the nest so it's not likely to eradicate VV long term.

IMHO the only way to exterminate VV is through targetted nest destruction before the nest has chance to reproduce. Mazzamazda's method is on point and I understand he has virtually wiped out all VV in his area without the use of traps.
 
Isn't there something like this already made by Vita
 

Attachments

  • Api-Shield1-300x264.jpg
    Api-Shield1-300x264.jpg
    6.9 KB · Views: 12
charlievictorbravo said:
It appears that Jean Pierre from NW France has invented an Asian hornet trap that consists of what looks like a sort of plastic queen excluder type material on two opposite sides of a box with two carefully made conical entrances that allow the hornets in but they cannot find their way out (a bit like clearer board). I could not figure out how he kills them once they're in the box.



The bait is made of honey (looks like honey and beeswax to me). JP has somehow persuaded the local young people to help make these things. They are very successful with very few European Hornets caught in the trap - 90 to 95% Asian Hornets.



I knew the 'O' level French would come in useful one day!



CVB
Click to expand...



Thank you for that!
I can’t see an obvious reason why honey bees aren’t trapped.
If it’s a size thing, the dimensions must be precise .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Could it be that once Asian hornets are in or around the trap Honey Bees might have the wit to steer clear??
 
applejack33 said:
Could it be that once Asian hornets are in or around the trap Honey Bees might have the wit to steer clear??
Click to expand...



Any honey bee has an escape route through the slotted section .
The honeybee is under attack all through the season from hornets . It’s the mob attack that makes them so vulnerable !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Karol said:
Sadly the flaw with this trapping system is that it targets VV during the sweet feeding phase after the sexual progeny have left the nest so it's not likely to eradicate VV long term.

IMHO the only way to exterminate VV is through targetted nest destruction before the nest has chance to reproduce. Mazzamazda's method is on point and I understand he has virtually wiped out all VV in his area without the use of traps.
Click to expand...

Mazzamazda's method I think uses a sweet egg and sugar syrup custard laced with Fipronil insecticide. The hornets are stunned or caught in a net and have their abdomen painted with the custard, then released. On returning to their nest, the other hornets clean them up, thus the Fipronil is introduced into the nest, which eventually dies.

As you say it is a targeted method with no initial damage to non-target species. My concerns with the method (and I don't know how justified these concerns may be) are that an area that has been largely cleared of Asian Hornets by this method is left with Fipronil 'bombs' in trees that may eventually become a source of food for native species of wildlife - insects, birds, mammals. In death, the hornets may end up killing more insects than if they'd stayed alive. I suppose it is, in the words of Capt. Jack Aubrey, the "lesser of two weevils".

CVB
 
Last edited:
Your concerns are unfounded.

The formulation has a very short shelf life and has to be used immediately that it's prepared. After a few hours the fipronil goes off and no longer works.

The second reason is that the method is far less environmentally hazardous than currently approved vespine nest treatments. A wasp nest treated with ficam will see circa 200 to 300 wasps disperse ficam randomly across several hundred sq meters with the nest remaining a repository of active pesticide. (Poisoned wasps leave the nest as a defence mechanism to try to protect the rest of the colony). But no one questions direct nest treatment with ficam! Mazzamazda's method sees a small handful of hornets deliver a magic bullet of a very small amount of short acting pesticide to the nest which because of the method of application acts as a trophallaxis trojan that doesn't immediately kill the vector but does ensure a high probability of the queen being directly fed a lethal dose thereby terminating the nest before sexual progeny are produced, i.e. eradicating the species in a highly sophisticated and targetted way.
 
Karol said:
Your concerns are unfounded.

The formulation has a very short shelf life and has to be used immediately that it's prepared. After a few hours the fipronil goes off and no longer works.
Click to expand...

Really?
Fipronil orally administered to rats half life was 6-8 days.
Half life of Fipronil in aerated soils is 122-128 days.
Data taken from the Fipronil Technical fact sheet.
Something you would be well advised to read.
 
As much as I'm flattered to be your obsession Prof, you are so tiresome.

VV exposed to fresh formulation died within minutes. VV exposed to the formulation after several hours did not die. Likely flight time back to nest couple minutes.

It is a magic bullet and Mazzamazda has to all intents and purposes eradicated all the hornets in his area (without affecting other native vespines).

If you understand metastatic disease then you'll understand the need for continued chemo to mop up every secondary which is the stage that Mazzamazda is at.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top