Asian Hornets

[mazzamazda]

One of the things that contributed to the spread of AH in France is the fact that a property owner might have to pay for nest removal. Thus a disincentive to reporting nests if they were not bothering the property owners.
Hopefully in the U.K. nest removal will remain free of charge and bureaucracy will be kept to a minimum.
I’m with Mazzamazda on the issue of Fipronil. The amount being used on the hornets seems insignificant compared to the amount used to treat dogs for fleas. I spoke to a beekeeper near St Malo this summer and he was catching the hornets in a fishing net and putting a very small drop of neat Fipronil on their backs. He said that this considerably reduced the number of AH predating his hives.

This was the method I was using early 2014, most don’t make it back to the nest, most die immediately, if one does make it back it seems to knock the foragers back quite a lot, similar to trapping though, only works on the foragers so as long as the queen isn’t affected they still produce. There is another big downside, more fipronil in the air and I know beekeepers who lost many hives to this method. Mixing with egg and sugar and a very low dose is still far far superior imo.

 

[OldFarm]

Strikes me that the message about trapping isn't getting home.

If velutina traps are so effective, why is there a perpetual problem in those areas of mainland Europe where the traps are being used?

If, in the UK we get to the point where we have to use velutina traps then we have lost the plot and allowed velutina to establish itself. That may well happen if we continue to think trapping instead of disruption and eradication.

There was a lot of early resistance to traps because of the level of destruction of none target insects, though I think attitudes changed when the penny dropped that an average colony consumed over 11kg of prey in a season. The traps we're looking at now are a result of several years development, they are far more selective, most of the by-catch escapes. Every queen trapped in the autumn and spring is one less nest to deal with.

Trapping is just part of the solution.

 

[user 819]

These simply don’t work in Portugal never mind the U.K., again they target foragers, they work their way around the defence, the ones that are shocked are quickly replaced. One splash of rain and they short circuit. It’s a moneymaking scheme same as the traps.

Good to know your thought's , it is feed back and info like this that we need to know about.

 

[user 819]

Haven't heard of any in Southampton

On 08 September NBU posted two nests located and destroyed in Soton.

 

[Skinfaxi]

It is a pole of about 20 m, at the upper end it has a firecracker with an explosive that is activated from the bottom by releasing a small spark into the detonator of the firecracker.
Photo of the explosion and the pole.

Coooool

 

[Skinfaxi]

Our local farmer agent orange just sprayed this close to me the whole area stinks of chemical and burns the nose. Dont seem anyone to worried about him and many others driving about in a 10 000l spray can.
Wonder if any residues can be found here mmm

 

[OldFarm]

I don't use it on my dog!
I used to years ago and then one day he shook himself abruptly just after I'd put it on and it sprayed all over the kitchen cupboard next to him. It took the paint off wherever it touched.
That was a serious reminder how noxious the stuff is. Since then I just make sure his bedding is washed every week and he's not had any problems with fleas. So probably didn't need the stuff to start with.

We have hedgehogs in the garden, the dogs like to say hello and almost always come away with fleas. I avoided flea treatment for the dogs for years, but moving here to the hog hot spot, it's necessary.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hedgehog fleas are host specific and don’t live on dogs

 

[The Poot]

Hedgehog fleas are host specific and don’t live on dogs

Do dogs pick up ticks from hedgehogs?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Mine never has, but then he doesn't play football with them

 

[Wilco]

Do dogs pick up ticks from hedgehogs?

They can do. Hedgehogs seem very parasite ridden in my experience. Think the hedgehog flea can infest people though I'm not sure.

 

[Erichalfbee]

From the British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Do all hedgehogs have fleas and do they need them?​

Not all hedgehogs have fleas; many of those rescued have none. However, hedgehogs do not NEED their fleas to survive, that’s an old wives’ tale. Hedgehog fleas are host specific so while they may jump onto a cat or dog, they won’t infest them.

 

[Wilco]

From the British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Do all hedgehogs have fleas and do they need them?​

Not all hedgehogs have fleas; many of those rescued have none. However, hedgehogs do not NEED their fleas to survive, that’s an old wives’ tale. Hedgehog fleas are host specific so while they may jump onto a cat or dog, they won’t infest them.

In practice I have never seen a hedgehog without fleas. Most also have ticks round here too, and not just one or two. They generally didn't have any of either by the time we passed them on to the local hedgehog rescue.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Of course. The debate is whether hedgehog fleas infest dogs
Having been involved with hedgehog rescue most hogs go to rescue first then to the vets if needed.

 

[OldFarm]

Hedgehog fleas are host specific and don’t live on dogs

Interesting. At the time, our dog never left the farm unless it was to go to the vet. He would periodically pick up fleas, which I had always associated with his hedgehog encounters. So perhaps if I had taken no action, the fleas would all of died.

 

[mazzamazda]

The usual pics coming from the indiscriminate trapping in Portugal. Height of attack season there are the temperatures cool.

 

[Karol]

View attachment 37764
The usual pics coming from the indiscriminate trapping in Portugal. Height of attack season there are the temperatures cool.

Thank you for the photo Mazzamazda. A picture is better than a thousand words.

So the by-catch includes crabro (European hornet), germanica (German wasp) and vulgaris (Common wasp) queens.

Criminal IMHO!

 

[rolande]

If the wiki colour chart of some of the other Asian hornet markings from across Asia is accurate it's likely to turn into an unholy massacre of our natives if any of the other variants reach us.

 

[The Poot]

Don’t let Klaus Schwab see that, or else they’ll be next on the menu! Might make a nice change from crickets though.

On a serious note, Karol is right, it’s downright criminal and must be seriously harming European hornet numbers.

 

[roche]

Sometimes these rules appear ridiculous (I'd say the use of OA for varroa control would be such a case). Sometimes they're really important. The problem is that it's not always possible for the layman to decide which is which. Taking another product that is close to the beekeeper's heart, the use of Bacillus thuringiensis is supposed to be controlled, but it's easily available online and people who don't understand the issues are able to use it incorrectly. As a result there are species that are becoming resistant.

Fipronil could turn out to be an excellent control for AH. However, at an incorrect low dose it might be possible for AH to become resistant, and then we're in an even worse place. An excessive dose on the other hand might hang around in the environment sufficiently long to become harmful to other animals (I think it's fairly indiscriminate where insects are concerned and is also toxic to some fish, amongst others). Those animals might be quite important to us as pollinators or for other reasons. Or it might get into the food chain and generate yet another set of problems.

James

So this posed, after a pause, the basic question - is it possible for AH to become resistant to fipronil?