AsianHornet trap bycatch

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How are they a defence? Native wasps will be consumed by AHs, and the EHs will stay out of their way. Can't see any native insects are in a position to even slightly bother an AH.
They occupy a very similar ecological niche, and thus compete for resources. By having a strong population of natives and EHs, the resources for AH are restricted, and makes their establishment more difficult.

Which is why by-catch is a problem, and a non-trapping wick bait is preferable.
 
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How are they a defence? Native wasps will be consumed by AHs, and the EHs will stay out of their way. Can't see any native insects are in a position to even slightly bother an AH.
rubbish!
 
The current weather is killing off queen wasps locally without any help from me. Found two dead in a week: unheard of this time of year.
Last time we had mass queen wasp die off was in 2012 and before that 2004. It's not unusual. Mild winters and inclement Springs and early Summers are very challenging for wasps. I disturbed a germanic nest in a pile of rubble whilst working on a garden project and it was at least a month behind development wise.

The silver cloud is that if native vespines are struggling then it will be even harder for velutina.
 
Seems that way but as I said. It was a small sample. Perhaps the biodiversity is smaller than say in France.
 
This analysis of prey species from Jersey and the U.K. ( admittedly from a small sample) is an interesting read too
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/3/511
Thank you for this link. It's certainly an interesting paper. I don't think there are any surprises in it but it is good to see corroboration of what is generally understood of velutina's diet.

The results need to be taken in the context of the life cycle of each nest. By that I mean that the diet will vary considerably by virtue of where the nest is in it's development in relation to the surrounding ecology at that particular time.

So for example, sampling of grubs earlier in the season such as those sampled in the Jersey nest are expected to be light on wasps because wasp numbers will still be relatively low. Wasp numbers build later in the year and the fact that wasps become a greater proportion of the diet in the September and October nests shows the nests are struggling to develop sufficiently on other easier prey. What would be helpful would be to understand the size of the sampled nests. It's clear they hadn't produced sexuals because they were still hunting for prey.

The other take away from the study by virtue of the Jersey nest analysis is confirmation that velutina does reasonably well in coastal locations because of the greater numbers of carrion flies naturally found around coastal areas. This bears out the experience of Portugal where velutina is concentrated in coastal regions.

IMHO the study re-inforces the need to preserve native vespines to deny velutina much needed resources early in the season through competition so that nest development is inhibited sufficiently to prevent successful production of sexuals.
 
So a corollary from that study could be that wasps form a large proprtion of their diet, and that wasp nests act as a decoy for bees...
The bit that is missing is the size of the nests when sampled. A 50% wasp diet in a vastly under populated velutina nest is a good thing. It shows that velutina is struggling to find easier more abundant prey and small numbers of wasps taken don't reflect casualty rates amongst hunting velutina which creates a very positive feedback loop. The more hunting hornets that don't make it back, the more the remaining hunting hornets are forced to go for wasps the less resources get to the development of larvae and sexuals.
 
They say a picture paints a million words.

This video should persuade everyone of the value of protecting native vespines:



You'll notice just how few wasps are actually taken by the hornets and just how many hornets are killed by wasps. bear in mind these are giant asian hornets so more fearsome than velutina.
 
The bit that is missing is the size of the nests when sampled. A 50% wasp diet in a vastly under populated velutina nest is a good thing. It shows that velutina is struggling to find easier more abundant prey and small numbers of wasps taken don't reflect casualty rates amongst hunting velutina which creates a very positive feedback loop. The more hunting hornets that don't make it back, the more the remaining hunting hornets are forced to go for wasps the less resources get to the development of larvae and sexuals.
Thanks for the additional insights. Huge value.
 
They occupy a very similar ecological niche, and thus compete for resources. By having a strong population of natives and EHs, the resources for AH are restricted, and makes their establishment more difficult.

Which is why by-catch is a problem, and a non-trapping wick bait is preferable.
Similar niche and diet, yes, but I am inclined to think that a strong population of native wasps simply provides a better buffet for AHs.
 
Similar niche and diet, yes, but I am inclined to think that a strong population of native wasps simply provides a better buffet for AHs.
Why so? The video clip I linked to earlier shows how wasps destroy hornets hawking at the nest.



Velutina and Crabro have different hunting styles because they occupy different niches. Crabro as an apex predator lags in development behind wasps. What this means is that it can capitalise on wasps swarm feeding on sweet food stuffs where the wasps do not engage in collective defensive behaviour. This allows Crabro to take solitary wasps but numbers are small so Crabro colonies are limited to between 200 to 400 adults per nest.

Velutina on the other hand has to race to produce sexuals because their colonies are so large which means development runs parallel to that of wasps meaning the only realistic way Velutina can take sufficient wasps to meet the needs of the brood is to hawk at nests which brings the results seen in the video clip.
 
Why so? The video clip I linked to earlier shows how wasps destroy hornets hawking at the nest.



Velutina and Crabro have different hunting styles because they occupy different niches. Crabro as an apex predator lags in development behind wasps. What this means is that it can capitalise on wasps swarm feeding on sweet food stuffs where the wasps do not engage in collective defensive behaviour. This allows Crabro to take solitary wasps but numbers are small so Crabro colonies are limited to between 200 to 400 adults per nest.

Velutina on the other hand has to race to produce sexuals because their colonies are so large which means development runs parallel to that of wasps meaning the only realistic way Velutina can take sufficient wasps to meet the needs of the brood is to hawk at nests which brings the results seen in the video clip.
The defensive behavior that the wasps show in the video is the same that the Japanese honey bee has with respect to the mandarin hornet or the one that my bees displayed when I dropped a partially knocked out velutina and it is the same that the nurses show when they want to eliminate a unwanted queen in one's own hive. The curious thing is that this behavior has nothing to do with who eats whom.
 
The defensive behavior that the wasps show in the video is the same that the Japanese honey bee has with respect to the mandarin hornet or the one that my bees displayed when I dropped a partially knocked out velutina and it is the same that the nurses show when they want to eliminate a unwanted queen in one's own hive. The curious thing is that this behavior has nothing to do with who eats whom.
Not sure that's entirely true.

Honey bees have barbed stings and it takes many honey bees to kill one hornet unless they ball the hornet. Wasps on the other hand have serrated stingers which allow for multiple stings without risk to the wasp. It takes far fewer wasps to kill a hornet. Honey bees are herbivores whereas wasps are carnivores and so will quite happily feed a despatched hornet to their brood.
 
Honey bees have barbed stings and it takes many honey bees to kill one hornet unless they ball the hornet. Wasps on the other hand have serrated stingers which allow for multiple stings without risk to the wasp
I don't think bees lose their sting and associated innards when they sting something soft like a wasp?
 
I don't think bees lose their sting and associated innards when they sting something soft like a wasp?
By and large they don't, that's true. The architecture of the stinger is quite fascinating and is made up of three linear elements, namely the stylet and two lancets. When hymenopterans sting the lancets alternately slide up and down the stylet in a sawing action and venom is pumped along the channel created between the three elements. The barbs on the honeybee lancets act to reduce the penetrative pressure required to puncture tissue so honeybees are able to sting more easily than wasps which don't have barbed lancets. However, the down side is that the force required for the honeybee to extract its stinger is considerably greater which makes it harder for the honeybee to detach itself quickly leaving the honeybee open to counter attack. So, even though the honeybee may not lose its stinger, it will quite likely sacrifice itself in the attack as a consequence. Wasps on the other hand require greater force to drive their stinger into their victim but they have the advantage of being able to quickly detach, i.e. able to conduct multiple hit and run attacks. That being the case, wasps defending their nest are far more capable of overwhelming hornets and it takes far fewer wasps to do so.
 

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