Heather
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2008
- Messages
- 4,133
- Reaction score
- 128
- Location
- Newick, East Sussex
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
Just passing on a letter from the Sussex BKA Chairman to our bee Inspector.
I have just spent ten days at our house in Lower Normandy which is about 40 miles south of Caen, in the Department of the Orne.
I was somewhat taken aback to discover on our arrival there that we had become host this year to the Asian Hornet ( Vespa Velutina) which has taken a mere 6 years to cover over 600 kilometers from the site where it was first seen in central France in 2004-5. Clearly this rate of expansion could not have come about by newly mated queens' movements as they do not swarm and I have concluded that it is very probable that they have hitched rides in timber, straw and other such goods transported during the winter months each year to reach new areas.
As several thousand lorries use the Caen and le Havre to Portsmouth ferries each year it now seems extremely likely that we will be hosting this insect in Sussex and elsewhere in the UK very much sooner than might have been hoped.
Interestingly having captured several workers over the space of a few days then releasing them some distance away in an open field it became clear from their lines of departure that we might already have more than one nest in the vicinity as against none a year ago. Their presence was easy to identify from the single orange stripe on the abdomen and orange face. They were strongly attracted to a quantity of rotting pears that had fallen from a tree in our orchard, specifically a wild type pear, and they had taken no notice of other more recently fallen fruits nearby. Several dozen workers were around feeding each day from mid morning to evening between 19 Sept when we arrived and 29th when we departed.
They behaved quite aggressively both when caught and when approached by butterflies and the odd V. Crabro. There were no wasps at all working the fruit!
In captivity they became torpid after an hour or so, possibly being under nourished, as it seems they normally get fed by their larvae, who by now were probably absent from the nest.
I failed to find the nest site(s) which is probably just as well but would guess from the return times of marked insects that they were fairly close, perhaps a few hundred metres.
They are quite a bit smaller than V. Crabro workers, around 2/3 the size, and their attitude to V.Crabro's presence depended on there being two or three mates nearby who quickly joined the fray seeing off the larger hornet.( alarm pheromone?)
They chased red admirals and peacocks very closely for 5-10 yards if approached by them and these would not venture back for some time.
I reported my find (with samples) to the local wildlife bureau of the Department who confirmed that this was the first sighting of V. Velutina in Normany but said that the French had given up any thought of control methods and believed a natural balance would establish itself, wrongly thinking that Apis mellifera could already use the 'balling' technique used successfully by Apis cerana.
It seems probable that their aggression will be more of a problem when there is a greater density of colonies leading to more competion for food. At this point I did not feel any danger in approaching them and collecting samples. Their stings are about 3-4 mm long, similar to V Crabro and their articulation of the abdomen together with feet having very effective grasping claws indicate that any insect would quickly be overpowered and that in the case of humans they would not easily be prevented from stinging as they seem very tenacious.
We had temperatures of minus10-15 C there last year and that was clearly no deterrent to the queens surviving
I thought you might be interested in this report from the front line as it seems that we do not have much time to develop counter-measures which in the absence of action by our allies may become very important(plus ca change!). Any thoughts on this from the NBU?
I have just spent ten days at our house in Lower Normandy which is about 40 miles south of Caen, in the Department of the Orne.
I was somewhat taken aback to discover on our arrival there that we had become host this year to the Asian Hornet ( Vespa Velutina) which has taken a mere 6 years to cover over 600 kilometers from the site where it was first seen in central France in 2004-5. Clearly this rate of expansion could not have come about by newly mated queens' movements as they do not swarm and I have concluded that it is very probable that they have hitched rides in timber, straw and other such goods transported during the winter months each year to reach new areas.
As several thousand lorries use the Caen and le Havre to Portsmouth ferries each year it now seems extremely likely that we will be hosting this insect in Sussex and elsewhere in the UK very much sooner than might have been hoped.
Interestingly having captured several workers over the space of a few days then releasing them some distance away in an open field it became clear from their lines of departure that we might already have more than one nest in the vicinity as against none a year ago. Their presence was easy to identify from the single orange stripe on the abdomen and orange face. They were strongly attracted to a quantity of rotting pears that had fallen from a tree in our orchard, specifically a wild type pear, and they had taken no notice of other more recently fallen fruits nearby. Several dozen workers were around feeding each day from mid morning to evening between 19 Sept when we arrived and 29th when we departed.
They behaved quite aggressively both when caught and when approached by butterflies and the odd V. Crabro. There were no wasps at all working the fruit!
In captivity they became torpid after an hour or so, possibly being under nourished, as it seems they normally get fed by their larvae, who by now were probably absent from the nest.
I failed to find the nest site(s) which is probably just as well but would guess from the return times of marked insects that they were fairly close, perhaps a few hundred metres.
They are quite a bit smaller than V. Crabro workers, around 2/3 the size, and their attitude to V.Crabro's presence depended on there being two or three mates nearby who quickly joined the fray seeing off the larger hornet.( alarm pheromone?)
They chased red admirals and peacocks very closely for 5-10 yards if approached by them and these would not venture back for some time.
I reported my find (with samples) to the local wildlife bureau of the Department who confirmed that this was the first sighting of V. Velutina in Normany but said that the French had given up any thought of control methods and believed a natural balance would establish itself, wrongly thinking that Apis mellifera could already use the 'balling' technique used successfully by Apis cerana.
It seems probable that their aggression will be more of a problem when there is a greater density of colonies leading to more competion for food. At this point I did not feel any danger in approaching them and collecting samples. Their stings are about 3-4 mm long, similar to V Crabro and their articulation of the abdomen together with feet having very effective grasping claws indicate that any insect would quickly be overpowered and that in the case of humans they would not easily be prevented from stinging as they seem very tenacious.
We had temperatures of minus10-15 C there last year and that was clearly no deterrent to the queens surviving
I thought you might be interested in this report from the front line as it seems that we do not have much time to develop counter-measures which in the absence of action by our allies may become very important(plus ca change!). Any thoughts on this from the NBU?
