Asian Hornets

[Skinfaxi]

I am sure you would get some FPV
pilots who would love this

Hmmm. A drone with pesticide spray should be able to dispense with cliff face nests and there is always fipronil custard as a last resort.

 

[North End Bees]

Richard Noel (Youtube), who operates in France lost an entire apiary last year, and from his channel/talks a significant number of hobbiest beekeepers have simply given up due to the pressuer from the AHs.

Richard Noel is operating in an area absolutely inundated with nests. He has literally nowhere to move his apiaries to.

There's no doubting Kent could be the same in a few years if we can't control this incursion over winter.

It still doesn't explain Simon's management of the situation when he had options that Richard Noel doesn't.

But the future looks bleak for small time garden beekeepers when we are where Brittany is right now.

 

[Murox]

But the future looks bleak for small time garden beekeepers when we are where Brittany is right now.

Only if inaction and a lackadaisical approach are allowed to thrive.

 

[North End Bees]

Only if inaction and a lackadaisical approach are allowed to thrive.

Are you calling the French lackadaisical?? (Just waiting now for JBM's comment )

With the best will in the world it's going to be an uphill battle to contain AH. Short of us all relocating to Scotland of course

 

[The Poot]

I don’t know why Simon‘s management of this is such an issue. The facts are that he’s suffered losses from the hornets that have gained a foothold in difficult terrain. It would make no difference to the real issue if he’d moved his hives to Inverness - we would still be facing the same problem. What needs to be studied is the response and the success or failure of it.

 

[user 819]

For those along the south coast and corridors heading north to London then it does seem that setting traps for workers now or certainly for queens come late winter /early spring is the way forward now.

With the terrain seen beyond the cliffs then no doubt it is much part of a no mans land where nests unseen will prosper, it is my view with this info that a foot hold has been gained.

I don't think the plastic bottle type is the answer although easy and diy they are too much of fiddle to mess with.
I have seen the Gard apis which appears a much better idea, problem is there is likely to be a mad rush by southern located beeks to have traps soon and they may become short in supply so best to have something lined up in place ready to deploy.

 

[user 819]

I suppose in away Simons apiary location has been a bit of a blessing for UK beeks as the area /terrain has identifed conditions that have gone unnoticed with inaccessibility, one can only hope that any nest can be tracked /located and destroyed before it is too late.

As with any incursion someone somewhere has to be the guinea pig /fall guy even inadvertently to see the full threat these hornets pose.
The warming up/milder UK conditions certainly looking like they will be ideal for V.v to prosper.

 

[user 819]

I don’t know why Simon‘s management of this is such an issue. The facts are that he’s suffered losses from the hornets that have gained a foothold in difficult terrain. It would make no difference to the real issue if he’d moved his hives to Inverness - we would still be facing the same problem. What needs to be studied is the response and the success or failure of it.

The fact is now from post #1 is we have better knowledge of why the losses have been great, a mixture of wasps, V.v and inhospitible /unaccessible terrain.

 

[North End Bees]

I don’t know why Simon‘s management of this is such an issue. The facts are that he’s suffered losses from the hornets that have gained a foothold in difficult terrain. It would make no difference to the real issue if he’d moved his hives to Inverness - we would still be facing the same problem. What needs to be studied is the response and the success or failure of it.

The issue for me is frustration at Simon's management of the situation. There are undoubtedly many beekeepers in the area with fewer losses because of different management strategies.
So yes, the response and the success or failure of it are valuable lessons for us all.

 

[North End Bees]

With the terrain seen beyond the cliffs then no doubt it is much part of a no mans land where nests unseen will prosper, it is my view with this info that a foot hold has been gained.

Huge areas of the Kent Downs are as inaccessible as this. It's going to be an uphill challenge.

Widespread spring trapping of new queens is going to be vital and, more importantly, getting the local communities, not just beekeepers, on board with identifying and reporting.

 

[rolande]

The NBU are currently clearing between 1 and 2 nests a day (I think that is in Kent). They are under pressure.

Is that a typo? Between 7 and 14 a week simply doesn't correlate to anything that I've heard to date

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Are you calling the French lackadaisical?? (Just waiting now for JBM's comment )

just look at the facts - they just ignored the developing situation totally and only started to 'react' after AH were well established - way after they began to establish a 'foothold'

 

[Murox]

Are you calling the French lackadaisical?? (Just waiting now for JBM's comment )

With the best will in the world it's going to be an uphill battle to contain AH. Short of us all relocating to Scotland of course

No I am not calling the French lackadaisical, I do however have very little trust in UK's "coordinated strategies". I used to keep bees (pre varroa) in Essex and it is certainly chalk & cheese keeping bees where I am now.

 

[JamezF]

Is that a typo? Between 7 and 14 a week simply doesn't correlate to anything that I've heard to date

Looking at the NBU rolling updates after 11th August (the most recent update was 11th September) there appear to be twenty-two nests discovered in Kent during those thirty-one days. The total number of nests found in the same period looks to be twenty-nine, so a smidge under one per day. In the first eleven days of this month it looks to be seven in Kent and fifteen overall. That does make it look like the discovery rate in Kent is actually dropping off whilst increasing overall, but I'd guess the numbers are actually too small to draw much of a conclusion in that respect (and we don't know what's happened so far this week).

James

 

[user 819]

This is the NBU map of 11 sept with 43 nests in 36 localations found with further active operations in the Folkstone area .

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Which reminded me of this text from the AHAT website:

"Asian hornets can fly at approximately 3 metres per second. In comparison, the normal top speed of a honey bee would be about 21-28 km per hour when flying to a food source and about 17 km per hour when returning lladen down with nectar and pollen."

I don't know why they've mixed up the units, but 17km/h works out as about 4.75m/s, or over half as fast again as AH, which makes me wonder what point they're trying to make.

James

Not sure about why they're mixing units but many years ago one of my electronics lecturers used to scathingly tell us if you're struggling to market a device describe it's performance in dB (decibels). The general public won't admit to being confused and will buy the item anyway because it sounds technical. Hi-fi enthusiasts being particularly at risk of bamboozlement.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Then the answer has to bee the fipronil custard to take out the inaccessible nests.

Is there mileage in comparing the approach to wasps in New Zealand? Do AH in their (later than wasps) protein feeding phase forage on particular protein sources? I understand Vespex is based on fish recipe cat food with low dose fipronil. Being fish based bees and most other non-target species remain relatively safe from the effects

 

[Karol]

Is there mileage in comparing the approach to wasps in New Zealand? Do AH in their (later than wasps) protein feeding phase forage on particular protein sources? I understand Vespex is based on fish recipe cat food with low dose fipronil. Being fish based bees and most other non-target species remain relatively safe from the effects

Not really. New Zealand has different flora and fauna with large beech forests supporting honeydew producing scale insects that provide a completely different ecosystems for invasive wasps to benefit from.

The problem with fipronil baiting is that it remains indiscriminate for wasps as well as Vv. So whilst hornets have a delayed protein feeding phase (including Crabro), wasps are known to have late protein feeding as a consequence of weather or as a consequence of a second reproductive cycle later in the year.

 

[OldFarm]

Paul Harper has put several posts on Facebook over the last year or so about Asian Hornets. I recall one where he was kicking himself for not doing more trapping, and was dealing with the awful consequences. Well, there was a new post a day or so ago, a completely different vibe. He is using the Jabeprobe trap, and it appears to be a game changer. The Asian hornets are trapped, anything smaller can escape, European hornets can't get in. The trap is in place all year round. We all need to be setting up traps like these, the sooner the better.

https://www.jabeprode.fr/en/boutiqu...capture-tray-standard-size-mounted-53289#more

 

[JamezF]

Paul Harper has put several posts on Facebook over the last year or so about Asian Hornets. I recall one where he was kicking himself for not doing more trapping, and was dealing with the awful consequences.

I am guessing this must be a different Paul Harper from the one who is AHAT co-ordinator for central Somerset and seems to repost at least three AH-related items per day to the SBKA FB page (including near-daily updates as to the AH situation in Jersey).

James