Asian giant hornets on animal planet now.

[Torq]

As above.

 

[BrianO]

looked but in the multitude of ( mostly useless ) SKY channels I have did not have that one !

Wondering about all the hype of these . IE: does anyone know how many bees they would take in a season, as in a colony of A.H's ? That info would be usefull to evaluate how much of a threat they really are.

 

[BrianO]

As an aside.

Monty was at his Bees yesterday on GW , interesting and good Bee publicity. Opened his TBH, quick peek and closed.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

looked but in the multitude of ( mostly useless ) SKY channels I have did not have that one !

Wondering about all the hype of these . IE: does anyone know how many bees they would take in a season, as in a colony of A.H's ? That info would be usefull to evaluate how much of a threat they really are.

My understanding is that tens of AHs lay siege to a hive, killing anything that tries to come or go. In the end, the bees more or less give up and the hornets have won and can enter the hive and eat the bees and their brood.

Problem is not just with honey bees - they will eat pretty much anything so bumbles and all sort of other insects are at risk. Whole eco-systems can be damaged because european insects do not have any experience or knowledge of defending themselves from such a voracious predator. Same as Varroa - on its native host, it is not a major problem but much more dangerous for european honey bees, which have no defence mechanisms - yet.

CVB

 

[Karsal]

Asian Hornets

Would a queen excluder stop them getting into the hive?

 

[Plenty of honey]

From what i learned about the Giant Asian Hornet, is that where they are indigenous, (Japan) the bees have developed a really neat trick.
They allow a worker hornet in to the hive and act as though nothing has happened. They know that if the worker hornet leaves, it will spray its pheromone over and around the entrance way of the nest and then lead Battalions of the little darlings back to destroy and pillage the nest, so,
They all jump on the one forager at a time. The remarkable thing is, they heat up the hornet (by balling it) to a certain temperature and its only a difference of something like half a degree that kills the Giant hornet and not the honey bees.
God help us if these babies made it over from Japan, our bees would be a sitting target.
I only know a bit about these because lots of people have been confusing these with the Asian hornet, a recent arrival here in France as you all know!
The press in their profound wisdom, think that by showing the gruesome pictures of a Giant Japanese Hornet, they get more readers interested. Thats the way they work, but their massively wrong with their news reports and pictures, sensationalising it up as much as they can to get a story!!

Yes I imagine Karsal, that putting up a special sized entrance reducer, just like the ones we already use for the Asian hornet would be a definite adavantage (Nicot already make one Which is green) as these beasts are much bigger than the Asian hornet and obviously this makes the entrance reducer very effective. But hey, In Japan their isn't that many nests, or so it seems and their not here at the moment. One wonders how our bees would cope if they got established. That asian hornet is a menace, but after recent report, they look as though their not doing as well as we first thought due to dodgy male genes!! (finger crossed)
Theres actually a National Geographic film about all i have described. I am sure its on you tube and would be easy to find.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Found this, more recent documentary. Its beautifully a balanced documentary !!

Nice coverage of beekeepers in Japan.

https://youtu.be/zqf28DFgEUE