Asian hornet traps and baits - please review what you've used

[OldFarm]

There's lots of discussion going on about traps. So for those who have actually used traps, I just want to know:

Which trap did you use? If it's a diy or printed one, details or links please.
What bait did you use?
If you used different bait at different time of year, what was the difference?
What did you catch in it? Interested to hear about asian hornet and by-catch.

Thank you.

 

[0bee-1]

these are a best seller in France apparently... designed to reduce by catch Jabeprode (copy) (Asian-Hornet-Fight-Ecological-Trap-Bee) Pencran never used myself but would consider these or try making similar... as a starting point

 

[0bee-1]

also these presentations were both excellent and informative they start about 12 mins in.. so scroll along to the start its a long wait otherwise ! Lots of info on trapping, types and timings of trapping their effectiveness and effect of trapping AH queens in springtime.

 

[hemo]

Traps and harp's certainly seem to kill a lot of V.v within the apiary but they don't seem to stop them and luring them to the apiary is the opposite of what is needed, the presence of a beehive/colony does that alone.
May be trapping needs to be done (if at all) well outside of the apiary ( though may not be practical or possible).
Hive defence/screening and distraction techniques to make V.v work harder and waste valuable energy /time away from the nest may make them turn their attentions elsewhere .

Trapping within the apiary will only draw more V.v workers in and do the opposite of what one want's, I can see possibly the merits of trapping Q's early spring to help reduce nests locally. It is nest irradication that is needed and we have the NBU at the mo doing an admirable hard job tracking & tracing.

It has been said already, the French trap & kill thousand's & thousands of V.v but it doesn't stop them.
.

 

[OldFarm]

Traps and harp's certainly seem to kill a lot of V.v within the apiary but they don't seem to stop them and luring them to the apiary is the opposite of what is needed, the presence of a beehive/colony does that alone.
May be trapping needs to be done (if at all) well outside of the apiary ( though may not be practical or possible).
Hive defence/screening and distraction techniques to make V.v work harder and waste valuable energy /time away from the nest may make them turn their attentions elsewhere .

Trapping within the apiary will only draw more V.v workers in and do the opposite of what one want's, I can see possibly the merits of trapping Q's early spring to help reduce nests locally. It is nest irradication that is needed and we have the NBU at the mo doing an admirable hard job tracking & tracing.

It has been said already, the French trap & kill thousand's & thousands of V.v but it doesn't stop them.
.

It's the queen trapping in the early part of the year when they are building their primary nest and again at the end of the year when the new queens emerge that I am particularly interested in. The Jabeprode and Gard Apis both look interesting, both claiming almost no by catch.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I think queen trapping in the autumn is being considered on Jersey but there is some doubt whether new queens actually feed or whether they have enough fat to go into hibernation straight away

 

[Karol]

If they are anything like other vespines they go to ground straight away. It makes no sense biologically for vespine queens to place themselves at risk. I have analysed the contents of many many hundreds of traps during formal field trials and I can tell you that queen wasps were not among the autumn catches. Spring definitely. Autumn not at all. Fundamentally this is what permits integrated wasp management without causing ecological harm. Autumn catching is selective for workers with a small amount of drone by-catch.

 

[ericbeaumont]

merits of trapping Q's early spring to help reduce nests locally

queen trapping in the early part of the year

If I have followed this thoroughly, spring trapping is counter-productive as it enables survivors to take advantage of more available prey and so build bigger nests which will produce more queens at the end of summer, which is what ought to be avoided.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well I’ve asked Richard Noel who has much experience of AH. He’s told me that autumn trapping is worth doing as the newly emerged queens still need food and don’t immediately find somewhere to hibernate. He tells me a good trap can mop up a lot.
So those are the words of somebody who has practical experience

 

[Karol]

Well I’ve asked Richard Noel who has much experience of AH. He’s told me that autumn trapping is worth doing as the newly emerged queens still need food and don’t immediately find somewhere to hibernate. He tells me a good trap can mop up a lot.
So those are the words of somebody who has practical experience

So there's enough food to bring them on but not enough to fatten them up which is consistent with workers having to sweet feed throughout the year to supplement carbs from larvae from within the nest.

One little detail to bear in mind is the difference in climate and ecology which allows AH to produce sexuals in France early enough that queens have a longer run into winter meaning that they have to feed to avoid starvation and to fatten up for the winter. That won't necessarily be the same in the UK. It may well be that feeding to fatten up before winter is AHs operandii in which case it will be even harder for AH to establish itself properly in the UK.

 

[Somerford]

I am about to be a joint sole supplier of a specific selective trap for the asian hornet to be sold in the UK. It will not be sold to make much on the cost price as I believe it needs to be used far and wide. It'll retail around £28-£30.

It is fully selective and can be used to capture the AH Queens in the Spring and allows bycatch to escape, and then it transforms into a AH worker trapin the summer using a different bait.

They are very very effective.

More on this shortly

 

[robbohenn]

I'm based in Brittany and started trapping a couple of years ago. Last year I bought an AH trap and caught about 40 queens in the spring, so this year I bought another one and made 2 myself. I used a mix of 35% white wine, lager (apparently bees don't like beer ) and grenadine and hung them all about 2 metres up near a large Camellia bush. AH are attracted to them when they come out of hibernation because they are native to Japan and flower in early spring. This year they were a bit later in coming out due to excessive rain and a cold spring, however they soon showed themselves when it warmed up. I have attached a photo showing the merits of the different traps - I call it "Tale of the tape" used when boxers are compared to their opponent! Once I started to catch the odd Euro I took them down. Seems the AH come out of hibernation a few weeks earlier. I caught twice as many this year than last, but that could be because I had a nest in my roof which I didn't discover until october!

 

[Phill16359]

I am about to be a joint sole supplier of a specific selective trap for the asian hornet to be sold in the UK. It will not be sold to make much on the cost price as I believe it needs to be used far and wide. It'll retail around £28-£30.

It is fully selective and can be used to capture the AH Queens in the Spring and allows bycatch to escape, and then it transforms into a AH worker trapin the summer using a different bait.

They are very very effective.

More on this shortly

Let me know when you have them very interested for our association

 

[OldFarm]

If I have followed this thoroughly, spring trapping is counter-productive as it enables survivors to take advantage of more available prey and so build bigger nests which will produce more queens at the end of summer, which is what ought to be avoided.

?? Spring trapping is ideal as it stops nests being built in the first place. In spring queens are out foraging while they build their primary nests, perfect time to catch them. Availability of prey is not the issue.

Removal of queens, at any point in the cycle is a good move - but they are only out of the nests in the spring, during the flight between primary and secondary nests and when new queens are produced in the autumn. Trapping during the summer will catch only workers, drones too late season, which might temporarily reduce predation on the hives but that's all.

Some conflicting views on queen catching in the autumn, do they forage to fatten up for hibernation (and be available for trapping) or do they go straight to hibernation.

The building of bigger nests is more likely weather related - when it's warm enough for nest building in the spring and when they slow down in the autumn as it cools off.

 

[OldFarm]

I am about to be a joint sole supplier of a specific selective trap for the asian hornet to be sold in the UK. It will not be sold to make much on the cost price as I believe it needs to be used far and wide. It'll retail around £28-£30.

It is fully selective and can be used to capture the AH Queens in the Spring and allows bycatch to escape, and then it transforms into a AH worker trapin the summer using a different bait.

They are very very effective.

More on this shortly

Please keep us up to date on this, I'm hoping my local bee club will be up for bulk purchasing.

 

[hemo]

Oh dear I have a problem then.
My garden hive is right next to /adjacent to a camelia and have nowhere else I can place either , looks like the camelia will get the chop then.

 

[hemo]

Gard apis @Somerford ?

 

[OldFarm]

Oh dear I have a problem then.
My garden hive is right next to /adjacent to a camelia and have nowhere else I can place either , looks like the camelia will get the chop then.

Noooo, you have the perfect opportunity to catch the blighters before they can do any damage. Your camellia will be doing you a favour.

 

[OldFarm]

Having done some reading I am unclear about new queen behaviour, wondered if anyone could clarify? Multiple sources and some conflicting information out there. These are my notes:

Newly mated queens will spend time looking for somewhere to hibernate, they won’t travel far 10m to 1km, possibly to conserve resources.
They don’t feed after mating??
Will they be flying and available for trapping, or will traps be picking up workers and drones?
Foundress queens migrate alone or in small groups and can travel over 40km in a day. Not clear if this is before or after hibernation??
What happens to the old queen? Does she die off or go into hibernation? I'm presuming hibernation, but don't want to make presumptions.

 

[Pembroke]

An interesting article in the Telegraph yesterday, about the way Bumblebees in Spain have learnt to deal with Asian Hornets.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/05/bumblebees-stop-drop-and-roll-to-fend-off-asian-hornets/
This is the start of the article in case it's behind their paywall;

Bumblebees have adopted the “stop, drop and roll” technique favoured by firefighters to combat Asian hornets.

Scientists placed colonies in areas known to have hornet populations and used cameras to track the entrance and see if there were any attacks.

They caught 120 ambushes on camera at the 12 different colonies in Spain and found that bees instantly stop and drop to the ground when attacked by a hornet, before rolling on their back and raising their stinger in self-defence.

“When a hornet attempts
Bumblebees have adopted the “stop, drop and roll” technique favoured by firefighters to combat Asian hornets.

Scientists placed colonies in areas known to have hornet populations and used cameras to track the entrance and see if there were any attacks.

They caught 120 ambushes on camera at the 12 different colonies in Spain and found that bees instantly stop and drop to the ground when attacked by a hornet, before rolling on their back and raising their stinger in self-defence.

“When a hornet attempts to grapple a bumblebee in the air, the bee will immediately stop flying, and drop to the ground like a brick, taking the hornet with it,” said study author Dr Thomas O’Shea-Wheller.

“The impact with the ground usually causes the hornet to lose its purchase, thus allowing the bee to escape.

“However, if the hornet manages to maintain its grip on the bee, a scuffle then ensues as the bee rolls onto its back, presenting its sting and pushing the hornet away.

“This eventually causes the hornet to give up, as it cannot usually regain a good hold on the struggling bee.”
in the air, the bee will immediately stop flying, and drop to the ground like a brick, taking the hornet with it,” said study author Dr Thomas O’Shea-Wheller.

“The impact with the ground usually causes the hornet to lose its purchase, thus allowing the bee to escape.



“However, if the hornet manages to maintain its grip on the bee, a scuffle then ensues as the bee rolls onto its back, presenting its sting and pushing the hornet away.

“This eventually causes the hornet to give up, as it cannot usually regain a good hold on
Bumblebees have adopted the “stop, drop and roll” technique favoured by firefighters to combat Asian hornets.

Scientists placed colonies in areas known to have hornet populations and used cameras to track the entrance and see if there were any attacks.

They caught 120 ambushes on camera at the 12 different colonies in Spain and found that bees instantly stop and drop to the ground when attacked by a hornet, before rolling on their back and raising their stinger in self-defence.

“When a hornet attempts to grapple a bumblebee in the air, the bee will immediately stop flying, and drop to the ground like a brick, taking the hornet with it,” said study author Dr Thomas O’Shea-Wheller.

“The impact with the ground usually causes the hornet to lose its purchase, thus allowing the bee to escape.

“However, if the hornet manages to maintain its grip on the bee, a scuffle then ensues as the bee rolls onto its back, presenting its sting and pushing the hornet away.

“This eventually causes the hornet to give up, as it cannot usually regain a good hold on the struggling bee.”

It's a bit of a shame that their spiffy diagram of how this happens seems to have a queen wasp taking the role of 'Asian Hornet' though.