Asian Hornets...

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a group of volunteers from the London beekeepers association and some other south areas have formed the 'train the trainer' and is heading to jersey island next week to learn how to track and trace AH , to then train locally .
 
Even SWMBO was furious with the GMB piece on Asain Hornets. They have no idea of the gravity of the situation. Its not just beekepers. They will interrupt the food chain by their predation of insects. Birds that feed on insects will diminish in numbers and other spieces higher up the food chain will diminish.
 
Problem is the general public will now kill the generic crabro hornet if they see them, luckily even in suburbia they are about but but tend to remain out of the way even when one has bees in the garden.

Education is needed with the public as the general knowledge base is very poor I find.
One year I was called out to a swarm and from a a neighbouring garden the lady wanted to know how to stop bees in general as they were visiting her flowers, I'm fairly blunt and pointed out the bees weren't the problem but the human being was.
I suggested if she doesn't want bees visiting to dig all the plants up or go live in high rise flat.
I usually end up letting a bee walk on my hand to prove a point that they are harmless.
 
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joelsoo said:
i actually encountered and reported the first london sighting. i had an AH nest 300m from my home apiary in London.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/env...e-uk-thamesmead-beekeeping-bees-b1102132.html
15 mins of fame but not for the right reasons lol
Click to expand...
If the photo of the nest is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), it is a secondary nest, somewhat smaller than those seen in Galicia.
You can answer me:
-When you saw them near their hives, were they flying over or near the spout?
-Do I catch any on sugar baits?
 
It doesn't help when one of our own posts a video without context:



It got one of our members in quite a tizzy last night as they thought there was an Asian hornet spotted in Carmarthenshire. It turned out later the beek is currently on holiday in France but it would be nice if the caption mentioned that wouldn't it?
 
fian said:
If the photo of the nest is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), it is a secondary nest, somewhat smaller than those seen in Galicia.
You can answer me:
-When you saw them near their hives, were they flying over or near the spout?
-Do I catch any on sugar baits?
Click to expand...
the nest is about 40 ft up the tree and can't really see the hornets going in closely, i do see a few guarding around the spout from underneath

yes i setup bait station by my apiary to get them to feed on that instead of hawking on my bees. By the time the NBU came and they had a constant supply of AHs for track and trace. they marked 1 or 2 with queen marking paint, observe return timings, and performed catch and release repeatedly on the same AH, each time releasing it closer towards the direction of flight after they feed at my bait station, to gradually locate their nest.

yes its a secondary nest, we searched around for the primary nest but could not find it. NBU rep said it could have died off following the queen moving on to the secondary nest up above the poplar tree. Size of the nest is about slightly bigger than the size of a basketball
 
joelsoo said:
the nest is about 40 ft up the tree and can't really see the hornets going in closely, i do see a few guarding around the spout from underneath

yes i setup bait station by my apiary to get them to feed on that instead of hawking on my bees. By the time the NBU came and they had a constant supply of AHs for track and trace. they marked 1 or 2 with queen marking paint, observe return timings, and performed catch and release repeatedly on the same AH, each time releasing it closer towards the direction of flight after they feed at my bait station, to gradually locate their nest.

yes its a secondary nest, we searched around for the primary nest but could not find it. NBU rep said it could have died off following the queen moving on to the secondary nest up above the poplar tree. Size of the nest is about slightly bigger than the size of a basketball
Click to expand...
It is important to note that in that nest the hornets did not capture bees since the proteins are used to raise drones and queens (the next generation). If they only ate sugary bait, the nest was not yet in its most advanced phase.
By the way, has the nest been removed?
Regarding next year, starting in February, arrange some baits in the vicinity of the nest location.
 
fian said:
It is important to note that in that nest the hornets did not capture bees since the proteins are used to raise drones and queens (the next generation). If they only ate sugary bait, the nest was not yet in its most advanced phase.
Click to expand...
Hornets feed protein to their worker larvae all season, not just to drone and gyne larvae.
The attraction to sugar is at the end of the season, the same as wasps.
 
joelsoo said:
BBKA social media manager contacted me and said the evening standard want to contact me so asked me if ok to give my number to them. .
said yes, the standard called, interviewed me and asked for a few photos.
Click to expand...
Sorry @joelsoo
The first line about the beekeeper and the fish was penned to somebody else then abandoned.
It wasn't supposed to be in the post to you. I should proof read.
I've amended it
 
joelsoo said:
the nest is about 40 ft up the tree and can't really see the hornets going in closely, i do see a few guarding around the spout from underneath

yes i setup bait station by my apiary to get them to feed on that instead of hawking on my bees. By the time the NBU came and they had a constant supply of AHs for track and trace. they marked 1 or 2 with queen marking paint, observe return timings, and performed catch and release repeatedly on the same AH, each time releasing it closer towards the direction of flight after they feed at my bait station, to gradually locate their nest.

yes its a secondary nest, we searched around for the primary nest but could not find it. NBU rep said it could have died off following the queen moving on to the secondary nest up above the poplar tree. Size of the nest is about slightly bigger than the size of a basketball
Click to expand...
Must have been fascinating to watch...in a morbid sort of way
 
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