Giant Asian hornet nest found and destroyed (insects, Washington)
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Here is more info on the Giant Asian Hornets. Small scale beekeepers are trying to trap hornets that threaten their hives.
Since they are several times larger than bees, I wonder if any effort has been put into creating something to keep them out of commercial bee hives but still allowing bees to enter their hives freely. They can't destroy a hive if they can't enter it.
Since they are several times larger than bees, I wonder if any effort has been put into creating something to keep them out of commercial bee hives but still allowing bees to enter their hives freely. They can't destroy a hive if they can't enter it.
The article indicates that there is no trap for large commercial hived. I imagine there will be in future.
The article indicates that there is no trap for large commercial hived. I imagine there will be in future.
I wasn't even thinking about a trap but just creating something that would allow bees to enter and go about their business at the hive but not allow the hornet inside since the hornet is so much larger and would need a larger opening to enter.
I wasn't even thinking about a trap but just creating something that would allow bees to enter and go about their business at the hive but not allow the hornet inside since the hornet is so much larger and would need a larger opening to enter.
Many bee hives already do have smaller entrances to prevent much larger insects and other predators from getting inside the hive. However, the bees do still have an imperative to be constantly coming and going from the hives which they cannot do one by one, they enter and exit in groups. So the entrance has to be big enough to accomodate groups going two ways at once to arrive and leave. If it has to be big enough to accomodate groups then that means that the entrance is also big enough for a giant hornet to squeeze its way in. Additionally the bees can't just sit around inside waiting for a predator waiting outside the entrance to lose patience and go away. So presently there is nothing to stop gangs of hornets and other larger predators to sit outside the small entrance lying in wait to pick off and behead bees that are arriving or exiting from the nest.
Something that might work if it can be created would be heat traps of some kind outside the entrances. The giant hornets can't withstand the high temperatures that bees can withstand for short periods and high heat is what bees in Asia have learned to generate to kill giant hornets that get inside the nest. If you watch the video below you will see how the bees sacrifice themselves to form a ball of bees around an invading hornet then they all vibrate their wings to generate a ball of tremendous heat surrounding the hornet which then kills the hornet.
I know that North American bees generate heat this way to keep the hive's nursery and the queen warm in winter and during other inclement weather. But I have no idea if North American bees might also do the same thing instinctively to kill hornets or if it's a battle tactic that is not instinctive and which they might have to learn/be taught to do as a battle tactic. But perhaps some kind of man-made heat trap outside the nest might be helpful at preventing hornets from getting inside.
5.24 minutes - Japanese bees killing giant hornet with self-generated heat:
The latest news on the finding of the Giant Asian Hornet is that 200 virgin queens were found in that nest. This was a surprise. They are keeping the queens dormant, that is they are not destroying them, to do research on them.
I do expect other findings of these nests. The hornets are expected to migrate south. Yikes!
Thanks for the above info Silibran. I have a news update as well in addition to the following CBC article below that was posted today about the joint task force operations being conducted together by the Washington and BC agricultural departments.
Another hornet was observed and captured by another bee-keeper last Friday, in Langley again, and it is having its DNA/origin compared with that of the one that was found sleeping on Halloween inside a carved Halloween pumpkin in Abbotsford. (that's a scary, spooky thought to unexpectedly find something like that inside a pumpkin during Halloween)
Including the 76 queens that were taken from the large nest in the tree in Blaine, a full total of 200 living queens in various stages of development have been collected from all of the nests that have been found to date in the BC/Washington PNW region, and 500 living males and female workers in various stages of development have been collected. They are all being kept alive in a state of induced dormancy for continuing study, tests and analysis.
Virgin queens that are still on the loose from undetected nests are now at the active stage where they are leaving their birth nests to mate with males before winter sets in and then will be spreading further afield and establishing new nests of their own. Most likely heading south and southeast.
Am I correct in assuming the Rockies will form a barrier prohibiting spread to the east in the same way it has kept the plum curculio from spreading to the west?
If you want to get a look inside the hornets’ nest here are some pics. There is a bit more info about the hornets as well.
They are expected to migrate south. Beyond that, I have heard nothing. They are tough insects though. Having them here is like having covid here. No natural enemies to keep them in check.
Am I correct in assuming the Rockies will form a barrier prohibiting spread to the east in the same way it has kept the plum curculio from spreading to the west?
Sorry, I just now saw your post.
I personally wouldn't make that assumption.
Plum curculios are plant suckers with slow metabolisms and little to no fat deposits so they aren't known to be able to fly to high elevations or for sustained periods of time during migrations and they don't fly at all at temperatures below 20 degrees C / 68 F. They will fly up to tree canopies if they have to but they prefer to crawl, and they prefer environments with warm and humid conditions. So I would expect the general environmental conditions and colder air temperatures over the Rockies and in the passes through the Rockies would be a deterrent for them. For now. Don't forget that the climate is changing and the environment changing along with it.
Hornets on the other hand are carnivores that have higher metabolisms and more fat deposits that allow them to fly to higher elevations - they have been seen flying in the atmosphere at 29,000 feet. They can fly for more sustained periods of time and can tolerate temperatures down to 6 C / 45 F before their metabolism slows down and then they can no longer fly for sustained periods. Below 40F they don't fly at all. But during the warm spring and summer months I see no reason why they couldn't fly east through the lower elevation passes of the Rockies where daytime temperatures can get into the 70's or 80's and drop into the 40's or 50's at night. Or they might continue south until they reach the northern Sierra Nevada mountain ranges and then head east and southeast over those mountains from there. I think for now until they have adapted more to the new environment and climate conditions that they will continue mostly directly south down into northern California and then veer eastward from there.
Up until 20 years ago nobody thought that the mountain pine beetles and spruce bark beetles of the Alaska panhandle and northern British Columbia/Yukon could make it through or over to the other side of the Rockies, but they did. Now in the past 20 years they have expanded their ranges across a number of ecosystems, from sea level to 10,000 feet in elevation, from the Pacific coast to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and from Baja California to all of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska panhandle. And they have also expanded their diet to include some of the many new species of trees that they're encountering along the way.
We must never overestimate our geographies and never underestimate the capabilities of insects as they are adapting to climate changes.
If you want to get a look inside the hornets’ nest here are some pics. There is a bit more info about the hornets as well.
They are expected to migrate south. Beyond that, I have heard nothing. They are tough insects though. Having them here is like having covid here. No natural enemies to keep them in check.
They should get these hornets to murder the covid virus
They should get these hornets to murder the covid virus
LOL. I think it's a little too late for that!
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