Asian Hornet nest
This weekend I kitted up to get rid of an Asian Hornet’s nest down in the Charente. As I’m sure everyone knows, these are the unwelcome hornets that attack our lovely hives, preying on our bees and their honey. In Asia, the Asian bees have evolved mobbing behaviour to deal with the hornets, but their European counterparts have yet to evolve an effective strategy and are therefore very much threatened by this invasive species.
According to Discover Magazine
Asian honeybees have developed a remarkable defence called ‘heat-balling’ against their local hornet, Vespa velutina. A giant ball of bees piles onto the predator, weighing it down while vibrating their wing muscles. The frenetic activity greatly increases the temperature inside the ball to about 46C – hot enough to cook the hornet alive, but five degrees under the bees’ maximum tolerated temperature.
I inspected the nest just before dusk when there was still plenty of traffic in out and the guard hornets were very aware of our presence, so we decided to wait until it was going dark before destroying the nest. Interestingly, the guard hornets moved with the light as the nest started to be in the shade, ending up about 50cm away from the nest itself.
I had planned out a few scenarios but it’s not until you see the nest and its position that you can really work out what is possible. I would have ideally liked to avoid using insecticide and simply covered the nest, cut it down and frozen it, but this wasn’t going to be possible given its position – it was hanging from the underside of the roof but there was a lip of wood preventing me from surrounding the nest. So insecticide it was – the choice of weapon was a can of professional wasp ( guêpes) and hornet (frelons) insecticide.
(click to enlarge)
I kitted up with a double layer of bee kit and taped up the joins for additional safety. I wore a breathing mask as the nest was under an abri (lean-to) and the last thing I wanted to do was breathe in the insecticide, and set to work.
(click to enlarge)
Luckily it was a relatively small nest, but even so the number of hornets contained in it was impressive. I took the remains of the nest home to look at in the light of day – some of the larvae were still alive where the insecticide hadn’t reached them and would presumably have died without adults to feed them. The queen was immediately visible being so much larger than the workers around her.
Much as I hate destroying any animals, the predatory and destructive nature of these hornets makes it essential.
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Hi Jon,
Very interesting article. We have a nest exactly the same as shown in your photos, cemented on the underside of the corrugated metal roof of our log store. There don`t appear to be many hornets, and the guard hornet seems to have disappeared. Would they have departed on their own accord ?
Kindest regards,
Roger Ellis.
Hi Roger – I think it’s a bit early for the hornets to have died for the year. Where we are, they are definitely in the population expansion phase where all the new queens are bred along with the drones and they are flying on their ‘nuptial flights’. The fertilised females then over winter in a sheltered place before emerging to start a new nest in spring. If they are Asian hornets, you really need to try and get rid of the nest before all the new queens head out to over winter otherwise you’ll have a lot more nests near you next year. Hornets generally don’t use the same nest two years running though so if they have departed already, there’s no reason to worry about the nest.
I’m pleased to see that Jon would prefer to kill the hornets mechanically by surrounding the nest with a bag if possible. I have removed wasp nests like this, and have been forced to kill wasps when they repeatedly stung me on my allotment, in this case from a nest in the gound. I waited until night and poured 1 Litre of paraffin (kerosene) into the nest hole.
In Japan hornets kill about 70 people every year because they inject such a large amount of poison, and can also give a very nasty bite. If an Asian hornet approaches you aggressively, don’t try to swat it, just run away. They usually only attack people who come close to their nest, and if you attack one it sends out a scent signal which will bring out all the others, and then you really are in trouble ! If you do decide to destroy an Asian hornets’ nest take great care like Jon, and may the Force be with you !