Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Evan W on August 23, 2012, 01:09:55 pm
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I have noticed a Japanese Hornet picking off honey bees that are brave enough to attack it as it hovers by the entrance. I only see one at a time doing this. Is there more than one and should I be worried? I am going to try to kill this sucker if i happen to be out there, lucky for me I can see these things from a good way off.
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Kill it if you can. I didn't think we had any of them here in the states. If it marks your hive and goes back to its hive, about 30 of them can return and decimate your entire hive i an hour. Harbor Freight has a electric tennis racket that would make it easy to kill them while they are hovering.
Sounds like something that needs to be reported to your bee inspector. Our bees do not know how to handle them. Where they come from, Japan I think, the bees attack the first one in the hive in mass and cook it to death. Do a search on utube for killer hornets. It is not pretty.
I do have one of them, in a jar of alcohol, that I pulled out of my pool, right to my hives, but it is a different species and I have never seen them kill bees.
Jim
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Its a European Hornet but like most people and i refer to it as a Japanese hornet. Sorry.
Will it do the same thing to the hive like the Japanese hornet? I'm thinking about attaching a robbing screen to the hive or just wire mesh that the big hornet cant get thru.
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This is a Japanese Hornets
http://youtu.be/JDSf3Kshq1M (http://youtu.be/JDSf3Kshq1M)
Japanese honey bees vs. Japanese Hornets
http://youtu.be/K6m40W1s0Wc (http://youtu.be/K6m40W1s0Wc)
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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I noticed two european hornets doing the same thing to my hive as well. I tried to swing at them to kill them, but no luck. If you do injure one, I would throw it into your hive and let your bees finally kill it. Maybe they will learn how to defend themselves against them. I think they can have a nest with dozens of hornets in it.
They are a little terrifying; definitely wouldn't want to get stung by one.
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Number 9 shot will knock those boogers down with your 12 gauge.
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Wow! Great Videos!
I never heard of these. I hope we never get them here.
Larry
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I have Bald Faced Hornets harassing my bees. A couple weeks ago I saw one swoop down and snatch a bee from the hive. Another one entered the hive. A short time later, a dead hornet was carried out by several honeybees. :lol: They attempted to fly off with it but weren’t able to get it to far away. I see the hornets flying around occasionally and there’s no doubt they’re doing another snatch and grab run. From what I’ve read, dead ones attract more hornets. I guess the bees knew that already since they tried to fly it out of the area. Every couple days I see another dead one on the ground.
If I could find the nest, I think I would take the 12 guage out and give them some good ventalation. :-\
I built a couple homemade traps and hung them in the trees away from the hive.
2 liter plastic soda bottle
Drill a 1 inch hole just below the slope on the neck
Add: 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1 half cup vinegar, 1 banana peel
One has caught at least 30 bald faced hornets and a couple European hornets …the other mostly moths. Hornets/moths, kill em all!
Apparently the best time to deal with these hornets is in the spring when the hornet queens are out and about, starting new nests. Kill the new queens and eliminate the problem before it starts. I’ll be sure to add this to my spring time check list.
Richard
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I'm thinking about attaching a robbing screen to the hive or just wire mesh that the big hornet cant get thru.
That sounds like a good solution to the problem!
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They will grab a bee before the bee make it into the hive.
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They will grab a bee before the bee make it into the hive.
OK, so much for the screen! I hope they keep away from my bees. I have enough problems without them. :hissyfit:
Larry
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I've got them here too. They do take occasional bees, but I've never seen them outright attack a hive. They are destructive little buggers. They band or eat the park off of all the lilac bushes which in turn causes the bush to eventually die. They kill everything in site and I hear their sting is particularly painful. They are the bee or hornet I have ever seen attracted to light. Always have them crawling all over my house lights at night. My buddy kills a boat load of them with a bug zapper every night. I do hate those things! :evil:
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the ones I have seen around here are the sucaita killers I thought. they are massive and when one comes by and hovers around my head takeing a good look.(I think about the b movie killer bees :-X) never had one to sting but they are sure interested in what is going on around them. have not had any go after the bees that I know of but man they have been going after the sucaidas big time I have holes all over around the base of the trees and have watched them dig for hours to get down to a bug in the ground. I have heard they will dig down 4 feet to get to a larve to set a egg on it.
john