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Offline wm21m9

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Japanese hornets
« on: February 25, 2008, 04:53:53 pm »
 Anybody have any trouble with japanese hornets? There are quite aa few in my neck of the woods & I'm wondering if I should be hunting them down before getting started...Jeff

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2008, 10:06:40 am »
As far as I know, the Japanese hornets aren't in the Americas, I'm pretty sure there would be a large "buzz" on these forums if they had, since they can wreak such horrific damage on a beehive.

More likely you may have European hornets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa_crabro , not to be confused with european paperwasps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_paper_wasp .

You will have a hard time finding and exterminating them.  Best watch the hives and be prepared to defend them if you see any attacks.  Robber screens, reduced entrances, not leaving honey around, etc.  You can also build/buy traps that will trap wasps/hornets.

Rick
Rick

Offline wm21m9

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2008, 10:31:29 am »
 Geese now I'm not sure! Everybody 'round here calls em japanese hornets, as I understood it they were brought into large beef & pork operations because they catch flies "on the fly", it didn't work out so good and they flew off into the great blue yonder..and into the woods around my house! All I know is they're HUGE & aggressive as heck! I'll have to get ahold of one and do a little further investigation...Jeff

Offline Cindi

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2008, 10:50:36 am »
Jeff, do you have a digital camera?  If you do, catch one of the hornets and take a picture of it so we can see.  That would be nasty if it was a Japanese hornet, surely, I have read nasty things about them. Check it out and let us know, we are a curious and interested crew.  Have a wonderful and adventuresome day, Cindi
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Offline Jerrymac

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2008, 11:47:21 am »
Japanese Hornet

:rainbowflower:  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.   :rainbowflower:

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Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2008, 01:22:32 pm »
Rick

Offline wm21m9

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2008, 02:06:47 pm »
 THAT'S why I was askin about em! Jeff

Offline wm21m9

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2008, 04:00:56 pm »
 I'll tell I've been looking online at euros & japanese, and I don't remember them having any red/rust color on them like the euros, that & they're aggressive as all getout! When one gets in the house it'll pin the whole family in a corner room and attack if you poke your head out, they're huge & built like tanks!
 I'll have to get ahold of one, take pix & find out for sure...Jeff

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2008, 05:14:10 pm »
I think most of the Vespa's are non aggressive except when you threaten their hives.

Do you have good old bald-faced hornets? (white and black)  I don't know of too many wasps that are aggressive unless you threaten their nests.

Whatever you have, I'd bet that while they can hurt a hive and eventually destroy it, they don't have the sheer destructive power of the Japanese Hornets.

You'll find stories here about how wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets can wipe a hive out.  Not usually in 3 hours with 30 hornets, though.

Rick

Offline dhood

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2008, 10:07:59 pm »
I've had European Hornets attacking my hives for the past couple of months, here is a couple of photo's of them. Maybe this will help you identify your hornet.

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm371/wdhood/hornet013.jpg

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm371/wdhood/hornet012.jpg

Offline Cindi

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #10 on: August 01, 2008, 10:27:38 am »
I don't know, that hornet that you show a picture of looks pretty similar to what we call here Yellowjackets, and yep, yep, they can reak havoc in a bee colony.  I do my best to eradicate these nasties around my property.  They can be considered beneficials, but I think they do more damage in late summer than doing good.  I don't bother them until I see that they are bothering my bees, then I am on a hunt.  Beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi

The bee and yellowjacket were sipping sugar syrup, side by side.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline poka-bee

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #11 on: August 01, 2008, 11:12:21 am »
dhood, now that's how I like to see hornets!  There was a huge one sniffing around one of my hives the other day, it even landed on the entrance but my bees chased it away.  It wouldn't hold still & my bees wouldn't get away from it long enough to smush it :evil:  Now I check em several times a day & keep bino's by the window so can intervene if needed.  Cindi, I know how aggressive they get in the fall, you can't eat or drink outside w/o them making a nuisence of themselves.  I'm not scared but do get REALLY annoyed when they are buzzing my dinner or mojito!!!.. :-x Jody
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Offline millermann1972

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2008, 03:20:21 pm »
we call them bell hornets... they ring your bell when you get stung...lol  :shock: look up a picture of a (vespa crabro germana)...they are some bad dudes. i catch them swooping down snatching bees up all the time but its hard to find a nest. hope this helps...millermann1972

Offline greg spike

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2008, 01:51:09 pm »
We have cicada hornets around here, cigar shaped, appear to have two sets of wings and get 5-6" long. They scoop up bees sometimes. They look and sound scary, but i don't think they do too much damage.

Offline trumpet01

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2008, 06:19:24 pm »
I agree with Millermann.I live near Danville,Va. and we too call them Bell Hornets. There's no way to confuse them with a yellow jacket.They are huge!The cicada killers are different and are not around all summer. We found a nest in a friends metal shed. It looks just like a bald face hornets nest. They are some bad dudes, but seem to be less agressive than a bald face hornet. Yes, European hornet.
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Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #15 on: August 05, 2008, 08:22:23 pm »
It only takes a few japanese hornets to kill a person... I'm sure what you have is just large ordinary hornets like we have here.  Despite appearances they are actaully quite dossile, though "curious".  They will investigate you, but not sting unless really threatened.

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #16 on: August 08, 2008, 11:30:49 am »
It's really common for people in the southeastern US to refer to European Hornets as Japanese Hornets. Sure, it'd be great if everyone used the correct nomenclature for everything, but since we don't have any actual Japanese Hornets here to get confused with, and since everyone knows what you're talking about, it's really not that big of a deal.

But yeah, I've been having a problem with them hawking my girls lately too. Bugs the crap out of me, but until I can find their nest (no luck so far - but I've been looking) it doesn't seem like there's much that can be done to stop them.
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Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #17 on: August 08, 2008, 01:33:30 pm »
It's really common for people in the southeastern US to refer to European Hornets as Japanese Hornets. Sure, it'd be great if everyone used the correct nomenclature for everything, but since we don't have any actual Japanese Hornets here to get confused with, and since everyone knows what you're talking about, it's really not that big of a deal.

But yeah, I've been having a problem with them hawking my girls lately too. Bugs the crap out of me, but until I can find their nest (no luck so far - but I've been looking) it doesn't seem like there's much that can be done to stop them.

One word... chickens.  Those wasps used to make nests under my deck, until I got the chickens... no more, now the chooks just eat em up.  They love anything that moves that small enough they think they can swallow it... including toes not in socks.

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #18 on: August 08, 2008, 02:04:41 pm »
And that is not to confuse European Paperwasps with European hornets!

European PPW = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_wasp (pictures are, at least!)

European Hornet = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hornet

Japanese or Asian Hornet = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet
Rick

Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #19 on: August 08, 2008, 08:57:51 pm »
Ok, this is absolutely amazing, this is from wikipedia on that asian hornet...

"When a hornet scout locates and approaches a Japanese honey bee hive it will emit specific pheromonal hunting signals. When the honey bees detect these pheromones, a hundred or so will gather near the entrance of the nest and keep it open, apparently to draw the hornet further into the hive or allow it to enter on its own. As the hornet enters the nest, a large mob of about five hundred honey bees surrounds it, completely covering it and preventing it from moving, and begin quickly vibrating their flight muscles. This has the effect of raising the temperature of the honey bee mass to 47 °C (117 °F). The honey bees can just about tolerate this temperature, but the hornet cannot survive more than 45 °C (113 °F), so it dies. Often several bees perish along with the intruder, but the death of the hornet scout prevents it from summoning reinforcements which would wipe out the colony."

Offline eri

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #20 on: August 08, 2008, 11:38:58 pm »
Better than reading about it, Sarge, are some videos on youtube. Search for japanese honeybees.
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Offline dhood

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #21 on: August 08, 2008, 11:42:26 pm »
That's a trait that the Asian Honeybees have adapted for survival, but our honeybees will not do this. Would be nice though. :)

Offline tillie

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #22 on: August 10, 2008, 10:46:57 pm »
I've been seeing European hornets this year and haven't in the past.  The first two years, I saw lots of Bald-faced hornets.  This year the European one is around every day.  They are cannibals and take the live bees to feed their babies like the Bald-faced hornets do.  I posted a picture today of the hornet I've been seeing.  The link says that in the US people tend to mis-identify them as Japanese hornets which are not in the USA.

Here's the picture:



The Penn State entomology department says that the European hornet is technically the only true hornet in the US.

Linda T in Atlanta

Offline TwT

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #23 on: August 11, 2008, 12:19:33 am »
I killed one last year, it came buzzing around me and I thought it was a humming bird, must have been a queen because it was huge (they say they get 1 1/4 long but I figured this one to be about 1 3/4 long and thick as my little finger), I did a search and read about them making there way down into Ga. now and I here they like to make their next in between forks of tree's.
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

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Offline dpence

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2008, 02:38:51 am »
We have cicada hornets around here, cigar shaped, appear to have two sets of wings and get 5-6" long. They scoop up bees sometimes. They look and sound scary, but i don't think they do too much damage.

We have cicada killers here too, very large solitary wasp that borrows in the ground.

David 

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: Japanese hornets
« Reply #25 on: March 11, 2014, 12:43:52 pm »
                                      The European Hornet dilemma
                                                                          Phil Snider
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 The Benefits of this non native species of Hornet in the US are outweighed by the actual damages caused by its very well established feeding habits.

1. Known Effect Girdling. Girdling occurs when an insect removes the bark in a section of a tree or limb spanning the circumference of the trunk or limb. This in effect causes the injury to leak sap. This sap is collected for food for larvae and the nest. The damage to the trees is permanent

2. Honey Bee decimation. The European hornet will attack native and domesticated hives for the honey and pupae. This in turn removes from the Eco-system the single most contributing factor for pollination of agricultural commodities and fruits.

When seen from a single nest perspective this seems manageable. But when seen from a larger but comprehensible perspective the effects of this species is shocking.

Nest sizes Can range from as few as 300 to as many as 1000 hornets. The social structure being similar to the bald face hornet or yellow jacket social models.

Queen- Lays the eggs
Non Fertile Females- tend to the queen and the eggs- pupae-larvae
Workers- bring food to the nest. Expand then nest- Maintain the nest
Scouts- Search for food

Later stage of Nest

Queen produces fertile females and fertile males. Food requirement goes up for the nest and aggressive behavior starts to increase

In Culpeper County my 2000 survey indicated 100 nests present within a 15 mile radius of the Town of Culpeper proper. That is 30,000 to 100,000 hornets.

If only 10 percent of the nest girdled one limb per summer that is 3,000-10,000 limbs destroyed.
If 10 native or domestic honey bee hives are destroyed that is an untold amount of crop loss as well as vital Eco-system pollination that cannot occur.

The impact upon the European Hornet by birds and other insect feeders is minimal and the nesting habits make it difficult to locate and reduce their numbers to a manageable level.

Nesting Habits

European Hornets prefer hollow standing trees. With a cavity close to the size of a football. Over the course of a season they will have enlarged the cavity to the size of a basket ball or more.
Naturally the bigger the cavity the larger the Nest.

They DO reuse the tree. It may not be the Over Winter Queen but A queen will find the old nest and reuse the cavity. I have Two study trees; one at 810 Fairfax street and one at 24807 Revercomb that have seen continuous use since the late 1990s.Similar reports have been submitted from across the state verifying this occurrence.

 Walls and Standing structures. Any Structures that meet the same physical characteristics of a tree cavity will be used by the hornets as such. For residential areas this can be a problem for the residents. For allergic children this can be deadly.

                                                                       



Controlling and Management:

For Standing structure it is best to Screen and seal any open cavity’s in walls , fascia boards, soffets and vents.

For trees in the winter on can seal the cavity’s closed after a treatment of Drione or Demise (ACTIVE INGREDIENTS:
Pyrethrins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.00%
* Piperonyl butoxide, Technical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.00%
Silicon Dioxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00%
INERT INGREDIENTS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.00%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100.00%
* Equivalent to 8.00% (butylcarbityl)(6-propylpiperonyl) ether and 2.00% related compounds is applied. Chemical treatment should be done by a certified professional.

Early Spring. Before first bloom it is advised to pretreat flowering trees with timed release vectoring chemicals (TRVC) such as Optigard (Thiamethoxam ). These chemicals attach to the hornets upon contact as they seek to girdle the tree. Once carried to the nest the chemical is transferred to the nest and to other hornets who come into contact with the host. 4-7 days later the chemical activates and the nest begins to die. 14 days later the nest has been eradicated.

Nocturnal Nature:

The European hornet prefers to hunt at night. They are attracted to light the same as their prey Moths and large beetles. By using the same TRVC Around the light on outdoor ceilings and high on walls and door jambs you will contaminate the scout and workers who come seeking food.

This method is preferred as it targets only the European hornet and does not expose the residents or workers to the inherent risks of nest location.


Further Research

Standing tree Cavity Winter Core Temperatures Pre-nest and Post nest.
Hypothesis: Nest waste and bio mass breakdown of the tree core keep the temperatures up to a pre hibernation level. In effect keeping the hornets alive longer or putting more than just one queen in an over winter state.

Test subjects 810 and 24807

Methods of measurement

Electrical outdoor thermometers with coupled sensors.

Summer temperatures

Fall Temperatures

Winter Temperatures

Over winter Thermal Specs for European Hornets.
Aggressiveness

The aggressive nature of the hornet appears to be chained to the temperature. With colder climes the Hornet is passive. As the temperature climbs the Aggressiveness of the Hornets increase to the point of outright hostility to any carbon dioxide emitting entities or devices.

Travel distance
The European hornet has an airspeed of 25 miles per hour and can travel 60 miles in a day. With optimum weather it will never travel more than a mile from its nest. As conditions worsen it begins to venture further out.

I have seen this Hornet co exist with wasps and yellow jackets and not exhibiting the eradication behavior that it has with honey bees. It may during times of drought that they  attack these wasp and yellow jacket nests but to date in 25 years of observation I have not seen them target those two species for eradication. As this is not a predictable characteristic I find the Potential of this activity as not being a viable reason to sustain over the damage they reliably cause.

The potentiality to be beneficial is just that potential. The actuality is that they cause damage to the nesting tree and Host/feeder trees, they reduce pollination of Crops and Natural resources.

Host trees . Trees that have been hollowed out by carpenter ants are the preferred target for the European hornet. First it has a readily available food supply and second the extent of the cavity is large enough to ensure a successful hornet population. The damage to the host is irreversible and the tree if in a residential area must be removed to prevent loss of life or property.

Feeder trees

Maple, Dogwood, Laurel including mountain laurel, fruit trees, rose bushes, persimmon, cherry .
Vines including wild grape and domesticated. Any flower bearing ornamental tree is also a food supply for the European hornet.
 

Trees I have noticed a preference for are Gum Oaks. Trees they avoid are cedars.