Hornet Trap
- Designed to be highly selective and only trap Asian Hornets.
- Designed to do no harm to other insects
- Easy to use
- Quick to re-deploy
GUIDE ON BAIT FOR HORNET TRAPS
1 – Understanding Liquid Baits
– Liquid baits are commonly used in kill traps designed to drown attracted insects. They effectively target pests but have a significant downside. Any insect lured, whether beneficial or not, will die.
– Particularly concerning Asian Hornets, they have a range limit of about 700 meters from their nests. Once the local hornet population is suppressed, the kill traps will continue to kill all other insect species. This indiscriminate action could potentially suppress certain local insect populations, eventually making the traps more harmful to the ecosystem than the hornets themselves.
2 – An Improved Approach to Liquid Bait
– We recommend using a sponge in conjunction with liquid bait. This approach has two primary benefits:
a) The sponge absorbs the liquid, enhancing the surface area available of evaporation. This configuration reduces the risk of insects drowning, curbing unintended casualties.
b) The sponge also ensures the bait remains contained, preventing wastage.
3 – Commercial Liquid Baits and Homemade Recipes
– Commercial liquid baits effectively attract hornets, but some might lure a broader spectrum of insects, like butterflies. This can lead to unintended consequences.
– Baits with alcohol content can maintain their aroma for a period, though it fades due to evaporation.
– For alternative solutions, there are numerous DIY recipes available online. These mixtures, especially when paired with a sponge, can be used standalone or mixed with other lures for enhanced efficacy.
4 – The Effectiveness of Honeycomb
– Honeycomb is a top-tier bait. The scent of wax and honey, reminiscent of beehives, is irresistible to Asian Hornets. While it effectively lures hornets, it also draws bees that may recover parts of the bait.
– Interestingly, hornets don’t typically prey on the bees near traps. Possibly, the lack of a single entry or exit (as in a hive) doesn’t mark it as a hunting zone for them. Instead, they crawl over trap until they find the way in, and their ensuing distress when trapped becomes a powerful attractant for other hornets.
5 – Emptying and Resetting the Trap
– Capturing the first hornet sets off a chain reaction, pulling in more from the vicinity. The suggested procedure is:
a) Handle the trap carefully and, preferably, after dusk. We recommend wearing protective clothing, including heavy gloves and wrapping the trap securing in cloth such as a towel. Asian Hornets do not fly at night and therefore the trap will not attract more once darkness falls.
b) Place the trap in a freezer for about 2-4 minutes, or until hornet movement ceases. This will also stun bycatch.
c) Transfer all but 2-3 hornets into a bag and return it to the freezer for 20 minutes or more for humane extermination.
d) Reseal and redeploy the trap. The retained hornets, upon revival, continue to lure their counterparts.
e) This method also facilitates the safe release of any unintended captures or “bycatch” in the trap.
HOW TO USE THE RED & ORANGE NOZZLES
Each kit comes with red and orange/yellow-coloured nozzles that fit to the cones. These are designed to all but eliminate bycatch.
The red nozzles are intended to allow the entry of queen asian hornets and so should be used from early spring to early summer and again in autumn.
In spring the queens emerge from hibernation and build a small nest to raise the first batch of workers themselves, therefore every queen killed at this point will lessen the number of nests that go onto full hornet production. At this point the queens are looking for both protein for the larvae and carbohydrates for themselves.
Queen European hornets are also about and the discrimination brought by the use of the red nozzle will prevent these from entering the trap.
Other, smaller insects that enter the trap through the mesh are free to come and go.
Once the primary nest is complete the queen and her workers leave this to go and set up the secondary nest. She will not leave this to forage herself and all food collection is now undertaken by the worker hornets – and they are smaller than the queen. This is the time to move to the orange nozzle to prevent the entry of worker European hornets.
This changeover typically occurs late spring to early summer but is weather dependant.
In the late autumn the hornet nest, before dying off for the winter will produce queens for the following year – often up to 300!
Selective trapping at this time is paramount and is the best way of lessening the hornet impact. The queens will be looking to take on carbohydrates into their fat reserves, as will the European queens, so now it is time to get the red nozzles back on.
Some by-catch may occur particularly around the time of changing from red to orange to red nozzles, but if the trap is carefully monitored this may be easily dealt with – see our instructions on emptying the trap.
GUIDE ON EMPTYING YOUR TRAPS
The trap has been carefully designed to eliminate the problem of bycatch, i.e. the only species caught are the Asian Hornet. Extensive tests have shown the bycatch rate to be as little as 0.1%.
The size of the trap is such that it will simply fit into the drawer of a domestic freezer. To kill the entire contents of the trap simply leave in the freezer for 2 hours.
In the unlikely event there is a bycatch then the trap should be placed in the freezer until all the insects stop moving, no more than 3 minutes maximum, when the insects will be rendered torpid and immobile. The trap may then be opened and emptied onto a suitable surface and the Asian hornets tipped into a typical container for return to the freezer. Any bycatch may be placed in an appropriate place to warm up and go on their way!
The trap may be re-assembled and rebaited – it is worth keeping a couple of Asian hornets back to place in the trap to recover as they will act as an effective bait in their own right.
Note – if there is no bycatch in the trap then it can be left in the freezer for a couple of hours – or overnight if brought back in the evening and then emptied and placed back in location.
The trap may be carefully carried by the clip (preferably after dusk) and for security (particularly if moving it a distance) placed in a suitable carrier bag. Asian hornets do not fly at night and therefore the trap will not attract more once darkness falls.
