Asian Hornets & Monitoring and Trapping

Monitoring traps can be used in the spring or late summer especially around risk points such as ports or areas where nests have occurred previously. A fact sheet and YouTube video on how to make an Asian hornet monitoring trap are available from the Asian hornet pages of BeeBase.

It would be very helpful if all beekeepers who use monitoring traps were encouraged to record their use on BeeBase by editing their apiary records, how to do this is described on page 9 of Beekeeper Pages FAQ.

It is illegal to trap and release an alien species. This means it is illegal to trap and release an Asian Hornet.

Photo taken from the Jersey Asian hornet group on facebook by Peter Kennedy, showing an updated monitoring trap, and the reasons it has been designed in such a way.

“These the traps I am running in Cornwall since mid-Feb.
One trap with a wick bait and the other with bait under perforated lid (lots of 1 mm drill holes). Mainly catching flies at the moment & the occasional moth. As checked daily, all released alive.

I use a little set concrete in the base of the bottles – helps reduce any swing in the wind and provides a flat base for the bait pots. There are 5 mm escape holes just under the funnel top and just above the concrete base (double up as drain holes if required) for smaller insects.”

Asian Hornet Action Team volunteer

Representing Bromley Beekeepers:
Steven Turner Email: ahat@bromleybeekeepers.org.uk