It's Sunday and today is the Asian Hornet Workshop in Dorchester. Details are here.
One thing we were offering was samples of Trappit. For those not in the know this is what used to be known as Suterra. It is what we put into traps to attract Asian Hornets. It is not a killer - unless they drown in it. The purpose of Trappit is to attract Asian Hornets.
Unfortunately Trappit is in very short supply and thus we are unable to get hold of it at the moment. Instead I am giving you some recipes to try.
In the Spring the Asian Hornet is Queen is emerging from hibernation and is hungry. She needs carbohydrates and good mixtures are anything that smells and is sweet. Suggested mixtures include fruit juice, fermenting apples and dark beers. The French suggest adding some orange liqueur. Do not use honey as this will attract bees and is likely to spread disease. It is suggested that s significant amount of imported honey contains foulbrood bacatera.
In the summer the Asian Hornet nest could be growing rapidly and at that time the Asian Hornet is looking for sources of protein - and this is where the bait is less tasty to us!
The National Bee Unit use a bait of mashed fish with 25% water added. This needs to be changed every few days to avoid it become repellent rather than just offensive. Hopefully by the time we get to the summer there will be commercial attractants around which are nicer to work with.
There is a document on monitoring for Asian Hornet on the NBU website.
