Stirring Up the Hornet's Nests...

Hornets...

Or, more precisely, Asian hornets:

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Clade:	Euarthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Vespidae
Genus:	Vespa
Species:	V. velutina
Binomial name
Vespa velutina Lepeletier, 1836

(Wikipedia, May 2018)

Asian hornets arrived in France in a container of pottery from China and have now become a serious menace, not least to bee-keepers because they can destroy a whole hive within hours.

I like bees.

In fact, I love bees, so much so that I planted a bee-friendly garden, installed bee nesting boxes and refuse to use pesticides that harm bees. And I have ornamental bees on the trellis in my courtyard.

I also run a bee clinic on chilly mornings when bumblebees are too cold and hungry to fly when they are gently moved to a source of sugar water and left in the sun to recover which, happily, they do. 

I am even considering naming my house La Ruche.

Last year several Asian hornets appeared in my garden, especially during late evenings when the outside light was on in the courtyard. We duly trapped them and a friend killed them. I couldn't kill them, they are huge and make a horrible crunchy noise when they are squashed. No, Benoit is my hornet assassin.  

In the autumn a friend and I went to a nearby village to watch a film about bees, Lovely film, very informative and eco-minded. And the musical score was ... I digress. At the end of the film a man stood up to lecture us on the threat posed to bees by Asian hornets, showed us a (dead) nest and urged us to make traps to catch and kill them.

I was an instant convert.

So far this year I have caught five Asian hornets, one of them a queen, which means no nest for that particular royal lady!

This morning it was time to refill the traps... 

1/3 beer (to dissuade bees from entering the trap)

1/3 white wine

1/3 grenadine syrup

et voilà...

The mixture goes into an empty water bottle, the cap fits on top to protect it from the rain and to enable it to be hung from a branch, and here it is in the back garden. This one catches the most hornets so I am quite fond of it. I also have one in the courtyard. Belts and braces, that's me.

A friend, over here for the weekend, emailed this morning that she fears she has a hornet nest in her roof. Would I give her the recipe for the traps? But she is leaving in a few minutes to return to the UK so they will have to wait until July. OK?

Not OK. I told her that if she has a nest she should not wait until July. I suggested she drop off her key and I will arrange with that local bee-keeper to go round and kill the nest. And put up a few traps to make sure it's not replaced before her return.

Fingers crossed she takes me up on the offer because otherwise these are the hornets she may find swarming around her little house when she returns...