The natural enemy from out of the honeybee's nest
What's hornet
n fall, television often broadcasts the killing of hornet. So they are carnivorous, so they catch honey bees, ball, and eat them up.
The hornet, especially the ones called Asian giant hornet attack honey bees, hives to feed on the larvae. Some attack the honey bees in groups and wipe out the whole hive ( other honeys catch and find a beehive, dozens of them come in. Hover in front of the beehive the state of being stationary in the air and wait for the bees. And bite the bees one by one. However the European bees have no means of combating so there are no hornet in their native habitat, so they don’t know how to fright with them. If left untouched, a few Asian giant hornets can easily annihilate European beehives.
Resources
It is said that the existence of hornets is the reason why alien insects such as European bees have bit become wild in Japan. No matter how prosperous the European beehive, once attacked by the Asian giant hornet, it will be destroyed. The solution is change the size of the hive door for Asian giant not to get in it. Some beekeepers put a fence the size of the door that the Asian giant can’t get in front of the nest entrance. In addition, it is also necessary to regularly check if there is a hole in the hive to prevent Asian giant from entering the hive even if there is no hole in the hive, the Asian giant will chew through the hive and make a hole through it to get in. So setting up a trap to catch hornets is also very effective.
According to NHK Hokkaido’s homepage hornets can be caught by carrying a 1.5cm square on a 500ml bottle and folding it innards, then pouring honey and 150ml of water inside and tying a rope around it. If the trap could be set up in May or June, when the queen bee on their own hunting trip, if they could catch the queen and prevent the hive from being created. By the way, this method can be used in the normal house as a way to prevent hornets.
However, in summer, it is more dangerous because the worker bees are attracted to it, so it is recommended to install before June.
Tamagawa University has been using commercially available mousetrap. By placing a mousetrap on a hive board and attaching the carcass of a single hornet, more than a dozen hornets would fall for the trap.(unfortunately, honeybees also fall for it). Also we can stop the hornet with a badminton racket. According to professor Ken Sasaki of Tamagawa university,“bees are surprisingly slow. The swing of tennis and badminton is quicker” as he said. But in fact, with this strategy, a lot of bees were killed by Asian giant hornet. And the battle between the Asian giant hornet and the honeybee will never end.
The Japanese bees, on the other hand, can beat back the Asian giant hornet without human help. When hornets come, Japanese bees gather in groups in front of the hive to threaten them. If the Asian giant bee attacks one of them, a large number of honeybees will attack it. The honeybees will make bee ball around the Asian giant hornet. By vibrating the bee’s muscles, the temperature of the bee ball rises. The Asian giant hornets are less heat-tolerant than the honeybees, and became the air in the center of the bee’s ball does not circulate, carbon dioxide levels rise, causing the Asian giant hornet to die within 10 minutes. The bee will last for 30 minutes.
The brave worker bees that sacrifice themselves to protect the hive. Defending the hive from the Asian giant hornet shortens the life span of the worker bees, and if they successfully protected the hive, some of them will be killed by Asian giant hornets, so in a short period of time if attacked repeatedly, they will abandon the hive and escape. However, although Asian giant hornet are a fearful enemy to them, they catch a lot of insects and words, the hornet are the good bugs for the farmers to catch the bugs. In fact, they have also invented a pest control method that lets the bee-free hornet in a farm.
References
一般社団法人 日本養蜂協会 ホームページhttp://www.beekeeping.or.jp/
越中矢住子『ミツバチは本当に消えたか』 SoftBank Creative、2010年
堀江武『図解でよくわかる 農業の基本』 誠文堂新光社、2015年
久志冨士男 『ニホンミツバチが日本の農業を救う』 高文研、2009年
