As part of a Franco-Chinese partnership, "scientists have identified the sex pheromone of the Asian hornet and tested it as bait in China and France. They have thus shown that the pheromone bait can attract many males during the reproduction period of the species (from September to November) and thus keep them away from future queens at the origin of new colonies", explains a press release from the University of Tours.
“These results give hope for the future development of a trap to control this invasive hornet, using this sex pheromone as a selective bait. As this is species-specific, it only attracts males of the Asian hornet. The idea is to capture these males in large numbers before they can mate with future hornet queens," the statement said.
The queens "cannot mate with males, or not enough, it is possible to imagine in the long term a reduction in the number of colonies of Asian hornets on the ground or less populous colonies (...) And if they mate with their brothers, the phenomenon of consanguinity that the French researchers had highlighted increases, also giving rise to a reduction in the number of individuals", note the scientists.
The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) "is known for the devastation it causes on bee colonies, on biodiversity and the accidents it causes each year. Many people are stung and some die of it", recalls the press release.
This work, the results of which have just been published in the journal Entomologia Generalis, was carried out as part of a partnership between the Institute for Research on Insect Biology (CNRS/University of Tours) and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (Kunming, Chinese Academy of Sciences).
© 2022 AFP