Caroline Baudry, edited by Juline Garnier 09:00, May 27, 2022
It is a bit smaller than its Asian cousin, but just as formidable to bees.
After the European and Asian hornets, the oriental hornet was spotted last October in Marseille and could pose a threat in France.
Some beekeepers are already preparing for this.
A new enemy of bees is likely to land in France.
Two nests of oriental hornets were discovered by the team of Gérard Filippi, the founder of a naturalist expertise firm, then destroyed on the spot.
Measuring about three centimeters long, with a reddish color and yellow spots on the head, this hornet is particularly recognizable, and monitored by scientists.
An Asian hornet can decapitate 50,000 bees in a few hours
"These are species that are excessively prolific, whose nests can contain up to 4,000 individuals. From the moment the expansion is not controlled from the start, it causes the plague that we know today : it becomes a predator, like the Asian hornet, of honey bees", worries the specialist.
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The Asian hornet is capable of decapitating 50,000 bees in a few hours.
Denis Jaffré lost a third of his hives in 2016. The beekeeper built a trap in stride, today adapted to the oriental hornet he studied in Malta.
Traps to limit hive attacks
"It took a long time to succeed in capturing some and the idea was to calibrate my trap very precisely, knowing that it was necessary to pass one of the eastern hornet queens so that this trap could be used for this new species. if it managed to establish itself in France", he explains.
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He adds that luckily, the hornet needs a warmer climate than in France to develop.
In the meantime, the specialists invite the French who would cross the road of the insect to report it on the application of the INPN, the national inventory of the natural heritage.