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Are German Hornets a Serious Bee Threat?

6K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  b33keeper 
#1 ·
I have discovered a nest hornet a hundred or so yards from my two bee hives. Normally, these do not overly concern me and I take heart in the fact that they are feasting on the insects on my property.

Is there a known problem between bees and german hornets? I know that a hornet will eat the occasional bee. But, can it become more serious than that?

If it comes to between the bees and the hornets, the hornets will be dead before nightfall.
 
#4 ·
FWIW We had large yellow hornets (German Hornets ?) in 2005, constantly at the hive entrances, lopping off the heads of maybe hundreds of worker bees. Never had seen them before. Very difficult to eradicate the very large nest which was in a wall. They didn't die easily no matter what was used against them. Alive going into the winter but did not survive it. Not really vicious to humans but against the bees they were terrible to the point of affecting the honey crop. It may have been some exotic invasive species. One of the Boston newspapers had an article about them as they had invaded a Boston shipyard. OMTCW
 
#5 ·
They were a bad problem for me last year. I did find the nest and burned them out - after attempting to use wasp spray and the gasoline to no avail. They would show up as I lifted the top covers and start picking off my girls.

Like all hornets only the queens overwinter so the nest are just about always in new locations.

This year I have only seen one large yellow hornet so far - and attempted to kill it.

A only good hornet is a dead hornet
 
#6 ·
I put out homemade wasp and hornet traps in spring to get the queens.

I use a piece of a hot dog in soapy water.

A 2 gal milk jug with the top cut and then inverted into the bottom and taped on.

I put them all over as the plastic is free and it cuts back on the wasps we have (meat bees).

I have just started sprinkling meat with sevin dust (no trap) and let them take it back to the hive to kill the hive. Not much experience with that yet.
 
#7 ·
German, or European Hornets are attacking and killing some hives in Northeast Pennsylvania this August. They aren't supposed to do that. For now, put a queen excluder under the brood boxes to keep them out, and close off the hole at the top board, or they will kill all the bees in order to freely eat all the larvae and pollen and drink their fill of honey, all in the dark of night. We have to figure out what size of screen to use over the entrances to our hives to let bees through but keep out those hornets because at night they come to attack in force and will kill a hive every night till there are none left.
 
#8 ·
German, or European Hornets are attacking and killing some hives in Northeast Pennsylvania this August. They aren't supposed to do that. For now, put a queen excluder under the brood boxes to keep them out, and close off the hole at the top board, or they will kill all the bees in order to freely eat all the larvae and pollen and drink their fill of honey, all in the dark of night. We have to figure out what size of screen to use over the entrances to our hives to let bees through but keep out those hornets because at night they come to attack in force and will kill a hive every night till there are none left.
 
#9 ·
European Hornets, or German Hornets, killed all six colonies of mine before I could figure out what was going on. They attack in the dark of night and kill all the bees in a hive, then eat all the larvae and food stores. They have overtaken the environment after our bats died off, and now the tree frogs have died off and other amphibians are declining. They do nocturnal group attacks. In the dog days of summer they are experiencing an explosion of young similar to what bees do in the spring, and so are looking for fats and protein to feed them all. Earlier in the summer they don't eat all the larvae, but instead occasionally kill a queen and they cause very spotty brood nests, with perhaps only a few capped cells on a whole frame. The bees can't build any strength. You can kill the hornet nest, but it's a losing battle as they are overwhelming the environment and nests are all over. I placed 1/4" welded hardware cloth over my hive entrances, and honeybees go right through it. Hornets will not even attempt getting through. Now they won't kill any more queens on me, and eat the larvae. The only problem I encountered is that returning bees get confused by glare if the sun is on the screen, because of its shininess perhaps, and its square holes that don't mesh into their hexagonal vision system. They seem apprehensive to approach and land then. I'm taking the screen off to paint it a pastel color and then reinstall it.
I have about fifty bees left, and no queens and no stores in the hives. Don't let it happen to you. If you are in European (or German, same bug) hornet territory screen off those buggers so they can't enter. I found that 1/4" hardware cloth over my hive entrances works well to let bees pass but not the larger hornets. I have high hopes for next year, when I start again.
 
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