Hornet Blockade

We have a colony of feral honey bees living in the void between our attic floor and bedroom ceiling. They installed themselves back in April and really have been no trouble at all apart from me having to call Bernard the Beek to see if he could entice them into a 'proper' hive, and if not, ask his advice about how to manage them. The answer to the latter question is simple: there is no need to do anything at all.

The other day I noticed that there was a large number of bees huddled around the entrance to their hive, and hanging in the air in a thoroughly menacing way was a group of Asian Yellow-legged Hornets Vespa velutina (Fr. Frelon asiatique). These are notorious for raiding honey bee hives and beekeepers get very agitated about them.

Watching the action (or, to be honest, the lack of action) it seemed to me that the problem for the bees was not so much getting captured and eaten, but being trapped so they couldn't fly out and forage. It was a very hot day, and they could not fly off to find water for a drink either, and neither could they effectively fan the interior of the hive to keep it cool. The hornets dared not approach too closely as they would have got overwhelmed by guard bees who would envelope them in a mass of hot honey bees, thus killing the hornet. So it was a standoff, with the hornets presumably hoping that if they waited long enough the honey bees would fly in desperation. 

I don't know how long the situation endured. After lunch I looked again, and there were only a few guard bees at the hive entrance, and no hornets in sight. The next day I did see a hornet bearing off a honey bee.

The hornets will be wanting to catch bees to feed their own larvae. Hornet and wasp larvae are 'carnivores' and will eat the soft parts of other insects, which the adults either catch or scavenge for their young. It could also include bits of dead animals, ham and such from your picnic, and fish from the fishmongers at the market. The adult hornets and wasps themselves feed on sugary substances such as nectar that they forage from flowers, and soft drinks and jam at your picnic.

At the back door, the Asian Hornets are staking out the German wasps too, but here they are themselves having to fight off European Hornets Vespa crabro (Fr. Frelon), who also fancy a waspy snack.

European Hornet dismembering a European Wasp Vespula germanica on our door mat. The hornet has stung the wasp in the head and has already removed the abdomen.