French Beekeepers Brace for Asian Hornets Sting
Pastor Dale Morgan
Apr 13, 2:42 PM EDT
*French Beekeepers Brace for Asian Hornets Sting*
By PAUL LAUENER and MARIE-LAURE COMBES
Associated Press Writers
PARIS (AP) -- Ambushing locals as they return home from work, foreign
invaders are dismembering French natives and feeding them to their young.
This horror scenario is playing out in France's beehives, where an
ultra-aggressive species of Asian hornets - who likely migrated in
pottery shipped from China - may be threatening French honey production.
The hornets are thought to have reached France in 2004 after stowing
away on a cargo boat, said Claire Villemant, a lecturer at Paris'
Natural History Museum.
She said a France-based bonsai merchant traveled to the Yunnan province
of southern China to buy ceramic pots for his trees.
"He saw the hornets in that region," she said. When he saw them again,
they were buzzing around his property in the southwestern French village
of Tonneins.
Since then, the hornets have been establishing themselves in their
adopted country, concentrating mostly on building imposing nests.
It took until last summer for their numbers to start threatening honey
production, said Henri Clement, president of the National Union for
French Beekeeping. He said it was too early to give figures on the
hornets' economic impact, but he is bracing for a tough summer.
The situation is "very worrying," he said. "If the hornets keep
attacking the bees then their number will be reduced and honey
production will be severely handicapped."
France's 1.1 million hives produce up to 30,000 tons of honey a year,
about 2,500 tons of which are exported, according to the French national
agency for fruits, vegetables and horticulture.
Experts fear the hornets - which also sting humans - may spread to the
warmer reaches of southern Europe. They could begin colonizing Spain as
early as this summer, Villemant said. Even Britain could be vulnerable
if they hornets cross the English Channel through freight, she said.
Mike Hood, entomology professor at Clemson University in South Carolina,
warned, "If it could spread to France, it could spread to other regions
of the world, so that would be a concern for the U.S."
North America is already suffering its own bee troubles.
An invasion of highly aggressive Africanized bees has spread across the
southern United States. These "killer bees" are easily provoked and
attack in huge numbers. Since the hybrid Africanized bees are considered
less efficient than European bees, beekeepers worry they could lower
honey production and pollination.
A mysterious illness has killed tens of thousands of honeybee colonies
in at least 22 U.S. states, threatening honey production. The cause of
the ailment, called Colony Collapse Disorder, is unclear.
In France, the Asian hornets have spread quickly and turned
once-tranquil hives into battlefields, since there are no natural
predators in the region.
Bigger and bulkier than their European cousins, the hornets have no
trouble overcoming honeybees. They ambush beehives and dismember the
bees, ripping off their heads, antennae, and wings and reducing them to
a paste to feed the hornet queen and her larvae.
The honeybees are beginning to mount a counteroffensive, Villemant says:
They gather around an invading hornet, flap their wings to increase the
temperature and effectively roast it.
Beekeepers also are fighting back - they can change the size of the
entrances to the hives so the smaller bees can get in but not the hornets.
Some have suggested destroying all hornet nests in the region, including
those of French and European hornets. But Villemant says that would be
ecologically disastrous.
Hood said French beekeepers "could go back to where (the hornets) came
from to find natural predators." But he added, "You have to be careful
with this kind of solution as what you bring back might be worse than
the pest problem you already have."