ANEL Funnel Trap for Vespa Velutina and Vespa Orientalis

01 · HOW TO BUILD IT

Two empty boxes and a drilled inner cover

The assembly that works best imitates a hive: two empty Langstroth bodies stacked and, on top, an inner cover with a central hole holding the funnel. The hornets come in through the funnel, drawn by the bait and the light, and once inside they do not find the way out. Any sealed container or box will do too — all that matters is that it closes everywhere except at the funnel.

02 · SELECTIVITY

The diameter of the hole decides what gets in

A bait trap catches whatever you let in, so the hole is the key part. At around 7.8 mm the Asian hornet passes and the European hornet — bigger, and a useful insect — stays out; open it to 8.6 mm and it comes in too. Reducing the hole is easy with a PVC bush, a washer or a cap drilled to size. And a trick that gets little use: put a queen excluder at the top of the box so honeybees that get in by mistake can leave.

03 · BAIT AND SEASON

Sweet in spring, protein in summer

In spring you are after the founder queen with sweet baits — syrups, glucose, beer with sugar — and every queen caught is a nest that never gets built. In summer and autumn, when the workers are after protein for the brood, a protein bait such as fish works better. Put the trap near the hives or on the flight lines of the apiary, and check and empty it regularly: a saturated trap stops catching and starts smelling of something else.

04 · WHAT TO EXPECT

It lowers the pressure, it does not clear the district

Trapping takes pressure off the entrances and buys you time, but it does not remove the species from your area and does not replace the other measures: entrance reducers, strong colonies and, when a nest is located, its destruction. See it as one piece of the whole — and the cheapest to scale, because with a funnel and two old boxes you have a trap per apiary.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Only the funnel is sold: 23 cm across and 17 tall. The container, the bait and the excluder go separately. It is rigid plastic — seat it without forcing, especially in the cold.