Tartago® dry harp for Asian hornet, 60 cm

01 · HOW IT WORKS

It attracts nothing: it sits in the flight path

The harp uses no attractant, light or bait. The Asian hornet hunts by lying in wait, hovering in front of the hive entrance, so the harp goes parallel to the entrances, across that flight corridor. The hornet is electrocuted when it passes between two wires: with 20 mm spacing it touches both, while most bees pass through without closing the circuit. If it seems not to kill, it is almost always the placement: the harp is not in the hornet's flight path.

02 · NO WATER

The hopper does the tray's job

What falls electrocuted does not go into a water tray: the base has a hopper that collects it dry. There is no water to top up or soap to add, and the harp does not need to be perfectly level, which is the hard part in an apiary out in the field. According to the manufacturer, a bee that falls in by accident can get out.

With no water to drown it, a stunned hornet may still be alive in the hopper: check it often and do not release it or carry it alive, as it is an invasive alien species.

How it compares with the water-tray harp:

Everything else is the same: 60 cm wide, 0.35 mm stainless wire at 20 mm and the same electric modules.

03 · BUILD

Insulators designed to work in the rain

It has a 1 mm stainless steel frame, 0.35 mm stainless steel wire and individual tensioning that holds the 20 mm between wires. The insulators are PCB, designed to keep working in the rain. It arrives as a kit, with instructions and assembly videos, and goes together without special tools.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It needs a Tártago electric unit: the 15 W solar one, which runs on daylight; the solar one with lithium battery, which keeps working without sun; or the universal one, powered by USB. The 15 W solar and the universal units each drive up to five harps. And it helps to know what it is: protection for the apiary, not eradication. It cuts attacks at the entrance; it does not remove the hornet from the area.