Tartago® water-tray harp for Asian hornet, 60 cm

01 · HOW IT WORKS

It attracts nothing: you place it in the flight path

The harp has no attractant, no light and no bait. The Asian hornet hunts from a hover: it patrols in front of the entrance waiting for the loaded forager coming home. The harp goes parallel to the hive entrances, across that flight corridor, and the hornet is electrocuted as it crosses between two wires. The 20 mm do the selective work: the hornet is considerably larger and touches both wires at once, while most bees pass through without closing the circuit. Hence the diagnosis when it seems not to be killing: if the hornet crosses it sideways without brushing anything, the harp is not in its path. That is placement, not spacing.

02 · WHAT ELSE YOU NEED

The harp is the structure; the current comes from the module

This is the question that comes up most, so plainly: on its own, this harp does not electrify. It needs an energiser module, and there are three routes depending on what you have at the apiary: the 15 W solar module for sites with no power, which runs on daylight; the solar module with lithium battery, which keeps going without sun; or the universal module, powered by USB from the mains or from a 12 V battery through an adapter. One module can feed up to five harps in parallel, and to chain them there are the two weatherproof connectors, in and out, fitted as standard, plus extension leads if you want the module away from the harp. Underneath goes a water tray with a few drops of washing-up liquid: they break the surface tension so a stunned hornet cannot stay afloat and escape. Starting from scratch, the kit with harp, solar electronics and tray works out better than assembling the parts.

03 · ASSEMBLY

Screw it to a board and stop fighting the wind

Worth saying before you buy: assembly takes time — the wires are fitted and tensioned one by one, and the first time it takes an afternoon. It pays to go slowly: a slack wire or a badly seated insulator is behind almost every short. And the advice everyone who has built one repeats: screw the feet to a board. The frame is slotted together and light — the trade-off for folding away to nothing — so fixed to a base it stands firm and the wind stops moving it. A damaged wire is replaced one at a time, without dismantling anything.

04 · WATER OR DRY

This is the water-tray harp: what falls drowns in the tray

Tártago also makes a dry harp, with a hopper at the base instead of a tray. How they differ:

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

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The tray is also your measuring instrument: the reference is 4 or 5 bees per 100 hornets, and if you are taking out many more bees than that the harp is badly placed and needs moving. Harps work mainly in summer and autumn, and installed early they cut the pressure before the nests grow. And it is worth knowing what they are: protection for the apiary, not eradication. They reduce attacks at the entrance; they do not remove the local population nor replace nest destruction.

⚠ PRECAUTIONS

It is electrical equipment outdoors. Switch the module off before touching the harp, the wires or the tray, and never assemble it with the electronics connected. Site it away from where people and animals pass, and check the insulation each season: a broken insulator or a wire touching the frame is a permanent short.