Horents Eating my Bees? WTF

[Dougraymen]

There are sume huge hornets out at my hives and they are relly killing my bees. Thay will bite off the heads and what looks like takeing the body back to there nest. I wish i can find the bloody nest of theres.

What the heck is it and will they spread to others accorsed the state or country if they havent all reddy. I have one frozen and i am takeing to the aguractural department. (parden my spelling)


http://www.myspace.com/57627856

[TwT]

it looks like what you have there is a CidadaKiller, they will eat bee's also I have heard, get you a tennis racket and go out and swing awhile by the hives...

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/ext...dadaKiller.htm

[size="1"][ September 13, 2006, 11:59 PM: Message edited by: TwT ][/size]

[magnet-man]

Ted I have seen a bug that looks a little bit like a dragonfly when it is flying. When it is not flying it looks kinda like a super long skiny moth. It takes the entire bee. Any idea what it is?

[magnet-man]

Ted I found it. It is a Robber Fly.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/27868/bgimage

[TwT]

you might be talking about a robber fly

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/robberflies.html

[TwT]

we must have posted at the same time, glad you found it lol...

[SilverFox]

We've got them in Washington state, my dad called them 'fly hawks'. Before I had bees and just after I had moved here we watched them 'hunt' down flys out in a poplar tree.

:confused: WTF??? What The Fork??? :confused:

[size="1"][ September 14, 2006, 12:31 AM: Message edited by: SilverFox ][/size]

[naturebee]

Dosen't look like no robber fly.

This is a giant hornet, common in the USA.

Probably:

Vespa crabro pictured here:

http://www.vespa-crabro.de/grbilder/horniseite.htm

Sometimes mistakenly referred to as
Vespa mandarinia japonica

[Carl Holcomb]

Im having the same problem. So far all I've been able to do is swat them as they hover in front of the hives. Look on the net under European Hornet or brown hornet.

[JohnBeeMan]

>>>There are sume huge hornets out at my hives and they are relly killing my bees.

The tennis racket/ball bat approach works great and has a certern level of satisfation.

The wax moth traps will also catch a few of the hornet (sugar/water/vinegar (1:1:1) + a banana peel placed in 2 liter coke bottle with 1 inch square hole near top).

Open feeding will also attract a lot of them - I have seen the hornet fighting each other to the death at open feeding spots.

I also have a horse and had hung an apple flavor ball by a rope for the horse. The hornets moved in and were eating the sugar ball out of this horse treat. There were over a dozen hornets at any one time. The bat approach worked but I also had to take the ball down.

I am still looking for the hornet nest (last year it was in a knot hole of a tree).

[BaldyLocks]

I agree with the giant hornet diagnosis. I had a nest of them near my hive and they looked just like the pic you put up...Raid works very well!

By the way, I have pics of a robber fly and a giant hornet and some other stuff posted on my website... http://www.buzz-honey.com Just click on Oddities around the apiary

[size="1"][ September 14, 2006, 07:56 AM: Message edited by: BaldyLocks ][/size]

[Craig W.]

I have lots of those robber flys but we have so many grasshoppers they have plenty to eat.

[TwT]

but Doug doesn't have a european hornet in the picture, Cidada Killer and european hornets are huge but the tails are different colors...

here's a european hornet

http://www.uark.edu/depts/entomolo/museum/Euho100b.jpg

here's the Cidada Killer

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...9/IMG_6752.jpg

[Greysmoke]

I have had a big problem with those hornets (European) around my hives. I must have killed well over a 100 in a weeks time. Purchased one of those "shock" flyswatters (2 D cell batteries) and it is enough to get them on the ground... but you HAVE to knock their heads off with a hive tool.

Rewards are up for that dang nest!!!

[naturebee]

You can tie a ribbon around the hornet and beeline them back to the nests.

[Madison68]

Good idea Pcolar, I also have had an on going battle with these hornets (around my way they are called Bald-Faced hornets). I put out a small tray with apple juice and a few drops of dish detergent. They will land on the juice and the soap breaks the tension of the surface and they drown. Works good for yellow jackets. Remember this about these hornets, they wound on one end and kill on the other!! Madison.......

[Tia]

I lost four of my six hives to baldfaced hornets two years ago and it's no laughing matter. If I were you, Doug, I'd get some hardware cloth on the entrances of your hives. I forget what size hardware cloth I used, but it's big enough that the bees can get out but not big enough for the hornets or whatever it is that's killing your girls to get in.

[SilverFox]

Probably you used #4

[Michael Bush]

#4 sounds like a plan. The bees can get through, but it's easier to defend and it keeps out the mice.