Sharjah 24 - Reuters: After he lost 35 hives to the Asian hornet, a traumatised French beekeeper knew he had to save his bees. He came up with a trap that stops the invasive species, but does no harm to bees or native hornets.
Asian hornets have no natural predators and can eat through an entire hive in a few hours. They have decimated bee colonies across Europe.
"I thought to myself I had to find a solution at all costs. I would even think about it at night. I took to having a pencil and paper on my bedside table, to write down whatever ideas I had, because I was so traumatised by the loss of half my hives that year. It was a catastrophe."
What Jaffré came up with was a one-way trap like a lobster pot to catch the hornets, which are thought to have arrived in France in 2004 in a pottery shipment from China.
Attracted by a sugary bait, the hornets get in through a funnel then can't get out, while smaller insects, including bees, can escape through tiny holes.
Originally made from a wooden wine crate and metal mesh, the traps are now 3D-printed in plastic.
Jaffré received a French inventors' prize in 2018, and started making the traps in bulk, employing six workers. Demand is so high, he has had to pause taking orders.
"If you don't set up traps, you see the hornets fly in front of the beehive entrance, they choose their menu, they catch a bee and they fly away with it to go and cut it into pieces in a quiet little bush."
Jaffré also removes hornet nests from homes and gardens, but said while it prevents nasty accidents, it does little to stop the spread.
The only way to combat the threat, he says, would be systematic trapping all over the country, with local government support.
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