Karla Salp
Communications
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| Trap contents from a brown-sugar-baited trap in South Korea, including V. mandarinia and V. crabro |
Yet very few of those traps have actually caught a hornet. Not
catching hornets, however, is good – and provides meaningful information.
WSDA entomologists Sven Spichiger and Chris Looney recently
returned from a trip to South Korea where they conducted or began various types
of hornet research in partnership with some local collaborators in an area
where the hornets are well established.
One of the experiments involved placing five traps - like
those WSDA and citizen scientists have been using for the past two years - to
look for the hornets. The traps used the brown sugar bait option – an option
that was added in 2021 in addition to the orange juice and rice cooking wine bait
option.
The mini-experiment suggested that when hornets are around,
the traps will catch them. Although the traps were placed several weeks before
peak worker hornet season, WSDA was able to trap two Vespa mandarinia
and six Vespa crabro (European hornet) specimens from June 9 - 24.
When you run a trap and catch nothing, that is a great
result! It suggests that there are no hornets where you live. So,
even if you are disappointed that you’ve never caught a hornet, please consider
being a citizen scientist again and help us monitor hornet populations in
the state. Whether you catch a hornet or not, it provides the data we need to
eradicate this invasive hornet.
Not up for trapping
hornets? You can also join our Adopt
a Wasp program, which only requires five minutes per week watching paper
wasp nests on your property.