Capture queens

Spring trapping via Mijn Tuinlab

Image by INBO
On this page

This project will be extended in the spring of 2025 (from March 1st to May 31st). More information, along with a simplified protocol and a registration link, will follow in December 2024. Are you distributing spring traps through your municipality or beekeeping association? Then refer to the MijnTuinlab project as the registration point for catch and bycatch, contributing to research on these spring traps!

Actively trapping of queens during spring (February-June) is one of the most widely used methods of Asian hornet control in Europe. However, it is also controversial for these reasons:

  1. The effect of spring trapping on number of nests in the fall has not yet been demonstrated.
  2. Spring trapping only lowers competition between queens. Thus, a nest of a captured queen will soon be occupied by another queen.
  3. A selective trap is not really selective. Native species can always enter those traps. In spring, potential damage to native biodiversity is largest as many queens of native species are seeking nesting sites.
  4. Protecting hives (harps, mesh structures, trapping between June and November) is more effective in reducing impact on honey bees.
  5. The only proven way to control the Asian hornet efficiently is through nest destruction.

Because of these reasons, spring trapping is not recommended. It is only justified within a research context. Would you like to contribute to research on the effectiveness and selectivity of selective traps? Then be sure to join the initiative below.

Study on effectiveness and bycatch

Through this study, we want to learn more about spring trapping for queens of Asian hornets. This will allow us to find out whether they work and which other insects might be affected. This research is an initiative of the Limburgse Imkersbond vzw and is running in collaboration with Vespa-Watch (INBO and Natuurpunt Studie vzw.

How can I participate?

This study is running from March 7 to June 30, 2024.

  1. Purchase a spring trap yourself.
  2. Find the spring trapping project at Spring Traps for Asian Hornet: A Study on Effectiveness and Bycatch and click on Join.
  3. Sign up to participate.
  4. Fill in the short questionnaire after placing the trap.
  5. Strictly follow the instructions to report your trappings.