The European Hornet is the largest hornet in North America. It offers a great number of benefits including consumption of other hornets and wasps. This sounds like a good thing to keep around... then I discover they will also prey on honey bees. Not good. Appearantly they can wipe out entire hives in days. I have a fairly large number of these European Hornets around. Does anyone else have experience with these as far as them being a hive pest or if they'll choose other food instead if available. If these are a danger, what control methods (preferably organic) are available that work well? I haven't tried trapping them yet as they sound good to have around... aside from eating my bees. :)
I have read were they do eat honey bees, but have never seen it. Some years i have European hornets around, but they always seem to ignore my bees, as far as I know. This year I see a least 1 everyday for about the last month, I hope they continue to leave my bees alone.
I open feed and they eat right beside my bees. I've never seen one take a bee.
I gotta agree with my friend iddee again. While not much of a threat to the bees, hornets and wasps decimate caterpillars like the ones that turn into this:
(http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j365/MichiganBee/Moths%202014/Cecripiaonstick_zps9b75d5a0.jpg)