Robin Dartington UK Hornets I would not have thought that the problem with hornets was only that of keeping them out of a hive. This is easily done by restricting entrances. However, the more restricted an entrance, the slower the bees can enter the hive - making them an easy target for the hornets marauding around the hive. It is not only the fact that this happens, but also that the menace caused tends to prevent bees flying at all. We do not have the Asian hornets in Greece, nor the UK variety: ours is Vespula orientalis which can destroy colonies easily if unprotected. They kill more bees outside the hive than ever they could inside that is until the hive becomes sufficiently weak for the hornets to be able to pillage it completely. Normally. the hornet grabs a bee as it is nearing the hive entrance or has landed on the hive wall and the then flies off to a nearby resting place to get rid of the wings etc before flying home. Can I say anything good about hornets? Yes - I have never been stung by one and can work amongst hundreds of them without being bothered, certainly the species here are not prone to attacking humans. John Phipps Greece *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm