I think this is not going to be the Japanese hornet. Your partner
managed to open a hive and 15 hornets flew out. If these had been
Japanese hornets your partner would have got the hive opened but would
then have been subject of a rather focussed attack which you do not mention.
I wonder if these could have been vespa velutina. Why do I wonder
this? Well the hornet is indigenous in China but has been found taking
a ride with goods exported from China. There are problems in France at
present due to the arrival of this hornet which apparently arrived in a
consignment of pottery from China. Perhaps you have the same challenge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_predatory_wasp
What can be done? Well not a lot. Find the nest and burn it helps
but there may be several nests. Reducing the entrance on the hive
makes it easier to defend but it is necessary to make it a very small
entrance (like one or two bees wide). Avoid bee landing boards since
the hornets like to land first. Keeping strong colonies also is a major
plus but there are no guarantees when the hornets are working
together. At the start of the 'hornet' season they work alone and
compete but that seems to change as more hornets appear and then they
work together.
I have a couple of traps being made in the workshop at present which
will be used to test trapping. The traps will not be finished for
another ten days or so and there are no guarantees at all that these
will work.
The attention of the hornets will change as other foods become available
and so they will naturally move on until the nest dies off when the
queen hibernates.
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