Testing the selectiveness of electric harps: a mitigation method for reducing Asian hornet impact at beehives

Abstract

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) has rapidly become a source of stress for the beekeeping sector. Several methods have been developed to control its impact and spread, though some of these impose a high risk for native insects. Among these methods are electric harps, which are physical barriers that electrocute hornets pass through two wires powered by a current generator. Here we evaluated the selectiveness and risk of damage for local entomofauna of the electric harps in a study carried out over three years and four locations in Girona province (NE Catalonia, Spain). The electric harps showed a high selectiveness, with 90.5% of all insects trapped (3331 individuals) catalogued as Asian hornets, although this greatly varied over years and locations with values ranging from 29.9 to 94.3%. The risk of damage to electric harps for local entomofauna was very low in all surveyed areas and years. Native insects, excluding domestic honey bees, accounted for, as a mean, 1.2% of all insects trapped over the study period (range 0–2.4%). Our results suggest that electric harps might be a useful environmentally-friendly method aiming to reduce predation pressure of the Asian hornet at beehives.

Keywords:

• Apiculture
• Apis mellifera
• biological invasions
• electric harp
• IAS
• Vespa velutina

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Solà-Morales family (Batet de la Serra) and Manel Simón (Falgons) for letting us install the hives on their properties. We are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Raw data employed for data analyses and figures can be found at the following link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22116779.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Diputació de Girona and a grant for demonstration activities through the operation 01.02.01 of Technology Transfer of the Rural Development Program of Catalonia 2014–2020 (num. 56 30071 2018 P4), co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) of the European Commission and by the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of the Generalitat de Catalunya. CPG acknowledges the support from Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional through the Beatriz Galindo Fellowship (Beatriz Galindo—Convocatoria 2020).