Hi Chaps and Chapesses,
What do people do to check for insect stowaways when returning from Europe?
We went down to the Algarve last winter and I never thought that I could have brought back an unwanted pest species like Asian Hornet. Seem likely that someone did last summer....that's one theory for how the Queen arrived in Woolacombe, whose offspring started raiding the honey bees of an aquaintance of mine. And I should have known better as I am a bee keeper and we have been warned!
------------- Trunkles
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Why is there always something just where I can bang my head on it?
I welcome insect stowaways. In the middle of France I noticed a spider in a web on the a frame of my caravan. We wended our way through France & up to Holland. Still our spider friend was present. When parked on site he did leave the web to interact with local spiders but he was always back in his web when we hitched up.
We returned via Hook of Holland to Harwich & I observed spider friend safely in his web before we boarded ferry. At home we have always had a family of spiders around the house & garden & French spider friend was warmly welcomed by them & is now fully intergrated into our local spider family.
Going the opposite way leaving home for a day trip to France I observed one of the spiders had spun a web around the roof rails of my car. He was still there when we arrived at LeClercs in Boulogne but after shopping he had gone exploring & we were not going to wait around for him. I hope he has found happiness living in Boulogne & that he does not miss his family too much.
I do as thorough a visual search as we can in our tent, with fly swat in hand... and the other hand half covering my eyes!
If need be, the swat will be deployed, and by hook or by crook, the subsequent corpse will be taken back out into the wild whence it came!
That's what I do now... after a stealth-beetle-type thing got 'twixt vent cover and mesh vent for the journey home. It arrived back in Blighty either crushed or suffocated, but definitely dead... but not before trying to munch it's way through the mesh vent!
Cue a 10mm diameter hole in the mesh, and the need for a quids worth of Tenacious Tape!
You don't need to go abroad - controlling British clothes moths in the MH needs constant vigilance. The paper strips just don't hack it the way moth balls did.
The invasive specie I have in mind can fly 60k from its natal nest so Calais to Dover is no problem.....and its surprising it hasn't happened yet. But what may have happened is that a queen got over here in a caravan trip to Woolacombe.....its not definite but I believe the people who owned the hedge where the nest was found owned a caravan and had been to southern France in it!
You don't have to go to the amazon to find insect species that are dangerous to humans and could cause us to find it difficult to grow crops in the UK . The Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina (V.v), has been accidentally introduce to France and is now spreading north and east into Belgium and Germany. Throughout France,Spain,Portugal and soon Italy Germany and Belgium
Honey Bees are being decimated by this insect in its search for proteins (which it gets from the bees by biting their heads and abdomens off and flying of with the thorax where all the muscles are) to feed the thousnds of young worker hornets and to raise hundreds of new queens each autumn.
Its the new queens that are the problem because they search out somewhere to hibernate for the winter. Somewhere nice and warm and cosy out of the wind and wet, like a caravan or motorhome locker, as well as cosy tree holes and sheds and atticks....anywhere you might expect to find our common wasp making a nest.
Of course if you are camping somewhere nice in France or Spain for the autumn or winter then V.v might just fancy your caravan or motorhome. You of course are going to return to UK just in time for the nice weather in spring, and hey presto, a whole new environment to explore, settle down and make a new home. End of the year if all goes well a thousand new queens are produced and mated and off they go to spread their death and destruction for bees of all kind, bumbles as well as honey, and a large number of other insect species.
And the other worry is that they have a sting much more powerful than our native wasps and bees and cause a great number of deaths in Asian countries where they come from, not directly from the poison but from anaphylactic shock ( allergic reaction).
And people in general don't seem to be worried by this. It scares the S..t out of me, and not just because I am a bee keeper.
Post last edited on 27/11/2017 15:46:04
------------- Trunkles
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Why is there always something just where I can bang my head on it?
Oh and Bats can fly and they carry RABIES.... that scares the S..t out of me too, but it hasn't happened yet......doesn't mean we ain't taking precautions. That's probably one of the reasons you can't handle bats without a licence!
------------- Trunkles
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Why is there always something just where I can bang my head on it?
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Topic: Checking for Insect stoways
