Asian Hornet

So while doing a hike this weekend we encountered a guy working in his garden. He asked if we'd ever seen an Asian Hornet. We didn't and he showed us 3 he caught in a sugar trap he had set out. He also told us the fire department had removed a nest from one of his trees too using a ladder truck.
The Asian hornet is a real plague here in Europe as it's an invasive species with no natural predators so its population is growing VERY fast. The main problem is that its main food source is Honey Bees, which are alread not doing very well because of pesticides and intense farming. Several attempts at eradicating have already been done with trapping campaigns and nest hunting but since a nest produces hundreds of queens at once it's a lost cause really. We can also do damage control and keep killing everyone we see, we need to become the "natural" predator.
The guy told us he would be giving the corpses to a science community for research. Apparently they are also crossbreeding with the native hornet, which they are not sure is a good or bad thing. He also told us they are looking into introducing a new species from asia that could be a predator for the Asian Hornet but in my opinion all similar attempts to such a thing have failed catastrophically.

Random conversations with random strangers like this are awesome and something that unfortunately is becoming more and more rare these days. He also showed us his beautiful natural garden he's maintaining with the help of some local beekeepers.

Kill the Asian Hornet, Save the Bees! 🐝