by Scientists have found paths to recognize the sound of invasive Asian hornets from afar that float outside of beehives, in a movement that could protect honeybees.
The Asian or yellow -legged hornet is a non -native predator who feeds on honeybees and has for a long time hovers around the entrance of a beehive until a bee is trapped and eaten.
The presence of the hornets that 50 bees can kill per day also contains the honey bees, which leave the beehive less to feed, reduce their grocery stores for winter and threaten the survival of the colony.
Now scientists at Nottingham Trent University have identified and differentiated floating hornets asian hornets, with cost -effective microphones and algorithm being used to distinguish between the flight of predators, honeybee sounds and general background noise.
They also found that the hornets reliably produce these noises because they tend to float continuously, while honey bees float much shorter, as they mostly fly directly into and out of hives.
It is to be hoped that the system could be left in Geiger to continuously distinguish between Asian hornets and honeybee flight tones.
This could enable bee hectors to immediately draw attention to the presence of just one hornet with their smartphone so that they can quickly take measures to combat the threat before their bees are caused too much stress, the researchers said.
The researchers who worked with scientists from the University of Coimbra in Portugal and Gent University in Belgium were able to determine the presence of Asian hornets on a bee at the University of Coimbra with an accuracy of almost 100% over three seasons.
The Asian Hornet comes from Southeast Asia and arrived in France about 20 years ago in a load of pottery from China, quickly spread out on the continent and devastating colonies in France and Italy.
It was first seen in Great Britain in 2016, and since then there have been regular sightings, including 44 confirmed in 2024 – mostly in Kent and East Sussex, although a quick approach to destroy hornets and nests has stopped its spread in Great Britain.
The senior researcher Dr. Harriet Hall said: “Invasive types such as the Asian hornets are a serious threat to biological diversity.
“In addition to this predator, our local honeybee has not developed further, and for this reason his defense against the hornets are low.
“The identification of the Asian Hornet presence at Apiaries at an early stage would be great benefits for beekeepers, who could then take immediate measures.”
She said it was able to distinguish between Asian hornets and honeybee sounds, “an excellent potential” for a remote warning system for hornets.
Dr. Martin Bencsik, physicist at Nottingham Trent University, added: “Asian Hornets are an important threat to European honeybees and we have to find new ways to quickly identify their presence.
“Despite overlapping features of the sound spectra of honeybees and hornets, it is surprising to see that their floating sound features are very different, and it is happy that this detection technology floats much more about wet levels than bees.”
The study was published in the Journal Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.
