Mea culpa, I’ve caught a butterfly in my Asiatic hornet trap!
Indignant but proud the Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera) waits for release.
A little coaxing was needed to encourage an exit from the trap.
Too tired to fly she looked at me accusingly.
O.K. I really am sorry! Perhaps a drop of sugar solution would set things right?
So you want to be spoon fed!
Now that tastes good!
I’m a bit low on my energy reserves.
This is the best sugar solution I’ve tasted in a while.
At least their tiles match my colourings.
The decor is nice and the cuisine acceptable but now it is really time to go. The open window becons and I’m off to greener pastures that do not have tempting blue plastic bottles suspended in their trees.
This was a happy ending but it is a downside of the hornet traps. It has only happened to me once before and I had another successful rescue. The jury is out at the moment on wide scale trap use but as I survey mine closely, my decision is to protect my bees. As it so happens I have not had any Asiatic hornets since the batch in the spring and I have only one trap in the front garden at the moment (just in case).
a french garden 