Friday 14 August 2015

Frelons asiatiques under threat

The giant frelon asiatique, a hornet which is particularly dangerous (especially to bees) has met its match with the insectivorous plant Sarracenia. Gardeners in the Nantes botanical gardens discovered that a bed of these plants not only trapped flies, but were full of partially digested frelons. The plants emit pheromones to attract insects and seem to be very effective against the giant wasps. Now researchers are trying to isolate the molecules which are attracting the insects in order to produce a chemical version. This will enable traps to be made which do have not the "catch-all" effect of traditional wasp traps.
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