In response to the rise of Asian hornets in Dordogne, several beekeepers pooled resources to…

In response to the rise of Asian hornets in Dordogne, several beekeepers pooled resources to purchase GPS tags to attach to these bee predators, enabling them to locate nests using radar.

In early autumn, Asian hornet attacks increase, depleting honey reserves in hives and sometimes killing the queens, which destroys the entire swarm. Beekeepers use traps to combat hornets, but a group is now testing radar tags to track hornets in real time and trace them back to their nests.

Six beekeepers gathered in Le Bugue, where Sébastien has faced repeated hornet attacks on his hives. He explains that stressed bees consume winter reserves, risking empty hives and colony death. They place GPS tags on captured hornets to follow their path and locate the nest.