In this instructional video, a beekeeper explains why Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) monitoring is urgent in North Wales after a nest was discovered and destroyed in late 2025. He introduces the TrapX Asian hornet bait/monitoring station – a simple, non‑lethal device that attracts Asian hornets with a sugary lure so their presence can be detected and mapped. The presenter walks through the physical components (green bucket, 90‑degree elbow, self‑leveling clip, bait pod), demonstrates how to assemble the station, and shows how to prepare the proprietary Vespilor (Vespa‑Lure) solution (5 scoops per litre of cold water, shaken until fully dissolved). He then explains optimal placement in an apiary or garden (in front of hives, near flower beds, at various angles) and how to load the bait pod without spillage. The video stresses that the stations are for monitoring only – they do not kill hornets or by‑catch, allowing beekeepers to locate potential nests and coordinate control measures. The presenter encourages viewers to deploy multiple stations, share the practice with neighbours, and use the data to protect honeybees from an Asian hornet invasion.
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I'm setting up some Asian hornet bait stations. I suggest you do the same. I'm gonna show you exactly how to do it. Late in 2025, there was an Asian hornet's nest that was found in North Wales. A pest controller came in and terminated the nest and left it in situ, and nobody reported it to anyone. In January, the NBU went round, confirmed that it was actually an Asian hornet's nest that was destroyed, and now everyone in North Wales is really concerned that there might be Asian hornet queens overwintering in the area. So what we need to do is set up these bait stations to make sure that if they are here, we know where they are and we have a really good chance of finding them. So I've been sent a number of these TrapX Asian hornet bait stations. I'm gonna set them up in my apiary with some Vespa-Lure. And in this video, I'll show you how it all clicks together. And fingers crossed we don't catch anything. But my advice for you is get them up, get them in your apiaries, get them in the flower beds and start monitoring because the last thing you want is Asian hornets taking over your bees. So these bait stations are very, very simple. They're not designed to trap and to kill the Asian hornet, but they're designed to offer up a really nice treat for the Asian hornet so they keep on coming back and then you can monitor them. You can mark them and you can maybe see where the nest is. What I also like about them is they are very simple to use. So it is just a green bucket like that. You have this bait station here, which I'll show you how to load up in a bit, that sits at the bottom. It's actually quite a clever bait station because you can have it up like that, and then when you put it down that way, it self-levels so none of the syrup falls out. And then there's just 2 remaining parts: a 90-degree elbow that pops on the end like that, and then this really nicely designed injection-molded piece of plastic that just clips in the top of the bucket like So when it comes to baiting up the bait stations, you'll see lots of people using lots of different mixes. What you want is something that's only really going to attract Asian hornets. Now it's going to attract most wasps as well, and it's definitely going to attract some European hornets, but that's why these bait monitoring stations are quite good. They don't kill anything, they don't kill any bycatch, and it means that anything that goes in can get out. What this station is doing is it's giving you the opportunity to be able to see if there's Asian hornets in your area. And then you'll need another way to tackle them. So in terms of setting them up and baiting them, any sugary liquid is going to attract all sorts of insects. It's going to attract wasps, it's going to attract honeybees. That's not what you want in your bait station here. So they've sent me some of this pre-mixed Vespilor. You just have to add cold water and shake it up. We'll do that in a little bit. And what's good with that is that you're only really going to attract that very selective Asian hornet, probably some European hornets as well. But because we've got no bycatch, it doesn't matter if you get a few other insects checking it out. So talking about this bait pod here, it's quite cool because it can go on all these different angles here. It means that the solution that you put in shouldn't spill out, and it's just a really simple clip-off like that. You put the bait solution inside here, clip it back on like that, and then we'll put it back in the bucket. So I'm going to mix up this Vespilor now. There's a little scoop inside. You want 1 scoop and then 200 millilitres of cold water, or you can just use a litre and then 5 scoops, which is exactly what I'm going to do now. So I'm gonna take 5 scoops of this Vespilor here, which is a very funky orange colour. So I'm gonna pour in my water on top of that, 1 litre of water to 5 scoops. Their recommendation is to do it in something that you can shake up, so I might have to pour it back in here and give it a good shake at the end, and then you keep on stirring until it goes completely orange. So when it says do it in a container that you can shake it up hard, they definitely mean that. It is quite hard to stir it like that. So I've got the dregs there, a little bit more water in. I'll get it all in here and give it a really good shake up. So I'm gonna put the lid back on. I'm not looking to spray the sugar solution here, but I wanna give it a really, really good shake to make sure that all of that sugar is dissolved. So I'm gonna take some of that solution and put it into the bait pods, but first I'm gonna take the monitoring station and go and place it out within the apiary. So these can go anywhere throughout the apiary. You just want somewhere in front of the beehives, ideally like this, and somewhere where the hornets are gonna find it. This here is pretty much perfect, and what I like is you've got the option to have the bucket that way and you've got the option to have the bucket the other way as well, depending on what you've got in and around your apiary. So then I'm going to take my Vespalure solution and I'm going to pour in a decent amount into that bait pod. You want it about halfway up. So you can see how that bait pod works, it just fills up the various different columns there, and that means that when it tilts over like that, it doesn't all fall out. Really, really clever design. So then all we do is we take the gauze lid, clip that onto the top, and then just place that down inside the bait monitoring station like that. So, good tip for you there, put this little clip on first because it's very difficult to do in situ. But now that this station is fully set up like this, you can see the versatility of it because I can, I can hang it up like that, and if I didn't have anywhere to hang it up, I could just kind of Make sure that it was going down properly and just leave it down there like that, knowing that all that syrup, the Vespilor, is not going to fall out and make a huge mess. So really nice, really versatile. We'll stick a couple up, dot them around the apiary, and then we will find out if there's any Asian hornets in the area. My recommendation to you is to do exactly the same thing. Get them out, get them in the fruit bushes, get them in the flowers, get them up by your bees wherever you are. Tell your neighbors, and this will give us the very Best chance of fighting back against the Asian hornet.
