‘jabeprode’ cage jails asian hornets for 48 hours until they perish

Jabeprode says goodbye to asian hornets

In 2016, Denis Jaffré lost half of his hives from the infestation of Asian hornets, ravaging his colonies until they met their death. Fed up with the invasive and harmful species, he turned to 3D printing and came up with Jabeprode, a container-like cage that filters Asian hornets from bees and small insects and leave them to their death after 48 hours.

What makes Jabeprode filter effective is how the team customizes the Asian-hornets sieve to their size, so that smaller insects like bees, wasps, and flies just pass through the cage while the hornets stay locked in there. The size also stops larger insects like the European hornet queens from entering the trap and letting her workers multiply and bow to her demands.

images courtesy of Jabeprode

Inside the container, there’s a catch cage with a fine mesh to stop already trapped insects from accessing the bait. In this way, the bait remains intact throughout the catching season, and the hornets can’t access it, run out of options to escape and feed themselves, and die in less than 48 hours.

The team behind Jabeprode believes that Asian hornets are invasive species and harmful to the ecosystem, so they developed their cages as dual-purpose containers: it captures the queens before they can even find their colonies and locks the workers during the high seasons of the attacks. The team is also concerned about the health of the beekeepers stating that a hornet’s sting could cause wheezing, allergic reactions, swelling of throat and tongue, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, to name a few.

rock acting as a weight

How does it work?

The customers should place bait in the bin of Jabeprode cage and place the catch cage with a filter over it. If customers bought a lid, they should close the cage with it, and the team writes that it’s important to add a roof even if there’s a lid (the lid isn’t a roof). This keeps light from filtering and the rainwater from entering and drowning the bait.

The roof should also be transparent, so smaller insects could find their way out. Customers should also put some sort of weight on the roof – rocks will do – to prevent the wind from blowing it off from the Jabeprode cage. Any roof will suffice, so long as it can cover the cage. A wooden board that can be bought from hardware stores can do the job well, for example.

asian hornets in the cage

customers can make their own trap

Jabeprode cage is also DIY. The team is kind enough to upload their tutorial online, so handypeople can be inventive and design their hornets trap. The team though has some recommendations: the minimum internal dimension of the capture tray must be 30 x 40 x 20 centimeters to avoid breakage, the bait bin should not be too deep and should be closer to the mesh, paints with solvent and other chemicals should be avoided so as not to repel hornets, and any board or sheet will do the trick for the roof.