Wycke and colleagues are bothered about an invasive species,  Vespa velutina nigrithorax, the Asian hornet. It preys on insects. European honey bees make excellent prey for the hornet, as they share similar cycles and the European bees have no experience of evading Asian hornets. In fact, before 2000, the honey bees hadn’t seen a single Asian hornet. Some time in the early 2000s it seems maybe as few as one female was accidentally imported from China, and managed to survive to build a colony in France. They’re now spreading their range and milder winters are helping them travel into other countries.

It would be handy if they could be trapped. But how?

The usual response is to place baited traps, but these can wipe out all sorts of insects. Given the problems invertebrates are having already, Wycke and colleagues looked to see if they could find a targeted trap, so they studied Sarracenia hybrids.

Sarracenia is a genus of North American pitcher plant. They tend to stand up with trumpets, containing fluid for digesting prey. Pulling in an American plant to eat an Asian hornet sounds a bit of a leap, but Wycke et al. had already read Les Sarracénies pièges pour le frelon à pattes jaunes (Sarracenia traps for the yellow-legged hornet) by Meurgey and Perrocheau. These authors had claimed their Sarracenia plants were more likely to trap hornets than typical, so could these Sarracenia hybrids also help with the Asian hornet problem?