French wildlife and beekeeping

  We are increasingly reading about hospitalisations and deaths resulting from Asian hornet stings BUT are Asian Hornets any more aggressive or dangerous than our native European Hornet and Social colony forming wasps? You may think so if you only go by media sources but in reality this isn't actually the case despite there being some well publicised reports of deaths. Read the full post. About the Dangers from Asian Hornets in France  

(Roller  Coracias garrulus  Le Rollier d’Europe) The European Roller is a migratory species spending the winter months south of the Sahara. The first ones to arrive in France are noted at the end of April, but the majority of the birds arrive in May when breeding starts immediately, some years from mid-May, but the peak of egg-laying takes place at the beginning of June, late pairs often lay eggs until June 25. They are a cavity-dwelling species that often uses the cavities dug by Green Woodpeckers and any others cavities it can find in various trees (plane trees, willows, poplar, pine, oak, almond), at a height that varies between 5 and 10 meters. They sometimes will use holes in walls, sandy banks or can even use old European bee-eater galleries (Tron et al., 2008). They do not bring any nesting material into the chosen cavity. The female lays 4 to 7 eggs there, the incubation of which lasts 18 or 19 days. Breeding success is 73%, i.e. 3.6 fledglings per breeding attempt. Af...

White tailed eagles effectively disappeared from France as breeding birds some 130 years ago. They have not nested since 1959, having been subjected to hunting, poisoning, pesticides, water pollution, egg collections and theft of chicks along with the disappearance of wetlands and other human disturbance and since then we have only a few young birds that visit in winter from the east and north east. Earlier this year in summer four young white-tailed eagles were successfully released from a zoological park in Haute-Savoie in an already successful method of reintroduction. After disappearing for more than a century, the white-tailed eagle is once again taking its place in the skies of the Alps. This is the case of “Haute-Savoie”. This young fishing eagle - named after the Departement that sponsored the reintroduction program - measures 2.5 meters in wingspan and weighs about 6 kg. According to Jacques-Olivier Travers, the founder of the animal park and reintroduction center of the Eag...

  From January 1, 2019 , only plant protection and other gardening products of natural origin have been available to home gardeners in France . This was originally to have been from Jan 2022 but was brought forward as part of the French move towards reducing the use of products that are harmful to both humans and the wider environment. This follows the banning in 2017 of the use of Glyphosate, (Roundup), and other synthetic pesticides in public spaces including public roads, parks and cemeteries. (The term Pesticides is used generically these days to cover all “cides”, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide etc. to avoid laborious repetition ).      The use of synthetic pesticides continues to be permitted for farmers and professionals registered to work in the gardening business.   Synthetic pesticides are “a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurri...

  Gardeners and householders in France are forever complaining about the presence of voles in their gardens, either because of the holes they make or the harm they can cause to plants and vegetables. Any harm they may cause depends on the species, with some preferring roots and others seeds, grains, leafy plants and even insects.   Although there are eleven species of vole in France, only a few are of concern to gardeners or farmers. As a general rule, these are the Field vole, the Common vole and the Bank vole. The Water vole in its land-based form (known as rat taupier) can have a major impact, but they are only present in some regions of France .   Occasionally some vole species have a population explosion that reaches a peak, and then equally as rapidly the populations collapse back to normal or less than normal for a year or more. What needs to be considered, as always, is the greater good, and voles along with wood mice provide the main food source for a large...

The new list of protected reptiles and amphibians in France has for the first time included the four species of Viper, ( Vipéridés). Vipera aspis - Vipère aspic - Asp Viper Vipera berus - Vipère péliade - Common Adder Vipera seoanei - Vipère de Seoane -  Seoane's viper. Vipera ursinii - Vipère d'Orsini - Orsini's viper For far too long these species have been persecuted  and killed. This combined with the destruction of their natural  habitat has resulted in a serious decline in numbers. Needless to say this will not in itself prevent the continued harming of these valuable species but will send a signal to those with ears to hear and to those in authority   LINK TO LEGISLATIVE TEXT Chris

  Our house is full of places where animals live and overall we are happy with that and it rarely causes any actual harm although occasionally something dies which needless to say can smell a bit. Fortunately, as always, the natural world is well equipped to deal with any small corpses that are inaccessible, (as they invariably are), and Burying or Carrion beetles are one of the insects that make their living from such things. There are some 20 odd species in France with a total of 30 species in Europe although not all are true burying beetles; some of them eat fungi or rotting vegetation.     This year in September we were finding Nicrophorus vespillo in one part of our house and I would speculate that they had been on a dead Loir , (Edible Dormouse), probably behind the bath or false wall in the downstairs bathroom, one of the places where they frequently live. These amazing beetles can smell a corpse from a vast distance using the highly sensitive hairs on the e...