Hornet traps : Quality warning

Future buyers, whether individuals or professionals, would be well advised to find out about the materials used and the quality of the product before purchasing batches of traps.
the seller's knowledge of Asian hornets and bees, and of the products they sell.

With 3D printers at their disposal, a number of unscrupulous individuals have sniffed out the bargain and are selling batches of «new» traps at unbeatable prices on websites such as Leboncoin, Etsy and Ebay. For
Because they're neither designers, nor professionals, nor users, having never even seen a hornet in the wild, they've simply grabbed free 3D model files of traps from the Internet, which they often don't have the right to sell, by the way! (Most of the time, free 3D files are only available on the obvious condition that they are for personal use only, and certainly not for business!)

Before you buy, «have fun» asking them about design/efficiency tests carried out with these traps, or about their design skills, knowledge of hornets, bees, size of entrances and exits, and so on.
Provided they're willing to answer (honestly), you'll be surprised to find that these traps are printed with fragile biodegradable plastics unsuitable for outdoor use (PLA, polylactic acid made from corn starch), but easy to print and cheap.

Worse still, some grids are so thin that they can't withstand the slightest shock or, even «funnier», the mandibles of trapped Asian hornets.

Last but not least, many of these traps are poor illegal copies of models protected by intellectual property, having required months of work by their designers.

Buyers of €3 traps thinking they're doing the right thing in the fight against the Asian hornet are being cheated. The winged devourers are free as a bird.

In conclusion, buy your traps from professionals who work hard every day and pay their heavy bills in France, from French manufacturers who know what they're doing. Why not pay a visit to your local beekeeper? He'll give you some excellent advice and will be delighted that you're taking part in catching Asian hornets, thus protecting his bees, his apiaries and his very business!

Thank you for defending bees and intellectual property.