One chinese ethnic group living in the Yunnan area (southwestern China) is very fond of black hornet larvae : they actually love to eat them, for they are fat and tasty.
There are two men from this ethnic group, sitting in a village garden, and suddenly wanting to eat these famous larvae. They have first to localize a hornet nest in the wild forest. Afterwards one of them will put fire onto the nest, the dangerous black hornets (their bite may be lethal) will fly away and the two men will finally take the nest full of wonderful larvae.
It is out of question to search a hornet nest only by luck.
But how to localize with 100% probability a hornet nest ?
Which strategy is it necessary to invent and to apply ?
Here are some useful (and necessary) tips :
* in each garden of this village, there are banana trees
* black hornets like to suck the nectar of banana flowers
* black hornets like very much eating local grasshopers
* after a while, the black hornet flies back to its nest (obviously !)
Helped with the former tips, it seems easy to attract a black hornet without danger. Please concretize this first part of the strategy.
Once the black hornet has been attracted to some place, without danger, how to make so that the black hornet leads you to its nest ? What is the witty, smart solution found by the people of this ethnic group ? Note that it is impossible to follow a flying hornet by foot in the wild forest, because :
* it is difficult to follow with the eyes
* anyway it is much too quick
Tip : the wild forest in these areas is not dense
There are two men from this ethnic group, sitting in a village garden, and suddenly wanting to eat these famous larvae. They have first to localize a hornet nest in the wild forest. Afterwards one of them will put fire onto the nest, the dangerous black hornets (their bite may be lethal) will fly away and the two men will finally take the nest full of wonderful larvae.
It is out of question to search a hornet nest only by luck.
But how to localize with 100% probability a hornet nest ?
Which strategy is it necessary to invent and to apply ?
Here are some useful (and necessary) tips :
* in each garden of this village, there are banana trees
* black hornets like to suck the nectar of banana flowers
* black hornets like very much eating local grasshopers
* after a while, the black hornet flies back to its nest (obviously !)
Helped with the former tips, it seems easy to attract a black hornet without danger. Please concretize this first part of the strategy.
Once the black hornet has been attracted to some place, without danger, how to make so that the black hornet leads you to its nest ? What is the witty, smart solution found by the people of this ethnic group ? Note that it is impossible to follow a flying hornet by foot in the wild forest, because :
* it is difficult to follow with the eyes
* anyway it is much too quick
Tip : the wild forest in these areas is not dense
I copy a comment which was written by David G., member of this blog :
ReplyDelete"I Suppose that, when the Black hornet gather pollen from the banana flower, that can be seen on the flower.
Moreover, I suppose, the two men have time, long long time.
So, they gather 50 pots of banana flowers and arrange the pots along a circle perimeter. As the Black hornet pounce on the banana flowers, it gathers pollen from the closest flowers. Thus, the two men can identify the Direction from where the Black Hornet comes.
Then, the two men arrange the 50 pots along a small angle in the direction previously identified, let say, every 50 meters. The two men can cover a distance of at least 1 km, which might be at least enough to include the nest.
They wait again and again that the Black Hornet gathers pollen from the closest plants. Thus, the nest is in a 25 meter perimeter, and easy to find.
Of course, this is not the solution, is it ?"
Dear David, actually this is not the control solution used by these people.
ReplyDeleteYour solution implies a lot of time and a lot of work, and I assume that it is not fully reliable.
Please try again. Divide the problem into two sub-problems : attract the hornet without danger ; find the nest with 100% precision.
Here are additional tips :
* for the first sub-problem : let the hornet be self-neutralized.
* for the second sub-problem : let the hornet guide you to the nest
David, you're right :
ReplyDeletewhen the black hornet sucks the nectar of a banana flower, it is visible.
Faire eux-mêmes un élevage de frelons. Et pour ouvrir sans être piqué: à chaque fois enfumer (et non pas le brûler)le nid avant son ouverture. Les frelons croient que le nid est en feu, et donc ils pensent à manger et à quitter le nid au lieu de défendre celui-ci. Pendant ce temps pas de soucis pour ouvrir celles-ci et se nourrir des larves savoureuses loll. On procède de la sorte avec les abeilles, alors pourquoi pas avec les frelons?! Les larves d'abeilles ont elles un goût de noisette ;-)
ReplyDeleteI translate the former commentary let by Séverine B :
ReplyDelete[The two men should] do themselves hornet farming. And in order to open [the nest] without getting stitched : to smoke the nest out (not to burn it !) before its opening. The hornets believe that the nest burns, so they think to eat and to leave the nest instead of defend it. In the meantime no problem to open it and to eat the tasteful larvae lol. It is done like this for bees so why not for hornets ?! The bee larvae have a hazelnut taste ;-)
Dear Séverine B, thank you for your proposal. It is a very valuable idea.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the problem to solve is to localize a hornet nest in the coming minutes, because the two men have a desire (eat hornet larvae) which they want to fulfill soon.
OK, if I change my previous proposal with : the two men make a heap of banana flowers in a place and catch lots of Grasshopers. Thanks to the banana flowers, the black hornet will be attracted and fully fed up and thus... less dangerous. After that, the two men drop two grasshopers at two opposite (as they are two) but safe distances from the black horner. The black hornet will choose to eat the grasshoper which is in the direction of its nest. As, it stops to eat the grasshopers, the two men have time to repeat the operation step by step, and after a while, they will reach the wonderful nest. ?
ReplyDeleteDear David, this is not the control solution. You use the grasshopers to limit the speed of the black hornet on its way back to its nest : this is interesting. However I assume that your proposed method is not reliable (when the black hornet will be fed up, it will have no more interest for the grasshopers ; two opposite directions may be unsufficient to precisely define the direction of the nest).
ReplyDeleteI give you one additional tip : try to solve the second subproblem first and then the first one.