Recent upgrades of the harmonic radar for the tracking of the Asian yellow-legged hornet

The yellow-legged Asian hornet is an invasive species of wasps, indigenous of the South-East Asia but quickly spreading in Southern Europe. Because of its exponential diffusion and its serious threat to the local honey bee colonies and to humans as well, restraint measures are under investigation. Among them, the harmonic radar described in (Ecology and Evolution, 6, 2016 and 2170) already proved to be a quite effective way to follow the hornets to their nests; it is in fact capable of tracking the flying trajectory of these insects, once equipped with a small transponder, in their natural environment. The aforementioned harmonic radar was upgraded after a period of intense experimentation; the capture of the hornets was enhanced as well, and other improvements were adopted in the mounting procedure of the transponder. Thanks to these upgrades, the flying capabilities of the hornets were not reduced and a huge collection of data was recorded. The main upgrade to the radar was the adoption of the vertical polarization of the radiated field, with the consequent redesign and manufacturing of the antennas and the different mounting of the transceiver on the insect. The installation of the radar on a telescopic tower drastically improved the maneuverability of the system and the capability to follow the insects’ preferential flying directions. Eventually, the system was able to produce much more continuous traces with a clear indication of the most probable position of the nest. The maximum range of detection was also increased to 150 m.