How Tits Help Protect Bees from the Invasive Asian Hornet in March

For the past few years, many gardens have gained the same new source of anxiety: an invasive hornet introduced from Asia that puts honey bees and other pollinators under serious pressure. Traps, poisons and rushed attempts on ladders often achieve little - and can be risky. Instead, biologists and keen gardeners are increasingly paying attention to a small bird that lives right alongside us: the tit. If you give tits somewhere to breed early in the year, you also give your bees a quiet helping hand.

Why March is crucial in the fight against the invasive hornet

The key window arrives just as the garden is waking from winter. From late February into early March, the queens of the introduced hornet emerge from their hiding places. They then hurry to find a site for the first, still small nest - in a shed, under roof timbers, high in trees or tucked into hedges.

If the queen is left undisturbed, the colony expands at speed. What starts as a mini nest with a few dozen workers becomes, by summer, a large colony that consumes several kilograms of insects each year - including many honey bees, wild bees and other pollinators. If you only act in high summer, you are usually too late: nests are high up, difficult to reach, and any intervention can be dangerous.

"The best time to do something about the invasive hornet isn’t in July on a ladder - it’s in March from the ground."

Researchers broadly agree that completely eradicating the introduced insect is unrealistic. Its reproduction rate is too high, and the area it has already colonised is too extensive. Individual predators such as the European bee-eater or certain birds of prey may catch hornets now and then, but not at a level that would noticeably reduce the population.

That is where tits come in. They are not hornet specialists, but they live in our gardens, they have an enormous appetite for insects - and they can be very numerous when the conditions are right.

Tits as natural helpers in the garden

Blue tits, great tits and coal tits - those colourful acrobats at feeders - are among the most common garden birds. In spring, when chicks are in the nest, they reach peak performance: a single tit family can deliver hundreds of mouthfuls of food every day.

Most of what they bring is:

• Caterpillars and larvae of all kinds
• Small beetles and flies
• Spiders and other small creatures
• where available: larvae of the invasive hornet

When a hornet nest is nearby, tits may also take its larvae. In doing so, they quietly reduce the number of young queens that develop towards late summer. The fewer queens that survive, the fewer new nests there are the following year.

Great tits, in particular, show an intriguing behaviour: they often like to nest close to sites that hornets are using or have used. In abandoned nests - for example, at the start of winter - they peck out dead insects and larvae. That does not only remove “leftovers”; it also shrinks what remains of the colony’s reproductive pool.

"Tits don’t solve the hornet problem, but they apply constant, natural pressure on the population - right on our doorstep."

Biologists emphasise that no bird, parasitoid wasp or carnivorous plant will regulate the invasive hornet on its own. The advantage of tits lies in the cumulative effect - many gardens, many breeding pairs, and countless larvae and pest insects eaten.

How to make your garden tit-friendly - and help bees at the same time

For tits to act as allies, they need two things above all: somewhere to breed and enough food. What matters is that both are in place by March.

The right nest box at the right time

Natural tree cavities are becoming scarce, especially in tidy gardens and parks. Nest boxes can fill that gap. If you want to make things easy for tits, stick to a few basics:

• Material: wood, untreated or only coated externally with an eco-friendly glaze
• Entrance hole: roughly 2.5 to 3 centimetres in diameter for tits
• Height: 2 to 5 metres above ground, out of reach of cats
• Position: ideally away from the weather-facing side, angled slightly to the east or south-east
• Timing: install by mid-March at the latest - earlier is better

Putting up several boxes increases the odds that one or two pairs will move in. Leave a few metres between boxes so the birds do not get in each other’s way.

Feeding strategy: help early, stop at the right moment

In late winter, feeding can draw birds into the garden and help them through cold spells. Useful options include:

• sunflower hearts
• unsalted nuts
• plant-fat balls without plastic netting

The important point: by the end of March, any supplementary feeding should taper off. By then, more insects are active again, and tits switch to protein-rich food - exactly the larvae and insects that the invasive hornet also relies on to feed its brood.

Plants, water, and avoiding poisons

A garden that suits tits may look unremarkable at first, but it pays off in several ways:

• Native shrubs: such as elder, hawthorn or hazel provide cover, berries and insects.
• Wild corners: a small pile of branches, some longer grass, or leaves left in place - ideal for hunting and nesting.
• Water source: a shallow dish or small basin, cleaned regularly and refilled.
• No pesticides: toxins kill insects and therefore harm tits directly, as well as bees and other pollinators.

"If you spray poison, you take away the basis of life for tits and bees at the same time - and you play into the hands of the invasive hornet."

Always report hornet nests to a professional

As valuable as tits are, they are not a substitute for targeted control. If you find a nest, do not attempt to remove it yourself. The animals defend their colony, and a sting can be life-threatening for sensitive individuals.

A sensible division of labour in the garden looks like this:

• Tits deal with larvae and dead insects, indirectly reducing future numbers.
• People report visible nests to specialists who can remove them safely.
• Gardeners create structures that benefit many species - birds, bees and other pollinators.

What beekeepers can do in practical terms

For beekeepers, the invasive hornet has become an everyday concern. Here, tits can bring an extra advantage because they are often active around apiaries. Useful steps include:

• Put up nest boxes within sight of the hives, while taking cats and martens into account.
• Leave hedgerows and shrubs around the apiary instead of cutting everything back short.
• Avoid using chemical treatments in the immediate vicinity of the hives.

As a side benefit, tits also keep other enemies of bees in check, such as certain caterpillars that chew on blossoms. That supports the wider ecosystem on which colonies depend.

Background: why the invasive hornet is so successful

The introduced hornet originally comes from Asia, where it is considered part of the natural balance. In Central Europe, that corrective is largely missing. It finds abundant food, mild winters and plenty of nesting opportunities - from lofts to tall poplars.

A single colony can capture several kilograms of insects each year. Some of that is made up of pests, but a large share is beneficial insects too. Honey bees are particularly targeted: the hornet waits at the hive entrance and snatches returning foragers. For already weakened colonies, that constant stress can become a serious problem.

Natural enemies in Europe have so far scarcely specialised. Birds may eat the occasional individual, but they risk stings and tend to avoid large nests. Tits do not focus on the workers; instead, they reduce the next generation in the nest - a different lever that can be combined with human measures.

More life in the garden instead of poison and concrete

Supporting tits does more than protect bees. The entire garden becomes more vibrant: more birds, more insects, more flowers. Children can watch parent birds shuttling in with food, see fledglings take their first flights, and notice how berry shrubs draw birds in during autumn.

With this kind of “alliance” between people and birds, many garden problems stay smaller:

• Caterpillar damage on fruit trees decreases.
• Aphid colonies are more likely to stay within bounds.
• The invasive hornet faces extra pressure on its brood.

Rather than setting ever more traps and poisons, it is worth looking up: in the branches may already be the best ally a bee-friendly garden could have - the tit, simply waiting for a few nest boxes and a pesticide-free space.