Der intelligente Locktopf – Was tun, wenn niemand hinsieht?

At the first Mülheimer Velutina Symposium on June 27, 2026 at the Alte Dreherei in Mülheim an der Ruhr – organized by the Imkerverein Mülheim an der Ruhr together with the Velutina Army – Marc Wetzel and I showed how bait traps (Locktöpfe) for the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) can be monitored automatically.

The focus was on the question from the title: what happens at the bait trap when nobody is watching? A camera records who flies up to the trap. An AI compares visible features such as body coloring, abdomen and leg tips with many example images and estimates whether it is Vespa velutina or the native European hornet (Vespa crabro).

Mario Lukas and Marc Wetzel in front of a packed hall at the Alte Dreherei; on the screen the slide “How does the AI recognize a hornet?” — A packed hall at the Alte Dreherei: “How does the AI recognize a hornet?”

You can find more about the technology behind it in the Hivora project. The complete program of the symposium is available from the Imkerverein Mülheim an der Ruhr.