A man who began catching hornets at age 16 said he now has more than 10,000 hornet nests on his property in Chiayi County.
Tsai Ming-hsun (蔡明勳), 57, said that he collects nests every year, adding that one year he had nearly 400 active nests on his property.
Tsai’s interest in catching hornets began in the 11th grade, when he first captured one alive, he said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
He brought it home and hid it, and was fascinated to find that it had grown a few days later, Tsai said.
Hornets wake from hibernation in April and look for a place to build a nest, he said.
When collecting a nest it is best to wait until it is about the size of a fist, and remove it at nighttime while wearing protective clothing, Tsai said.
Every year toward the end of spring, Tsai heads out looking for hornets and tracks down their nests.
From his experience, Tsai knows the ideal locations for hornets to build nests and can collect more than 100 nests a year, he said.
To catch hornets, Tsai first places a large bowl of rice wine near a nest’s opening and then shakes the nest to disturb the insects.
When the hornets emerge, he shines a bright light that startles them and causes them to dart into the bowl of rice wine, he said.
He leaves the hornets to ferment in the wine for more than a month to make an alcoholic drink that is believed to improve blood circulation, Tsai said.
He said he keeps all of the nests he has collected.
Worker hornets’ secretions keep the nests from decaying for several decades, he said.
Tsai said he leaves pieces of Taiwan cypress timber near the areas where the hornets forage for food.
The insects chew up the cypress and use it to build their nest, which gives the nest an artistic quality, Tsai said.
Each nest is unique in shape and size, including one that was built on a long tree branch and was in the shape of a wild rabbit’s ear, he said.
Another one was built in the shape of an owl and a Japanese collector offered NT$100,000 for it, he said.
However, he was unwilling to part with the nest and refused the offer, Tsai said.
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