Bad Year For Jaspers

[Poly Hive]

Saw a queen in the Spring, then a couple of workers since then and that's about it. Pretty much a free from zone.

PH

 

[Millet]

Saw a queen in the Spring, then a couple of workers since then and that's about it. Pretty much a free from zone.

PH

Lucky you.. i am getting tortured and the tennis racket is a god send..

 

[SDM]

At 3 apiaries so far I've taken out 3 nests within 2 or 3 metres of each other. A neighbour called this evening has 4 in his small garden.
There does seem to be significantly more nests this year.

 

[For want of a better word]

What is the best way to destroy an "in the ground" or in a stone wall" type nest?

I pour petrol in and hope it kills the whole colony.... tried RAID but is expensive... and does not seem to get all of them!

Chons da

 

[Beefriendly]

Are they dead or drunk?

Yes they are dead drunk....mainly dead.

 

[moorparkbees]

Problem here too, have a wasp nest on the top of a chimney stack behind my hives (hives on roof) so can’t treat them. I got these - ASPECTEK Wasp Trap and Hornet Trap 2 Packs https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HFDGMNO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_aXylDbS3JPGPH

They seem to be doing the job! Although the one with sugar syrup in has a lot more dead wasps than the one with cider in and no bees!

 

[maz0]

Are these commercial products offering anything that the cut-up soda bottle isn't? I have one with about 20-30 wasps in it...I'm honestly not sure how you could improve on it? is it worth spending the money, vs the free soda bottles? Plus I get to recycle plastic and escape the wrath of my other half!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sigh
Get those colonies strong
Shut down entrances
No traps needed

 

[Karol]

Efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing when it comes to wasp traps.

Efficiency is a measure of the percentage of wasps killed that enter a trap.

Effectiveness is a measure of how well the trap is used to reduce the background population of wasps to zero.

The purpose of a trap is not to kill wasps per se, it is to remove wasps from the vicinity you want to protect.

Low efficiency wasp traps attract more wasps than they kill so make the problem worse by increasing the background population of wasps.

If you want to understand if your design has high efficiency then there's a simple test. Find an open piece of ground where there are no wasps at all and no wasp draw (i.e. nothing else that might attract wasps either). Set your trap. If after a couple of days wasps are buzzing around the trap you know it's a low efficiency trap. If on the other hand you've caught one or two wasps but there are no wasps buzzing around the trap then your trap is more likely to be a high efficiency trap.

There are a lot of commercial traps out there that are low efficiency and many home made traps are also low efficiency.

The problem with high efficiency traps is that they have to be used intelligently which requires an understanding of wasp behaviour. Using high efficiency traps incorrectly will make them ineffective.

 

[Millet]

Sigh
Get those colonies strong
Shut down entrances
No traps needed

It is hard to get newly made nucs strong quickly and even though the stronger hives are safe it does not stop the wasps trying..once the wasps start showing interest at the hives entrance and even more so during inspections it seems to alter the bees good nature a little..also i can not sit in the garden or go into the bee shed without getting buzzed by wasps..so far this is the first year i have not been stung by a wasp for a long time but i can see it happening soon if i do not get on top of them..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing when it comes to wasp traps.



If you want to understand if your design has high efficiency then there's a simple test. Find an open piece of ground where there are no wasps at all and no wasp draw (i.e. nothing else that might attract wasps either). Set your trap. If after a couple of days wasps are buzzing around the trap you know it's a low efficiency trap. If on the other hand you've caught one or two wasps but there are no wasps buzzing around the trap then your trap is more likely to be a high efficiency trap.

Now that sounds sensible
Something that all of us could do
A bit of forum citizen science

 

[Erichalfbee]

It is hard to get newly made nucs strong quickly and even though the stronger hives are safe it does not stop the wasps trying..once the wasps start showing interest at the hives entrance and even more so during inspections it seems to alter the bees good nature a little..also i can not sit in the garden or go into the bee shed without getting buzzed by wasps..so far this is the first year i have not been stung by a wasp for a long time but i can see it happening soon if i do not get on top of them..

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t tackle wasps bothering you in your daily perambulation.
How difficult is it to get a nuc strong? You just make them up with lots of bees. If you’re nucs are weak then you are overstretching their production.

 

[Millet]

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t tackle wasps bothering you in your daily perambulation.
How difficult is it to get a nuc strong? You just make them up with lots of bees. If you’re nucs are weak then you are overstretching their production.

The nucs are more than strong enough to expand and be fruitful but i find wasps are still a pain..the three nucs i have recently made contain two frames of brood covered in bees with a further two frames of bees shook into them and a full frame of stores..the rest is drawn foundation..at my original site in Alnwick (where the wasps are a problem) the wasps where still sneaking in..some where turfed out pretty quickly but some where not..the nucs have now been moved through my bees robbing one of them to a spot where wasps are not a problem YET..

 

[Teebeeaitch]

I completely agree with reducing entrances and that’s about it, let them get on with it. Good colonies will have no problem. Nucs? Win some lose some, don’t worry about it. I despair a bit with the kill, kill, kill approach to wasps but I guess this is what is required if you want to secure honey yield bragging rights.

 

[Beefriendly]

If after a couple of days wasps are buzzing around the trap you know it's a low efficiency trap..

For once I agree with you, if wasps are still buzzing around then the trap is not working. You need them dead and trapped. There will always (of course) be a small lag time between them finding it (buzzing about) and them being trapped and killed.

 

[SWEET]

I've a rather nasty feral hive in my apiary (among the others), wasps enter and never escape.

 

[maz0]

I completely agree with reducing entrances and that’s about it, let them get on with it. Good colonies will have no problem. Nucs? Win some lose some, don’t worry about it. I despair a bit with the kill, kill, kill approach to wasps but I guess this is what is required if you want to secure honey yield bragging rights.

It's not about honey bragging rights, its about good bee husbandry.

Farmers kill crows that peck the lambs into exhaustion and eat their eyes out. We trap rats because they kill our chicks and the eggs. A fox will get in the hen hut and teach its young how to kill every chicken in the hut and take one home for dinner, same with ferrets and stoats.

We don't have egg, chicken or honey bragging rights, we do try to take the best care possible of the creatures under our responsibility and if this means protecting our bee's from predators then so be it.

Your welcome to leave all your hives to a survival of the fittest way of beekeeping if that suits you. But good husbandry is not "bragging rights".

 

[Karol]

I am an advocate of wasps being a means of natural selection and recommend traps only as a last resort. But this is a complex dilemna for which there is no simple answer.

Wasps will expose weaker bee hives especially those that are diseased. In doing so they provide a valuable natural quarantining function not least because they will rob out contaminated honey from diseased hives to reduce risk of transmission. That said there is also something that I term 'wasp pressure'.

Wasp pressure varies from one year to the next and is affected by various factors including weather, topography and human factors such as husbandry. In years of high wasp pressure even strong hives may succumb and in this instance other integrated wasp management techniques such as the use of tunnel entrances, reducing draw around the hives etc won't of themselves be enough at which point the use of traps becomes justified.

Getting the balance right between the two is difficult and I agree with you Maz0 that this is about good bee husbandry and I wouldn't criticize any particular approach other than using practices which of themselves are bad husbandry such as the use of low efficiency wasp traps.

 

[maddydog]

It's not about honey bragging rights, its about good bee husbandry.

Farmers kill crows that peck the lambs into exhaustion and eat their eyes out. We trap rats because they kill our chicks and the eggs. A fox will get in the hen hut and teach its young how to kill every chicken in the hut and take one home for dinner, same with ferrets and stoats.

We don't have egg, chicken or honey bragging rights, we do try to take the best care possible of the creatures under our responsibility and if this means protecting our bee's from predators then so be it.

Your welcome to leave all your hives to a survival of the fittest way of beekeeping if that suits you. But good husbandry is not "bragging rights".

100% agree.

Those advocating reduced entrances and strong hives alone being enough , with all due respect, do not have a serious wasp problem. If they tried that in some of my apiaries they would be looking at 100% losses.

If wasps are swarm feeding a hive the only way to reliably stop them is to remove the hive and replace with a high efficiency trap. The entrance placed to the millimeter of where they were getting in.

 

[EJackson]

Put this into Google .....
Volwco 16Pcs Wasp Traps Catcher, DIY Homemade Wasp Catcher, Yellow Jackets Traps, Hornets Trap For Outdoors, Bugs Control In Home Garden - Effective & Reusable
They are 6.99 for them. They push into a plastic bottle and are brilliant. Pour an inch of high alcohol cider into the bottle and refill every few days. Can't fault them
E

Bargain! Will give this a try!