Bad Year For Jaspers

[Monbees]

Wasp Trap

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.

I had a bad wasp problem three years ago, lost one (weak) hive but saved the rest using a eco-friendly high efficiency called Wasp Bane. Not cheap but you get what you pay for - really recommend. Just ordered another one for this year as problem is back and earlier than usual - could go on until November!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I had a bad wasp problem three years ago, lost one (weak) hive but saved the rest using a eco-friendly high efficiency called Wasp Bane. Not cheap but you get what you pay for - really recommend. Just ordered another one for this year as problem is back and earlier than usual - could go on until November!

Wasps here, when we get a problem go on till the first hard frosts.
Welcome to the madhouse, by the way.

 

[tonyofarr]

In January of this year we checked an out apiary to find a colony being robbed by these huge wasps and it then took a lot of tlc to get this hive through the Winter and Spring; they have produced 5 supers of honey though.

Never thought we would see wasps do that but we did have a mild Winter.

 

[hrferrier]

I notice from your site that you used home made pop bottle traps. These cause more of a problem around hives because they attract more wasps than they kill.

https://tinyurl.com/y436po8j

Hi, this is not my blog but I don’t have any images of my entrances. No pop bottles used or any traps.

These entrances worked great the odd wasp would figure them out but the bees found them easy to defend so they wouldn’t get too far

 

[Helen]

Tried a new anti-wasp entrance for my poly nucs this year.

Last year, I built one with mesh front and top slit entrance. Worked for a while, but wasps learnt to get past it.

This year, I've tried something based on the narrow tunnel entrance, modified for a poly nuc, and ease of build. So far, it's working very nicely - no wasps inside the polys that have this on, even though lots of wasps about.

All that is needed is a bit of clear plastic, a couple bits of wood and glue.

See attached images.

I cut a bit of plastic to fit the front indent where the entrance is. Rest it on the poly 'landing' tab. Make sure there is a gap at the top. Then glue in a couple of wooden rods - 8mm thick, on the sides and base. Now you have your entrance cover.

I then cut a couple of bits of 8mm wood just longer than the total height, glued on a tiny bit of wood at the very top to act as a handle.

As you can see from the photo, I jammed the entrance on the front with a wedge holding it tight. The 2 bits of wood in the middle are free-floating, so can be moved (with the little handles) right to the sides for a wide entrance, or slid inwards to create a long, 1 or 2-bee width tunnel.

Bees are happily defending at the top of the 'tunnel' entrance as well as in the tunnel itself.

 

[maz0]

Tried a new anti-wasp entrance for my poly nucs this year.

Last year, I built one with mesh front and top slit entrance. Worked for a while, but wasps learnt to get past it.

This year, I've tried something based on the narrow tunnel entrance, modified for a poly nuc, and ease of build. So far, it's working very nicely - no wasps inside the polys that have this on, even though lots of wasps about.

All that is needed is a bit of clear plastic, a couple bits of wood and glue.

See attached images.

I cut a bit of plastic to fit the front indent where the entrance is. Rest it on the poly 'landing' tab. Make sure there is a gap at the top. Then glue in a couple of wooden rods - 8mm thick, on the sides and base. Now you have your entrance cover.

I then cut a couple of bits of 8mm wood just longer than the total height, glued on a tiny bit of wood at the very top to act as a handle.

As you can see from the photo, I jammed the entrance on the front with a wedge holding it tight. The 2 bits of wood in the middle are free-floating, so can be moved (with the little handles) right to the sides for a wide entrance, or slid inwards to create a long, 1 or 2-bee width tunnel.

Bees are happily defending at the top of the 'tunnel' entrance as well as in the tunnel itself.

Clever! I like it.

 

[Monbees]

Does anyone, maybe Karol know the answer to this? When wasps are strongly attacking a hive and eating honey not bees or larvae, does this mean the wasp queen has died or departed so wasps are seeking sugary stuff elsewhere as no larvae remaining to give them honeydew/ juice whatever? If so, how long can wasps survive like this? Please don't say unto cold weather! I did hope l was getting on top of the problem. Certainly fewer wasps than there have been.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It means the nest has matured, sexual progeny..... drones and new queens issued and no more larvae produced.
Wasps can keep going even into frosts. They die of starvation, not cold, once all food disappears

 

[Buzzlodge]

When wasps are strongly attacking a hive and eating honey not bees or larvae, does this mean the wasp queen has died or departed so wasps are seeking sugary stuff elsewhere as no larvae remaining to give them honeydew/ juice whatever?

My hives were getting an awful pasting from wasps. I placed several traps around the hives and last week i found the wasps nest, in the ground about 20m away.

I disposed of the nest and later dug it up. I had thought, like you, that it would have been empty ... but all the comb that I found was full of capped brood, larvae (lots) and eggs!

But my wasp problem has definitely improved.

 

[Millet]

Use the correct tunnel entrances and the problem is sorted bee hive wise..i was sat on a bucket the weekend gone viewing a recently hived nuc..the nuc is in a dummied down national poly hive with a narrowed down tunnel entrance..the wasps where torturing it so i narrowed the tunnel to 10mm..i was sat giggling to myself watching the wasps attempt to gain entry..however some did but where quickly dragged out the tunnel by three or more bees..very interesting to watch..sad to see a bee get killed though but there you go.

 

[Karol]

Does anyone, maybe Karol know the answer to this? When wasps are strongly attacking a hive and eating honey not bees or larvae, does this mean the wasp queen has died or departed so wasps are seeking sugary stuff elsewhere as no larvae remaining to give them honeydew/ juice whatever? If so, how long can wasps survive like this? Please don't say unto cold weather! I did hope l was getting on top of the problem. Certainly fewer wasps than there have been.

Generally it means there is no brood in the nest so worker wasps have to find alternative sources of carbohydrates.....but and there are a few buts, there is also the possibility that there is brood in the nest but insufficient insect protein available to foragers for the grubs to convert to carbohydrates - leading to a situation akin to starvation in a hive. The foragers then partially switch from hunting to carbohydrate scavenging (which is one of the signatures of Vespa Velutina - i.e. they have to sweet scavenge to supplement hunting because they require far more insect prey (because of their higher biomass) than they can readily get in dry temperate climates). It is unlikely that the queen will have died or departed. She remains nest bound almost to the last and is quite capable of starting to lay again if circumstances become favourable. So for instance, it does happen occasionally that wasps undergo a repeat procreative cycle and lay a second round of sexual progeny. This is characterized by a sweet feeding phase during late July/August (after the first nest maturation) followed by a lull in sweet feeding activity as worker wasps switch to hunting again (almost as if the wasps have disappeared) only to be hit again by a late sweet feeding phase come October/November when the nest matures for a second time.

It is also the case that nest treatments may precipitate sweet feeding and may be responsible for creating localised sweet feeding nuisance wasps whilst competent nests remain in their hunting phase. This is quite complex to explain but essentially when wasp nests are treated the sentries are the first to die. Without sentry wasps returning foragers don't re-enter the nest because they don't receive landing rights to do so from the missing sentries. The foragers will hang around for about 50 minutes before their power packs start to deplete which forces them to go off to find alternative sources of carbohydrates which they are no longer able to get from their brood.

As Erichalfbee says, it's not the cold that kills wasps it's starvation and we do see wasp colonies survive right up to January despite heavy frosts.

As for wasps surviving where the queen has died then they are quite capable of surviving for weeks which they do either as individuals or in aggregates. I once monitored a colony where the nest had been treated with pesticide (queen and resident sentries all killed) and the workers relocated to an eve on a barn to form an aggregate which survived for six weeks before being treated. It was quite a sight to see the aggregate disperse in the morning and then reform each dusk.

That aside, I have seen wasps still hunting meaning that their nests have not yet matured. We do see differences between the species in terms of when they mature so it doesn't surprise me to hear that Buzzlodge found a wasp nest still full of brood. The corollary of which is that there is more wasp activity still to come.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Heavens!
I never knew wasps could have a second brood season.

 

[Karol]

I'm afraid so. Seen it a few times.

 

[Monbees]

Oh dear, l feared that fewer wasps was too good to be true ...

 

[Monbees]

Oh, l forgot to say thank you Karol for your very learned reply - l knew l could count on you

 

[Monbees]

Well Karol, l think l must have inadvertently caused an aggregation when trying to kill a wasp nest inside my old stone-built house. The bees were entering through a tiny hole in the mortar. Very difficult to get the permethrin into the hole, so then made the mistake of blocking hole with mastic. Result, thousands of wasps milling around the wall for days? Eventually all gone, but don't know where!

 

[Erichalfbee]

All the hives are coping well. The wasps seem to be concentrating on the back of this nuc. The bees are managing the front.
The trap at the back is full after one week. Never seen so many all of a sudden.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ooops
Forgot the picture

 

[Monbees]

Looks remarkable like my set up - a high efficiency trap at front and back of the hive (each at least 2/3 full of wasps, entrance one bee space, and fingers crossed!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Looks remarkable like my set up - a high efficiency trap at front and back of the hive (each at least 2/3 full of wasps, entrance one bee space, and fingers crossed!

The back of the hive was teeming with wasps trying the side and the omf. With the trap in place there is hardly a free flying wasp to be seen