High level of wasp activity . . .

[Headnavigator]

High level of wasp activity around my weaker colony today, am going to decrease the entrance, and put a wasp trap nearby. However I'm unsure what the best thing is to put in the trap - jam, beer, any suggestions?

 

[kazmcc]

High level of wasp activity around my weaker colony today, am going to decrease the entrance, and put a wasp trap nearby. However I'm unsure what the best thing is to put in the trap - jam, beer, any suggestions?

Last year I used diluted ribena, with a dollop of jam and a drop of vinegar. I think I flooded the forum with desperate pleas of help with this subject as I was so distressed.....it was my first year

 

[Ellem]

I've heard that as soon as you can get the first few in the rest go mad for their drowned rotting mates

Something sweet that the bees won't go for (so probably jam or lemonade or similar) would be a good starting point.

 

[huntsman666]

Wrong time of the year for this but in the autumn when the wasps are most active in seeking sweet food, my apples also ripen.

So I crush any windfalls on the ground and then a few minutes later, crush the wasps.

Probably brings out the boy in me and it certainly works a treat. Anyway, quicker and less messy than drowning.

If you want to drown them, then raspberry or strawberry jam does the trick best.

 

[DorsetB]

Make up a sweet solution of anything at all: jam, sugar, fruit, soft drinks which have gone flat, etc. Add water, then some yeast. Put somewhere warm and put lid on bottle/jar etc without fully tightening.
When you hear it hissing faintly, your mixture is ready.

Cut the top third off a 1.5 or 2L plastic drinks bottle and put it back on the bottle upside down, so it forms a funnel.

Pour some of your mixture into the bottle and suspend from tree or whatever, as long as it is not on the ground or at hive level.

Wasps will happily eat fermenting stuff whereas bees will not.

Retain some of your "starter culture" and just add to it to keep it going. You will need to add yeast occasionally.

Works a charm.

 

[Headnavigator]

Sounds yummy - I'll give it a try (and let the wasps have some).
Have put in the blocks to reduce the entrances. Subsequently watched a nice fat black drone get progressively more upset as he found he couldn't get in. He's now hanging around under the OMF after trying for about 30 minutes. Makes me wonder if the other drones will be able to get out? It also makes me worry that a Virgin Queen in another hive may not be able to freely exit/enter? (The workers are coping fine after the first moments' confusion).

 

[xgeordie]

I messed around with a few things last year, but the simplest was to get hold any old bottle with a tapering neck on it. Half fill with water. Add a drop of washing liquid. Smear jam around inside of neck.

I stood bottles around the apiary - the wasps seemed to leave the hives alone.

I had to flush out the bottles a few times during the season as the contents began to stink.

 

[Midland Beek]

High level of wasp activity around my weaker colony today, am going to decrease the entrance,

Yes, weaker colonies need smaller entrances. And you might want to re-position the frames so that the occupied frames are nearer the hive entrance, so allowing a better defence of the entrance.

 

[jasonahood]

I guess at this time of year the wasps are looking to eat your bee's ( to feed to their brood ) and not steal their honey, so i'm not sure whether a sugar trap will work yet... but i could be wrong!

 

[tonybloke]

Sounds yummy - I'll give it a try (and let the wasps have some).
Have put in the blocks to reduce the entrances. Subsequently watched a nice fat black drone get progressively more upset as he found he couldn't get in. He's now hanging around under the OMF after trying for about 30 minutes. Makes me wonder if the other drones will be able to get out? It also makes me worry that a Virgin Queen in another hive may not be able to freely exit/enter? (The workers are coping fine after the first moments' confusion).

then you have made the entrance too small!! entrance should be about 25mm long, by 8mm high.

 

[kazmcc]

I guess at this time of year the wasps are looking to eat your bee's ( to feed to their brood ) and not steal their honey, so i'm not sure whether a sugar trap will work yet... but i could be wrong!

That makes sense actually, from what I've observed. The wasps near our colony show no interest in the entrance, they are on the ground, picking off any tired bees that happen to be there. So how would you stop this happening?

 

[Ellem]

I guess at this time of year the wasps are looking to eat your bee's ( to feed to their brood ) and not steal their honey, so i'm not sure whether a sugar trap will work yet... but i could be wrong!

I thought that was the case too, but the wasps that have come into my garden only seem interested in sweet stuff at the moment. Ah well, it's not just the bees out to confuse me then

 

[BabyBee]

my hive area was so busy yesterday that I couldnt go near it and assumed (wrongly) that it was my neighbours two new queens having their mating flight...I couldnt have been more wrong

went to check hive today as things seemed a bit quieter only to find that stores are almost all gone, the few remaining bees seem to be starving and the hive is overrun with wasps.

this was an AS hive put together at the end of May (this year) and they did seem to be doing away quite nicely until now.

so apart from these wasp traps, is there anything else i should be doing?

i'm concerned they have no food - should i feed a 1:1 sugar syrup in a feeder? though i am concerned that this would simply attract even more wasps....

any and all help gratefully received

btw - i have reduced the entrance this afternoon

 

[merylvingien]

so apart from these wasp traps, is there anything else i should be doing?

Find the nest and kill it!!!

Its always assumed (wrongly) that wasps wont nest near to each other, so many folk think there will only be one nest in the area.

I killed 11 nests on one house the other day and there was definatley more nests there. I am waiting for the call to return

 

[Swarm]

They don't forage far, the nest should be within 200m.

 

[trapperman]

Find the nest and kill it!!!

Its always assumed (wrongly) that wasps wont nest near to each other, so many folk think there will only be one nest in the area.

I killed 11 nests on one house the other day and there was definatley more nests there. I am waiting for the call to return

Hey JK my records 5 nests on one house so i have a way to go before i get near yours.

hows your season going.

 

[BabyBee]

how do i go about finding the wasp nest?

 

[Flatters]

It would seem the wasps have made a sudden appearance as there is another thread on them http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11575

No wasps at home yet but at my mother's where I have 3 colonies there was a lot of wasp activity. The colonies are small swarms being built up so I have reduced entry by using the entrance blocks. The Coke bottle wasp trap is set up 50% water, 50% jam as my bait.

Leaking contact feeders I have found to be the main culprit for attracting wasps. I am phasing mine out and will be making some miller feeders instead.

 

[chycarne]

had a good tip very recently try curve rolling a piece of small hole course mesh to a 1/2 circle shape as high as the entrance holes, and about 5 time as as long or to the edges of the hive. put on at night. bees in the morning work it out and map it, wasps and robbers find it hard to work out and dont bother- going off in search of easier. als bees ca noccupy the tube and make it harder for any intruder... tube should be about 2 bees in diameter mesh about 5mm size

 

[RosieMc]

I tried a few wasp baits last year. I made up several different traps each with different sugary variations in them - jam, marmalade, vinegar, blackcurrent juice, orange cordial, and finally pure orange juice.

The one which got the most wasps was the pure orange juice with double and more the amount caught in them than in any of the others.