As with all eusocial insects, the species survives through its sexual progeny most notably through mated queens. By and large workers sacrifice their own sexual reproduction in return for security within the nest and as such are 'ecologically' expendable. So once wasps enter the sweet feeding season post production and mating of their sexual progeny there is very little impact on the species in eradicating sweet feeding 'nuisance' wasps. Depriving them of food would be nigh on impossible and would be counterproductive because it would simply concentrate wasp attacks on hives.
Wasps do serve a purpose. Populations do oscillate and when wasp numbers are high they do decimate local insect populations before their own populations then crash for lack of sustainable prey the following year which allows other insect populations to recover. The good thing about such population oscillations is that it helps keep diseases at bay because it tends to be only health and fit insects that then survive and by that I also include honeybees. IMHO wasps are essential in weeding out diseased honeybees and thereby help maintain overall honeybee fitness.
Perhaps I didn't explain myself very well. I was talking about wasps when they are in their hunting phase taking solitary worker honeybees at flower heads. Wasps are ambush hunters and use a vertical assent and pounce technique. Healthy fit bees stand a greater chance of evading such predation than diseased bees which get weeded out. Not something I would suggest that most beekeepers see or think about.
Do wasp nests in the UK ever survive the winter? They don't usually here, but when they do, (when warmer, drier, and more food) they can get very big. This one (in a museum here) is reckoned to be the world's largest subterranean wasp nest.
I'm not aware of wasp nests in the UK surviving into a second season but the occasional nest has been known to survive into February where there is a food source that they can draw on and where their microclimate has allowed them to continue to feed.
what a ridiculous bit of advice - very telling that it didn't come from a beekeeper
Karol that’s pretty poor advice. There’s no such place considering the density of hives in the U.K.
I never realised there was a hive every 50 metres or so over the whole of the UK. I've been educated. Thank you.
You misunderstand me. Bees forage over two miles so placing open supers anywhere will attract more than wasps....
personally I'd recommend everyone ignore this absolute rubbish from a non beekeeper with an obvious slim grasp of bee behaviour in general, poorly disguised as advice
I tend to agree. Over the years we have had some fantastically useful input regarding the life cycle and hunting habits of wasps which has given an insight so we can "know our enemy" . However moving out of this zone has raised my eyebrows a few times. Leaving wet comb uncontained and accessible to freeloading insects has dangerous implications for the spread of disease hitchhiking parasites and pathogens. It will attract your bees, your neighbours bees, feral bees, wasps, bumble bees, flies and every other flying sweet feeding bug in the area. Not going to happen on my sites
Who said anything about wet comb? Supers with comb are not empty supers are they!
Prevailing wind tends to be fairly seasonally consistent, certainly consistent enough for such measures to work.
As usual, talking rubbish about something he knows nothing about
