New wasp bait?

[Apiarisnt]

I should be interested in others' experience and comments, not least Karol's

I have a small shed meant primarily for garden tools and similar, but inevitably it has ended up as overflow storage for ekes, clearer boards, crown boards, etcetera, etcetera. Over the last couple of weeks the wasps have been in and out of that shed in significant quantities. I had assumed that any hive bits smelling of bees would have been drawing them in.

But I may be wrong.

This morning I went in to fetch out a little paint kettle of creosote (or these days, fake creosote) that I always keep in there so as to be able to slap some more on whatever next bit of external woodwork is falling apart. This is what I found:

 

[victor meldrew]

I should be interested in others' experience and comments, not least Karol's

I have a small shed meant primarily for garden tools and similar, but inevitably it has ended up as overflow storage for ekes, clearer boards, crown boards, etcetera, etcetera. Over the last couple of weeks the wasps have been in and out of that shed in significant quantities. I had assumed that any hive bits smelling of bees would have been drawing them in.

But I may be wrong.

This morning I went in to fetch out a little paint kettle of creosote (or these days, fake creosote) that I always keep in there so as to be able to slap some more on whatever next bit of external woodwork is falling apart. This is what I found:

View attachment 27842

Can’t see any bees in there thank god . Maybe a few experiments need conducting?

 

[Karol]

I should be interested in others' experience and comments, not least Karol's

I have a small shed meant primarily for garden tools and similar, but inevitably it has ended up as overflow storage for ekes, clearer boards, crown boards, etcetera, etcetera. Over the last couple of weeks the wasps have been in and out of that shed in significant quantities. I had assumed that any hive bits smelling of bees would have been drawing them in.

But I may be wrong.

This morning I went in to fetch out a little paint kettle of creosote (or these days, fake creosote) that I always keep in there so as to be able to slap some more on whatever next bit of external woodwork is falling apart. This is what I found:

View attachment 27842

As far as I'm aware creosote substitutes contain distillates of naturally occuring salicylates. Wasps confuse salicylates with sex pheromones which is why we frequently see wasps congregate around willow which is naturally high in salicylates.

Looking at your photo I believe you have a high number of drones in the catch (discerned by longer abdomens and longer nodular antennae) which would support high salicylate content attracting sexual progeny.

That said, I'm pretty confident that your beekeeping kit is also attracting wasps so I would suggest a double whammy rather than an either or situation. Wasps attracted by your beekeeping kit unable to find a way out would likely migrate to the creosote substitute for no other reason than it being a liquid in a space saturated with honey scent.