Queen Wasp.

[enrico]

Queen wasp 1 .....My wrist 0..... Lurking in the folds of a sun lounger cushion I decided to move!!! I now have one big solid wrist ..... no comments!

 

[Dishmop]

Its a good job that varroa mites cant fly.......

 

[simon kerr]

Had a very large Queen wasp in the house yesterday, I introduced it to my slipper, they didnt get one!

 

[nottingham]

this morning I found 10 queen wasps in my wasp trap.

 

[For want of a better word]

Schools out on this one!

At what point is any living thing that has evolved on this wonderful blue~green planet we inhabit deemed a pest?

I agree entirely with the HOLISTIC approach to our environment, and we all look back in horror at what the immigrant ignorant western settlers did to the planes buffalo and Passenger Pigeon when the "conquered" the northern American continent.
And more recently at the wholesale destruction of fisheries across the globe by the greedy few (Tragedy of the commons... etc etc...) [ by commons I mean open access]
The definition of a pest, as I see it, is a vector of human or domesticated animal (or even plant) disease.
Do wasps... of the "Jasper" ilk carry any disease..... or are they just a nuisance after your jam butties?

Most Beeks will at some time or other get asked to "eradicate" a nuisance wasp nest

The question is SHOULD WE DO IT ???????

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

I have never known a colony to be lost to wasps of any kind including European Hornets unless that colony was already nearly dead and on its way out anyway.

I happily live with wasp and hornet nests within 150 metres of my hives with no adverse effects what so ever other than a few bees a day picked of by the hornets for their larvae. Given the hundreds that die every day from other causes it's not even worth a thought.

What ever you do, don't let facts cloud your thinking.

Chris

Hi Chris - my position last year was that I had recently split a colony, and while one was very active and able to defend itself, the other was weak in size and primarily made of nurse bees. Not "nearly dead", but weak. Wasps were able to go in at will even with a reduced entrance. On the advice of an inspector I reduced the entrance still further and laid more traps.

All worked out OK, the colony eventually managed to defend itself, grew and has over wintered well. Of course I don't know for certain if they would have survived the wasp attack anyway, but I have my doubts.

Can't speak for my near neighbour, but he has about 50 colonies and is quite experienced. I think he was away for a few days while the attacks started and didnt get to them in time to reduce entrances.

I sure wasps have their uses, but I'm afraid I'm a bit of a NIMBY on that.

 

[YorkshireBees]

this morning I found 10 queen wasps in my wasp trap.

If you don't mind me asking, what trap(s) do you use?

 

[nottingham]

If you don't mind me asking, what trap(s) do you use?

I buy my wasp traps from a book shop of all places lol and they cost me £1.99 each. This is the wasp trap I use. I put fruit and sugar syrup in my traps and there is no interest from my bees.

 

[Chris Luck]

Would anyone that uses the term "Wasp attack" in relationship to a bee colony please define what they mean for me?

Ta, Chris

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Looks interesting and sounds very effective Nottingham. I've ordered one to see if its any better than the normal sawn off bottle (fiver on Amazon, its a Pest Patrol if anyone interested)

 

[Erichalfbee]

Last year I had one small colony that needed help, (the other two had sufficient numbers to defend themselves adequately but I did reduce the entrance size), I put a wasp guard on a reduced entrance hole and surrounded the apiary with wasp traps. I used simple fizzy drink bottles with a couple of flap entrances baited with rotten fruit/jam/alcohol. They worked really well and even caught a number of wax moths. I tried the rat glue board which on the first day caught many wasps but on the second caught a blue tit so I abandoned that idea.

I'm a great believer in having a strong colony to defend itself and leaving the wasps be. It's only in the late summer/autumn when the nest is dispersing and no more brood is being reared that they become a serious problem. Then wasp traps are killing only the defunct workers who wouldn't survive anyway.

I have a couple of camera bird nest boxes and put out live mealworms and I once watched a wasp seize one of these, saw it up into carryable pices and take it away........fascinating creatures.
Now, it we ever got asian hornets here then that would be a different matter!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Would anyone that uses the term "Wasp attack" in relationship to a bee colony please define what they mean for me?

Ta, Chris

Thats me I guess

How about a continuous queue of 20+ wasps trying to get entrance to the hive to rob causing endless battles inside and out.

Traps around the hive showing the problem running into the 100s.

Seem to recall someone far more experienced than me posting here (and I've no reason to doubt) that once they get unhindered access to the hive, its probably curtains for the bees.

 

[Mike a]

once they get unhindered access to the hive, its probably curtains for the bees.

Its possible to save the colony if the problem is spotted early enough, but within a few days even a strong colony can be left almost defenceless if the wasp colony is big enough. Reducing the entrance only slows the whole process down before the wasps win, the only method that works is to move the colony to an alternative apiary but the wasps will simply start to attack another hive on the same site.

 

[crazy_bull]

I had a problem a few years ago on one site, i had been careful not to spill any syrup or leave cut off brace comb laying about but still the wasps came, and were winning on 3 originally strong colonies, traps were being filled daily, what solved the problem was spending a hour watching where the wasps were flying towards and following them until you lost them, then standing and waiting until you saw another, this led me to a disussed rabbit warren that had huge volumes of wasps coming out of 3 holes, i waited till night and then poisoned them.

The following day the hives were no longer under attack and calm was restored to the apiary.

If you follow good apiary hygeine, ie don't leave combs laying around or spilt honey/sugar etc it is rare for wasps to become a major issue, however every now and then they can become a complete PITA.


Note, if you have to use traps, site them abit away from the apiary, other wise you will find you simply attact the wasps to the hives


C B

 

[chycarne]

what I call a wasp attack is, when we were given a small nuc with a laying queen, they were happy with the other bee hives, and increasing in size, and doing nicely and then suddenly started dramtaiclly shrinking in numbers (over the space of two days) we watched and saw they were being raided by wasps, put up traps moved them and everything. But lost the colony as the queen had been damaged too. This was a sad thing as the queen and bees had been selected and were an important part of our programme. The build up was planned and the set up had been planned. There was not a previous wasp problem, there wont be again. We are environmental and ecologistic in our view of the world around us, we ahve improved the patch so we now have 7 snipe overwinter with us as apposed to 4 years ago when there was only a pair or intermittant visitors, and before that none... for example. Yes wasps are and integrall part of our world but like weeds- plants being in the wrong place, a wasp is a pest when it impinges on our activity, elsewhere they dont get bumped off, near the apiary (which is clean and tidy) they will be ex wasps... so as I must be a mindless cretin beekeeping type I remain disapointed at the strong views so expressed- before you shout, ask why people do what they do and remain grateful for your own good fortune. Wasps are good beasties Hornets even more so but in the wrong place they will dealt with. I will have a good balanced environment where it is safe for me and mine. Oh an as an aside we also have two red ant nests this year, and, last year for the first time we had some blues and what looked liek a couple of copper butterlies back... so please dont tell me I dont understand the world around me... on the south of our patch wasps and hornets are allowed on the north they are not. Simple.

 

[freethorpe bees]

Well said!

 

[Haughton Honey]

I agree with Crazy Bull's technique.

Wasps rarely scavenge more than 300 yards from their nest of origin.

 

[TOBY-3652]

Spot on crazy bull it is a good way of finding the nests.

 

[Chris Luck]

What you definitely don't want are these...not easy to swat as they move around fast. It is of course the introduced Asian Hornet and now is the time to kill them.

 

[merylvingien]

I am definatley a mindless moron, cause killing wasps is my job! I probably get through a million or more each year and i get paid for it so i can eat curry LOL