Revenge of the wasps

[user 23149]

I have also made wasp traps with one way bee escape funnel things and an old coffee jar - drill a hole in the top and affix the one way trap. I do have a video but you can't really see the set up for all the wasps!

 

[JamezF]

We usually use a chopped up windfall apple in water as bait.

James

 

[Nannysbees]

Take a large 2 litre soda bottle and cut the top off right where it starts to go straight down and flip it over to create a funnel (don't push it down as far as in the photo). I have used 'full fat' coke in these directly under the hive (under the table rather than under the entrance) and it worked a treat! Depending on the time of year, the Coke doesn't always work, I have seen notes of using jam as well - as long as it doesn't smell like something the honeybees want.

You can actually use any size soda bottle but the big ones hold more.

Have to keep an eye if it rains!!

 

[Beegarden]

Take a plastic water type bottle….. cut the top few inches off….. invert into rest of bottle. Run some tape around the cut edges toe seal. Fill with a couple of inches of your liquid bait.

Yup, it works well.. I buy a couple of large, cheap colas (must be full sugar, not zero), leave about a third in, add a couple of spoons of sugar, large sprinkle of vinegar (to discourage bees to enter) and float some orange peel. It works better and better as the peel rots! . I then pierce a hole either side of bottle, through both thicknesses and string up near the hives.. Wax moths are victims too. That reminds me, I need to buy some of that nasty cola stuff.

 

[Swarm]

Have to keep an eye if it rains!!

Poke a hole in the side.

 

[Nannysbees]

Poke a hole in the side.

All the gubbins drip onto the floor which attracts the wasps, if it fills with rain it weakens the recipe, used then for a few years, successful if it doesn't rain

 

[Erichalfbee]

Easy enough to cut up another bottle to provide four “roofs”

 

[RogerIvy]

A drop of vinegar in the trap bait mix deters bees.

I put a good table spoon and still seems to attract the wasps. I put the trap out with a sugar water mix with spoon of vinegar and wasps attracted to it in seconds.

 

[Brian Bush]

I went to check yesterday and found that the wasp issue had nearly gone away. Killing the 2 nests had helped but the wasp traps have removed the bulk of the blighters. I renewed the attractant in some traps and placed 3 more at stategic points. I make the attractant to the following recipe in 1 gallon amounts.
1 jar of old jam
1 can of cheap cider or beer
2 litre of sugar solution
top up with water
2 tablespoons of vinegar.
Over the years this has worked very well for me. I make traps from discarded plastic water bottles.

I note that Dani has the 'Grenadier Guards' on duty in her hive. I went round the other apiaries checking the wasp traps. Very few wasps in them but one very strong hive was ejecting a wasp. The 'Bouncers' were rather brutal!!!