Squishing wasps - a word of caution

[Karol]

I've recently been trying to help a bee keeper overcome a prolonged and relentless wasp attack on one of their hives.

IWM strategies don't seem to have helped as much as they should. Scratching deeper the bee keeper has been manually squashing wasps at the hive.

Squashing wasps is OK but not if it's done on the hive. When wasps are squished they emit a distress pheromone which then coats the hive / hive entrance. The distress pheromone will only serve to attract more wasps which respond to the alarm. If more wasps are then squished it sets up a vicious circle which rapidly becomes impossible to manage without taking drastic measures, i.e. relocating the bees into a fresh hive and then relocating the hive proper.

Distress pheromone overrides routine feeding behaviour and feeding stimuli and more importantly, wasps follow it 'nasally' rather than through communicated location/navigation which makes it very difficult to manage wasps when they get into such a 'frenzy' as opposed to feeding swarm.

 

[beebopalula]

Thanks for that - very useful information.

 

[enrico]

Which is probably why wasp traps work better when there are some wasps trapped in there!

 

[Skyhook]

Thanks for that - very useful information.

 

[Heather]

I have some bees going into jam wasp traps.. I thought they ignored jam..But traps also inches deep in wasps..I have the traps at the rear of the hives away from bee flight path but some bee deaths.
Shame about killing wasps but I am only getting the ones that are driving bees to distraction, they are ganging up on front of the hive...my bees health comes first.

 

[Sean.]

Heather - have you added some vinegar to the trap? As that keeps the bees out.

 

[Limousin Lass]

I have some bees going into jam wasp traps.. I thought they ignored jam..But traps also inches deep in wasps..I have the traps at the rear of the hives away from bee flight path but some bee deaths.
Shame about killing wasps but I am only getting the ones that are driving bees to distraction, they are ganging up on front of the hive...my bees health comes first.

Try smearing some Uddermint on the top of the hive. Puts wasps off the scent. Its good for arthritis as well.

 

[Karol]

Which is probably why wasp traps work better when there are some wasps trapped in there!

Interestingly wasps don't release distress pheromone during feeding otherwise they'd kill each other around the slightest morsel of food.

 

[lebouche]

Maybe during drowning they might feel slightly distressed?

 

[Karol]

Maybe during drowning they might feel slightly distressed?

In distress but not distressed! I have never seen any form of frenzy around drowing wasps and this makes sense in nature IMHO otherwise a drowning wasp would result in fellow wasps following suit!

 

[victor meldrew]

Wasps that I have squashed have been dissected and removed by other wasps poste-haste! At this time of year they cannibalise their own nests and each other as the protein supply diminishes!
VM

 

[Luminos]

Wasps that I have squashed have been dissected and removed by other wasps poste-haste! At this time of year they cannibalise their own nests and each other as the protein supply diminishes!
VM

That conjures up an image of one enormously fat remaining wasp at the end of the season...

 

[pargyle]

Try smearing some Uddermint on the top of the hive. Puts wasps off the scent. Its good for arthritis as well.

For those (Like me) that were wondering:

http://www.uddermint.com/UDDERMINT.com/Welcome.html

 

[Gimlet]

I wasn't too worried about the wasps around my hives when they were just nosing around and being chased off by the bees, sure they attacked and took off some of the weaker bees that landed short of the hive but it wasn't that many.
Then I watched as they started nipping into the hives when the entrances weren't too crowded with bees. I have periscope entrances formed by a sheet of extruded polystyrene placed against the entrance end. It forces the bees to drop 2" down to the bottom of the hive before they can enter and should make the entrance very defensible.
I stayed and watched for half an hour after I noticed two wasps go into one hive about 5 minutes apart and after 10 minutes one came out again and flew off unscathed.
They are not weak colonies so I decided I had to do something about the wasps, I know that some on here will criticize me for being cruel to wasps and destroying their nests but man has been controling the numbers of wild creatures in his environment for millennia and don't see this as any different.

I captured a wasp and tried superglueing a cotton thread to it to slow it down enough so that I could track it to it's nest. It took about 5 attempts to securely attach the thread without glueing up the wings in the process but since that success I've found 3 nests in my surrounding grounds, all in vole and mouse holes amongst the grass. A quick puff of ant powder down the hole sorts the nests out within an hour or so.
There are still a few wasps coming to the hives but the numbers are right down now and I haven't seen any going into the hives.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Gimlet if you're chased out of your home by an angry mob you'e welcome to a place at mine. I have thread but please bring superglue as it's always gummed up at my house.

 

[Mattl]

can you do this again and post pics please? what a great idea! More details please?

 

[Firefly]

For those (Like me) that were wondering:

http://www.uddermint.com/UDDERMINT.com/Welcome.html

"UDDERMINT® is particularly useful at calving time, where it helps the cow's own self-defence mechanism, whilst soothing and softening swollen udders"

Cows have toughened up since I used to work with them!!

 

[Luminos]

Well I wish I'd known about Uddermint last summer when a wasp stung me on the calf

 

[pargyle]

::

Well I wish I'd known about Uddermint last summer when a wasp stung me on the calf

Very good for this time of night and after two mega threads about nothing much !