To trap or not to trap

[ian wallace]

For the last few days I have seen a couple of wasps floating around

They don't look like they are trying to get in my hives, but I have seen them eating some dead bees

The bee farmer who taught me has told me to reduce the enterence to half inch

He also said if there becomes more of them to narrow the enterence to half that

I asked him about wasp traps.
He told me that they will only attract more wasps


So boys and girls can we have a vote

To trap or not to trap

 

[oliver90owner]

Trap by all means if it helps or makes you happy.

Wrt entrances: I reduce the entrances to less than half, dependent on the risk. Some are already only about 12mm wide, some 22mm and the Dartingtons 8mm.

If wasps become a severe 'bother' I usually find about 50 x 22 is defendable. If not, the colony is not strong enough and other responses are required.

Anyone with rigid, set ideas will likely catch a cold where wasps are concerned.

Regards, RAB

 

[darrenperrett]

I`ve got loads of wasps around my apiary.
The wasp traps in my apiary are full, the ones away are empty, so i assume they initially seek out the hives but then take the easy option and get stuck in my traps.

 

[Midland Beek]

Wasp traps attract wasps from miles around that wouldn't otherwise come to your apiary.

Every beehive in the UK has a wasp or two trying to get in.

WASP PARANOIA!!!!!!!

 

[Brosville]

Quietly observe your hive, and you'll find that wasps get similar treatment to Nick Griffin trying to get in to a Palace Garden Party - they either don't make it in the door, or if they do, they get kicked back out, often half-dead!

 

[Incatatus]

lol

 

[johnandyrob]

Wasps only fly 400 yards from their nests. When i had fondant on the hives they wouldn't stay away I took it off and left it close to the hives and they wouldn't leave it alone moved it 20 feet and they never touched it

 

[Rosti]

Wasps only fly 400 yards from their nests. When i had fondant on the hives they wouldn't stay away I took it off and left it close to the hives and they wouldn't leave it alone moved it 20 feet and they never touched it

So on that evidence, hives attract wasps and traps might get them first and stop them going back to call friends, but traps in their own right don't attract wasps? Midland?

 

[alex]

I'm not claiming to be an expert on wasps but as a fruit seller I've had opportunity to observe many of the blighters at close quarters over the years. As I understand it there are two scents to attract a wasp to a source - the food itself and also pheromones given off by happily-feeding wasps. I keep a live wasp trap away from the fruit display (plastic drink bottle with inverted lid, manky fruit inside) and more wasps are attracted to live wasps feeding in there, keeping them away from the customers. If they die in the trap immediately, the trap is regularly less attractive to other wasps than my tempting wares on offer and they bother the customers more! Following this logic, a wasp trap in your apiary would only attract more wasps than the hive itself would if you allowed them to survive in it and they could send out that extra 'here's the grub' scent. I keep an 'instant kill' wasp trap in the apiary and a live trap at the shop.