Wasp Bane traps

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Karol

we had a underground nest last year in the grounds which was delt with by a contract company at a high cost to us. where could i get the powder they used if i find a nest to deal with?

Be very careful when it comes to treating nests. If you treat nests at the wrong time of year, at the wrong time of day, in the wrong way, you will INCREASE the number of nuisance wasps that may potentially attack your hives for honey. Unfortunately I have to go now but I will be back to explain in more detail.

Best wishes,

Karol
 
Great stuff Karol, thanks. Not yet converted me to the wonderful way of the wasp, but its fascinating none the less, and very useful
 
we had a underground nest last year in the grounds which was delt with by a contract company at a high cost to us. where could i get the powder they used if i find a nest to deal with?

OK , I'm back again so I'll try to finish off my previous posting.

Treating nests without forethought may actually increase the number or duration of nuisance wasps that may then attack hives for honey. I would like to clarify first what I mean by nuisance wasps. In my book, nuisance wasps are those worker wasps from a colony which has gone into decline after maturation with the release of its sexual progeny. Essentially, nuisance wasps are worker wasps that are scavenging for sweet liquids because there aren't any grubs left in the nest. These workers are technically 'on their way out' i.e. starting to starve from a lack of food.

Back to the explanation. Wasps are able to identify and recognize each other on sight and recognition is confirmed by active communication between wasps. This behaviour is critical to wasp survival, no more so than in the way that they protect their food and their nests. Considerable research work has been done in this field where sentry wasps have been mounted (glued) onto wooden pilums and their levels of aggression measured in response to recognition challenges. The heads of wasps from the sentries own nests' together with the heads of wasps from different colonies were presented to the sentries and the 'fight' response measured. In 100% of cases, the sentry wasps were able to identify foreign wasps.

If you have ever watched wasps returning to a nest, you might perhaps have noticed that they stay outside of the guarded entry point adopting a defensive, dancing flight before finally entering. Actually what is happening is that the returning wasps are waiting to be recognized and are waiting for confirmation from the sentries to be allowed into the nest. Without that grant or permission of entry the returning wasps won't enter the nest. Infact, if they tried to enter without permission the sentries would kill them. This sentry recognition and affirmation behaviour leads to a very interesting phenomenon when it comes to nest treatment. Invariably, when insecticides are used to treat a nest, the first wasps to suffer are the sentries. This results in the loss of the recognition and affirmation process for returning wasps which means that they don't (ever) enter the nest and are therefore not killed by the insecticide.

It also means that if the nest is in its growth phase, i.e. the worker wasps are getting their food from their grubs, that this food source will be denied to them essentially prematurely creating nuisance wasps that then need to find an alternative source of sweet food, e.g. honey from hives. At any one time there may be anywhere between 1,500 to 4,500 worker wasps outside of a nest at any one time with about 200 to 500 wasps in residence. Treating a nest at the wrong time of year may therefore cause rebound problems. After nest maturation, all nest treatment reduces nuisance wasp numbers. Similarily, treating nests first thing in the morning, i.e. just before first light, is more likely to be successful because it will catch all of the worker wasps when they're 'home'. Treating during the day is far less effective.

Anyway, if you decide to treat the nest yourself, this is something that you should consider.

Professionally (as a pharmacist), I have to warn you that wasps are hazardous and they pose a serious health risk (especially with the recent emergence of medical data regarding Kounis syndrome) and it is probably wiser to use the services of an external contractor. Just for the record we are not a pest control company and don't offer or provide pest control services. Our specialization is limited to our product (that I shan't mention), and the integrated management of wasps. Not only am I keen to help bee keepers protect their bees but more importantly as a healthcare professional, my principal concern is trying to prevent the estimated 1,000 to 1,400 people that may be dying from wasp stings each year.

Best wishes,

Karol
 
Karol

may i thank you so much for the advice you have given me about the wasps. Showing me that they are not really a problem unless i have made them a problem by my actions (which i have with the compost heap). now due to the fact that it in the school holiday from next week i will be able to go in and work on the compost and move it to deal with the wasps in the way you suggested by basicly turning it to get the fruit inside the heap.

I a seriously impressed with the knowledge you have about wasps and wondered how you became involved in the research of them? also how long have you been involved as the knowledge is so vast.

you should really consider in producing a book or booklet that maybe could be funded by the BBKA, Defra, or another gov dept for our benefit.

thank you again for your indepth insite to those smooth, yellow and black insects.

doug
 
Thanks Doug. I'm afraid my day job is all consuming at the moment so I'll have to defer the writing of the book to my retirement. It'll give me something to look forward to :0)

In answer to your other question, I became involved through serendipity. I would love to say more but I shall refrain because I don't want to breach any rules on the forum. What I can say is that my day job is medically scientific and that helped with the research that I've done into wasps, both it terms of researching literature (I think I've digested nearly 600 papers on wasps now) and in terms of physical research (which was far more interesting).

One of the things we did was research the impact of weather on wasp populations and our findings have turned the established wisdom on its head. So, for example, we know that long harsh winters increase wasp populations. We know that one of the major factors that affects wasp populations is the time of year that wasp nests mature. Interestingly, warm hot summers are bad for wasp populations.

Anyway, just to give readers of this forum a little heads up. Our prediction for this year was that we would have relatively high numbers of wasps (based on a (characteristically unusual) two phase reproductive cycle last year and a harsh winter to boot) and this seems to be coming to fruition. We are now receiving reports from around the country and northern Europe that wasp nests are starting to convert to sweet feeding. (In my own garden I've got Dolichovespula media (Euro) wasps pollinating my raspberry bushes.)

Given the elevated numbers of wasps being reported we are expecting increased pressure (competition) for food sources which means that we are expecting pressure on bee hives to be higher than normal this year. This is still dependant on weather and may yet change.

Anyway, we suggest that bee keepers consider increasing the frequency that they monitor their hives.

Best wishes,

Karol
 
Karol
I have to say that i am really enjoying your contribution to the forum,
I have learned a lot from your posts and would like to thank you for raising an understanding of wasp behaviour,This will help me to understand how to better deal with wasp attacks on my hives.
THANK YOU.
zubzub .:hurray:
 
wasps

Hi all,

Now I may be a little late with this info but I have been experimenting with this wasp attack on my hives.I found that when I made new entrance blocks the same as before, but adding gimp pins at 7mm c/c,across the entrance of the block, this seem to stop the problem ..:sifone:
 
Hi I've got a polystyrene hive with a entrance excluder on it but not sure on the right way to fit it? Anyone in the same situation or able to advise?
 
Hi all,

Now I may be a little late with this info but I have been experimenting with this wasp attack on my hives.I found that when I made new entrance blocks the same as before, but adding gimp pins at 7mm c/c,across the entrance of the block, this seem to stop the problem ..:sifone:

Touch wood that your solution continues to work.

Just one little note of caution though. Different species of wasp come in different sizes. The lesser vulgaris species is quite diddy, smaller than the average worker bee, but still very capable of mounting an effective attack. It will still pay for you to monitor your hive. It might be that your gimp pin arrangement is presently preventing larger varieties of wasp entering. These wasps will eventually give up and then possibly give ground to smaller vulgaris wasps (if you have them locally that is). Would hate for you to be lulled into a false sense of security. It will probably take several seasons to find out if your endeavours truly work. I would be concerned that what you might find in the long run is that you end up with more lesser vulgaris because they then out compete their rival bigger wasps so you might get a bit of a rebound in a few seasons time which might then be even harder to control. All hypothetical at this point because this depends on a host of other factors, not least the availability of other food sources that the wasps might be competing over.

:0(

The good news though, is that effective wasp management is not just a case of a 'single action'. It's about having an arsenal of techniques and knowing which one to employ at the right time in the right way.

:0)

Best wishes,

Karol
 
I am confused by one thing - when I am standing next to my hives virtually all the wasps are circling/scavenging all around both hives - they will check in front, underneath, around the sides of one then scoot across to the other and so on.

Are we saying that a wasp trap put in the vicinity of the hive will not attract these wasps, only new scouts?

I can understand how this theory works if wasps are (already) robbing a hive, but when they all seem to be scavenging around and entry attempts get rebuffed, I would have thought the traps are ideal?
 
wasps

Karol,:iagree:

very good point ,but I'm hoping the guard bees have a better chance of controlling the situation.
it still seems to be working !!!:sifone:
 
Karol, Thanks very much for posting the information. A fellow beekeeper told me over the 'phone (Thanks, Tony) to look at the foum and read - well worth it, thank you for your time and effort in posting.

If I had two wasps nests in a dark roof space (which I haven't) , would they attack each other if I either switched a light on or gave them some natural light?
 
Opened one of my hives today and about a dozen wasps flew out :(

Got myself some cheap £2.99 wasp traps from Aldis - already trapping the evil creatures :)
 
If I had two wasps nests in a dark roof space (which I haven't) , would they attack each other if I either switched a light on or gave them some natural light?

No!

20110525_144445.jpg


If i am wrong, i will eat my own boots :D

waspboot.jpg
 
Hi all,

Now I may be a little late with this info but I have been experimenting with this wasp attack on my hives.I found that when I made new entrance blocks the same as before, but adding gimp pins at 7mm c/c,across the entrance of the block, this seem to stop the problem ..:sifone:

I use just this sort of arrangement through the winter as a mouseguard :)
 
Hello
New to the forum (hi everyone). I have been having terrible problems with wasps with my new first ever hive. Watched a wasp biting one of the guard bees in half at the entrance tonight. I've put a DIY wasp catcher up and eliminated a close by wasp nest but after reading this thread I'm unsure if that was the right thing to do. Also tried the perspex idea and reducing the entrance which worked well at first but once the bees stopped flying about 8ish the wasps just wandered in pretty much unchallenged.
Is it true that if you move the frames closer to the entrance it will encourage the bees to defend better or will it just make robbing a quicker job for the wasps?
 
waspbane traps

We have of of these and I am not in the slightest bit convinced. No better than a beer trap.
 

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