Wasp catching jam jars

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Joined
May 30, 2011
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Location
Ewerby Thorpe, Lincolnshire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
Remebering the way my grandmother used to catch wasps, the old jam jar left dirty with some water added to about half way. Then a small hole punched in the lid. The wasps went in but couldn't get out and drown in the water.

Does anyone know if honey bees will do the same thing?

If I place these around my garden, I don't want all my bees in them
 
Works, no bees, add some apple and a grape or two!

R2
 
Thankfully apples come into season around the same time wasps seek sugar as their brood have finished and no longer get their sweet secretions.

If you have your own apple trees or ask your 'grocer' for appels 'gone over the top,' crush these near the hives, wasps if around will be on them in minuutes.

Crush them underfoot.
 
Thankfully apples come into season around the same time wasps seek sugar as their brood have finished and no longer get their sweet secretions.

If you have your own apple trees or ask your 'grocer' for appels 'gone over the top,' crush these near the hives, wasps if around will be on them in minuutes.

Crush them underfoot.
So a pile of crushed apples near a hive doesn't increase the wasp population in that area and therefore more likely to attack the hive
 
As region2. Old fruit juice, table spoon of vinegar, add a couple of grapes. That causes a mild fermentation, attracts wasps but bees stay well clear.
 
Remebering the way my grandmother used to catch wasps, the old jam jar left dirty with some water added to about half way. Then a small hole punched in the lid. The wasps went in but couldn't get out and drown in the water.

Does anyone know if honey bees will do the same thing?

No - they have trouble handling a sharp enough tool to make the hole
 
Brilliant JBM,

No, bees have no interest in sweet things like that.

Just pollen, nectar, muddy water.....

Dusty


Reuse a plastic pop bottle cut in top and bottom with top inverted and stuck in bottom..... add a splash of scrumpy and a dash of Vimto a bit of jam and one drop of washing up liquid ( Lemon) will satisfactorily drown the little waspie beasts..
bees will just fly by!
 
Word of caution however. Don't use honey as this WILL attract your bees.
Andy
 
medium.jpg
 
That's right, attract the wasps to close to your bees and not expect them to notice your hives. Great idea? I don'think so.
 
That's right, attract the wasps to close to your bees and not expect them to notice your hives. Great idea? I don'think so.

the problem is surely that they find and notice the hives anyway But prefere Fish flesh to being marauded by guard bees!?.
 
Lol, seriously though, I have tried the fish baited trap and it does get brill results

I guess it depends on what you mean by brill results.

The '(Red) Indian' wasp trap specifically targets wasps when they are in the hunting phase of their life cycle, i.e. when they are at their most beneficial helping to protect us from insect pests that damage our crops and harm us (biting and filth insects).

The design of the trap is also quite tragic because it fails to kill the initial scouting wasps and so causes swarm feeding (the escaping scouts recruit others from their nests) thereby unnecessarily killing thousands of wasps that would otherwise not be part of the problem.

Wasps during the hunting phase will only really be a problem to weak colonies or nucs that are not managed optimally. Reducing entrance size, use of glass/plastic in front of the entrance etc are much better and more ecologically responsible methods IMHO.

And in the end, if a colony does succumb to wasps during the hunting phase then the colony is likely to have an underlying problem (which could have a contagious component to it) so the wasps are probably doing a favour in improving overall bee fitness.
 
I have tried this with crab sticks/fish sticks, in two days I had approx 30mixed blow flies blue bottles flies and three wasps!!! a slight recipe adjustment next time, although the Wasp onslaught seems to have dwindled a bit.

That's because it's the wrong time of season in the wasp life cycle.

As for pop bottle traps then this video might be of interest;

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xllp6LCgFQ"]Wasp bottle trap showing escaping wasps - YouTube[/ame]

(Sorry for posting it again but it was originally posted under the artificial wasp nest thread so might have been missed by beeks having wasp problems).
 
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This year I got some orange fruit syrup and together with apple vinegar and add water to get qty of liquid.
I was surprised how many moths I got in them - including wax moths. Also hornets and wasps in abundance. So from now on I am leaving beer traps in favor of this one. Cause of reason of more efficacy in wax moth catching.. I don't know is that a reason, but I didn't saw bald brood or moth presence in the hives recently.
I was recently visiting some beekeeper and there were horror of bald brood and wax moths crawling. And I saw how I am blessed, but the main reason is I always try to have strong colonies which can deal with moths efficiently..
 

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