Wasp Trap

[Poly Hive]

Cost £1-05, price of jar of raspberry conserve for bait.

38mm holes, 35mm pipe, 12 mm holes in pipe x 3, and two wedges from scrap wood.

Will post again on effectiveness.

PH

 

[acabee]

Nice one PH.
Is the advertising about softness an essential part of the decoy?

acabee

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Cost £1-05, price of jar of raspberry conserve for bait.

38mm holes, 35mm pipe, 12 mm holes in pipe x 3, and two wedges from scrap wood.

Will post again on effectiveness.

PH

Looks good - you didnt go for asda price conserve then?

 

[alldigging]

Looks good - you didnt go for asda price conserve then?

Do wasps not like cheap jam?

(Don't buy it any more as I make my own but I'd be loathe to let the wasps have it!)

 

[merylvingien]

Interesting approach, i would be interested to see how effective this is.

 

[blackcavebees]

Looks good PH, but I'm to frugal to put the whole jar in, a few spoonfuls mixed with water and a drop of fairy liquid to give them a slippery end does the trick

 

[Karol]

Looks good PH, but I'm to frugal to put the whole jar in, a few spoonfuls mixed with water and a drop of fairy liquid to give them a slippery end does the trick

Wasp abdomens are virtually hollow bar the last segment which bears the ovaries and stinger. This means that all wasps when they drown float which then creates a raft. At this point the fairly liquid is of little further value. It will however mean you'll get another load of dishes washed if you save it :0)

There are two elements to a trap. Effectiveness and efficiency. They are not the same. Efficiency is a measure of how good a trap is at killing the wasps that it catches. Effectiveness is how good the trap is at eliminating or reducing the problem. Effectiveness is not about how many wasps a trap catches. If anything, a highly effective trap (and there is no such thing) would in theory only catch a few wasps.

Regards,

Karol

 

[gavin]

I beg to differ. These traps have a drop of washing up liquid and a small glug of vinegar as well as a sugary solution. Jam not needed. Holes are pencil sized. The band of duct tape helps stop the wasps escape by directing them upwards from where they fall into the solution. Efficiency rate is very high and the wasps become submerged and can form quite thick layers.

The vinegar certainly helps but they still work without the dark band. I used to use bottles with inverted tops but these tend to act as rain guages and are not as effective anyway.

 

[gavin]

Another photo to gladden the heart of anyone who has watched a colony be swamped by wasps. The one beside these traps survived, just.

Two knicks with a Stanley blade to make the holes. Traps can easily be emptied in the grass and refilled.

 

[HelenHP16]

Apologies if this is a dumb question but would the bees not be attracted to the jam as well......

H

 

[gavin]

I've tried these bottle traps with and without jam and it doesn't seem to make any difference to either wasps or bees. The traps fill with maybe 98% wasps and 2% bluebottles and similar flies. Despite them sitting on and alongside active colonies I've never see a bee in one.

 

[HelenHP16]

Clever bees
I spotted a wasp lurking this morning so it's off to find an old washing up bottle and some stickback plastic to construct my own wasp trap.

 

[coffin dodger]

Plastic bottle, free
Plastic pipe, free
12mm drill bit, £5.99
Hole cutter, £12.99
Replacement battery for cordless drill, £67.80
Having fingers sewn back on in A&E, Priceless

CD

 

[For want of a better word]

Apologies if this is a dumb question but would the bees not be attracted to the jam as well......

H

apparently not

damson chutney seems to work quite well too

 

[user 382]

Apologies if this is a dumb question but would the bees not be attracted to the jam as well......
H

It's not a dumb question, but no, the bees aren't attracted to the jam, or most other sweet things you could use (with the exception of honey!).


A similar sort of cheap diy wasp trap can be found here.

They do fill up quickly so need checking regularly; otherwise you've just introduced an additional attraction for the little beggars.

 

[Karol]

It's not a dumb question, but no, the bees aren't attracted to the jam, or most other sweet things you could use (with the exception of honey!).


A similar sort of cheap diy wasp trap can be found here.

They do fill up quickly so need checking regularly; otherwise you've just introduced an additional attraction for the little beggars.

If you understand wasp feeding behaviour then you'll understand why these wasp traps fill up so quickly and why they cause problems instead of resolve them.

 

[Luminos]

I trapped two wasps today - under my hive tool