Wasp traps

[Walrus]

I have a nuc which is under severe wasp attack and whatever I do doesn't work. I have moved it, put a wasp trap at the old location & another one at the new location (same apiary) & have closed it up for a couple of days.

After I moved the nuc the wasps found it in about 2 minutes.

I think I'm going to have to take this one out of the apiary & try it in my back garden.....there is still a queen in there but bee numbers dropping and no eggs/brood.

The wasp traps are the waspb*ne type, advocated by Karol I believe.

I found/destroyed a nearby wasp nest but clearly there are plenty more in the area. At least they are only bothering this one nuc - the other colonies are strong enough to fight them off.

 

[Karol]

<snip>
So, I'm tempted to say "Wasps: Just live with them and ignore wasp-trap salesemen; <snip>

I have to say that I put up with a lot of flack on this forum despite taking great care to act within its rules. I sacrifice hours of my time for your collective benefit and trust me, the two or three dozen traps that I might sell each year to bee keepers isn't worth this kind of indignation.

"Wasps: Just live with them?"

Breath taking ignorance!

Per annum:

200,000 to 400,000 patients revert for medical attention at primary care level each year for wasp stings.

Any where up to 1,000 are hospitalised for severe medical complications including optic neuritis (blindness), Guillain Barre (paralysis and coma), kidney failure, compartment syndrome, severe life threatening infections necessitating surgery and amputation, thrombocytopenic purpura, life threatening occlusion of airways, anaphylaxis, etc, etc

Any where up to 1,000 hospitalised due to (miss diagnosed) Kounis syndrome wasp sting induced MI's.

As for fatalities, then no one knows but links between sudden death and Kounis are currently under investigation and if certain medical research extrapolates linearly then there is a suggestion that perhaps the number of miss diagnosed wasp sting fatalities may exceed 1000 per annum.

So yes, go live with wasps!

 

[Karol]

I have a nuc which is under severe wasp attack and whatever I do doesn't work. I have moved it, put a wasp trap at the old location & another one at the new location (same apiary) & have closed it up for a couple of days.

After I moved the nuc the wasps found it in about 2 minutes.

I think I'm going to have to take this one out of the apiary & try it in my back garden.....there is still a queen in there but bee numbers dropping and no eggs/brood.

The wasp traps are the waspb*ne type, advocated by Karol I believe.

I found/destroyed a nearby wasp nest but clearly there are plenty more in the area. At least they are only bothering this one nuc - the other colonies are strong enough to fight them off.

Have you been squashing wasps on any part of the hive?

 

[Walrus]

Have you been squashing wasps on any part of the hive?

I don't think so, but I may have done. If it is a squished wasp pheromone then would spraying the nuc with something scented be worth a shot, or does it need cleaning?

Thanks

 

[Karol]

I don't think so, but I may have done. If it is a squished wasp pheromone then would spraying the nuc with something scented be worth a shot, or does it need cleaning?

Thanks

Once it gets to the frenzy stage then it really is very difficult. If you have a spare empty hive I would be tempted to relocate the bees into it and move it a considerable distance and then mop up the wasps with a trap in the old location and use the second trap to protect the hive in the new location. There is the possible benefit that leaving the old hive (with the pheromone) might then continue to attract the wasps as a divertionary tactic?

I don't think using a scent will help. I think the pheromone has to be denatured chemically which will probably require a strong alkali and possibly a proteolase - possibly something like a solution of a dissolved dishwasher tablet.

I'll have to come back to you to see if another beekeeper has been successful in their attempts where they have definitely been squishing wasps on the hive landing platform.

 

[Gimlet]

Trapping or squashing wasps individually seems like a fairly innefficient way to control a wasp problem to me.

Around here due to the very dry period we've had there are lots of in ground wasp nests and locating these and treating them with cheap ant powder seems to me to be a much more efficient way to go.

As bee keepers most of us have some protective gear so if you add a cheap childs butterfly net to your equipement and catch a few of the wasps that are causing you problems you can super glue a length of thread or a small feather to them and release them. It should slow them down sufficiently to enable you to track them to their nests and then deal with them.

Even if the nest isn't on your property I don't think there are many people that would object to you destroying a nest on their property if you asked them.

I've just destroyed my forth nest this morning.

 

[domino]

The beehaus has a wasp guard, is that any more effective than reducing the entrance?

 

[Karol]

Trapping or squashing wasps individually seems like a fairly innefficient way to control a wasp problem to me.

Around here due to the very dry period we've had there are lots of in ground wasp nests and locating these and treating them with cheap ant powder seems to me to be a much more efficient way to go.

As bee keepers most of us have some protective gear so if you add a cheap childs butterfly net to your equipement and catch a few of the wasps that are causing you problems you can super glue a length of thread or a small feather to them and release them. It should slow them down sufficiently to enable you to track them to their nests and then deal with them.

Even if the nest isn't on your property I don't think there are many people that would object to you destroying a nest on their property if you asked them.

I've just destroyed my forth nest this morning.

Great, and if every beekeeper followed suit there would be piles of pesticide everywhere.

Any idea of what happens ecologically to this liberally dispersed pesticide powder?

It's one thing to treat nests that are hazardous within dwellings but treating nests outdoors when they're in the ground and no real threat is something else!

 

[sandysman]

In defense of Karol, we exchanged pm's a few days ago, he was good enough to give me some sound advice re the sighting of a wasp trap which he was extremely careful not to advertise on this sight. He also followed up with a thirty minute phone call to ensure I knew what I was doing and explaining some basic issues around wasp behavior. I have since sighted the said trap as suggested and the wasp issue has visibly diminished.
My money is on the expert.
Thanks for your help and advice Karol.
Andy

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

+1

 

[Gimlet]

Great, and if every beekeeper followed suit there would be piles of pesticide everywhere.

Any idea of what happens ecologically to this liberally dispersed pesticide powder?

Far from being liberally dispersed the amount of pesticide is very small and consentrated into less than a 2" area around the nest entrance hole. The powder itself contains 0.5% W/W Permethrin.

"Permethrin is both an insecticide and a repellent, so it both kills and repels ticks and mosquitoes. Permethrin is a pyrethroid. Pyrethroids are synthetic chemical insecticides that act in a similar manner to pyrethrins, which are derived from chrysanthemum flowers. Pyrethroids are widely used for controlling various insects and are commonly used in mosquito control programs to kill adult mosquitoes."

So compared to the use against mosquitoes my very conservative use, always well away from water courses, is highly unlikely to cause a problem.

I have been involved in agriculture all my life and always make sure I know the consequences of my actions.

 

[Karol]

Just to say I got a very happy e-mail back last night from the beekeeper in Monmouthshire to say that their very near terminal hive that was under relentless attack is now doing OK and as of last night was free from wasps which is a terrific result!

The hive has been significantly weakened so will need nursing but the bees now seem happy. Still waiting for clarification what if anything was used to denature the distress pheromone.

Will revert again in due course.

 

[Karol]

Have received confirmation that a solution of double strength Soda crystals (Sodium Carbonate) was used to wash the hive.

 

[Loubylou]

Please can you elaborate on the soda crystal method and how it is applied. I have a small colony (a nuc that was moved to a hive last week) that is being considerably weakened by constant wasp attack. I was planning to shut them up tonight and put out a 'highly efficient' wasp trap tomorrow and hopefully halt the invasion. Is there any evidence to suggest that wasp attack can put off the queen from laying? My Q has almost stopped.
Thanks.

 

[l2346]

Please can you elaborate on the soda crystal method and how it is applied. I have a small colony (a nuc that was moved to a hive last week) that is being considerably weakened by constant wasp attack. I was planning to shut them up tonight and put out a 'highly efficient' wasp trap tomorrow and hopefully halt the invasion. Is there any evidence to suggest that wasp attack can put off the queen from laying? My Q has almost stopped.
Thanks.

Hello Loubylou - beekeeper from Monmouthshire here! The soda crystals are just what are used for sterilizing a hive if blow torching isn't available. Washing soda crystals.. I made the solution up much stronger than instructions said, not sure if double or more - after all it was do or die for my bees. I just washed all the outside of the hive, mine is WBC - roof, bee escapes, lifts, landing board, porch, legs, in fact anything I could get at. Just used a washing up sponge with a scratchy green side. The hive looked quite wet by the end of it and the metal roof was a bit discoloured due to strength of solution. But it may be that the location I moved them to was relatively wasp free, so I would be a bit more cautious than Karol about whether washing the hive or moving the hive was the deciding factor.
By the way Karol, local wasps have found the new location, but nothing like on previous scale. Wasp trap now moved to new location, in front of hive and has caught half a dozen or so. Bees seem to be re-energised and fending off.

 

[Karol]

Hello Loubylou - beekeeper from Monmouthshire here! The soda crystals are just what are used for sterilizing a hive if blow torching isn't available. Washing soda crystals.. I made the solution up much stronger than instructions said, not sure if double or more - after all it was do or die for my bees. I just washed all the outside of the hive, mine is WBC - roof, bee escapes, lifts, landing board, porch, legs, in fact anything I could get at. Just used a washing up sponge with a scratchy green side. The hive looked quite wet by the end of it and the metal roof was a bit discoloured due to strength of solution. But it may be that the location I moved them to was relatively wasp free, so I would be a bit more cautious than Karol about whether washing the hive or moving the hive was the deciding factor.
By the way Karol, local wasps have found the new location, but nothing like on previous scale. Wasp trap now moved to new location, in front of hive and has caught half a dozen or so. Bees seem to be re-energised and fending off.

Welcome to the forum Lesley. Great to have you posting!

There is a heirarchy of escalating wasp attack, i.e. scouting to swarm programmed feeding to frenzy.

Frenzy is pheromone driven. The prior two are 'behaviourally' driven. Once a hive is subjected to 'frenzy' then washing the hive to remove the pheromone would not in any event be enough because the wasps would remember the location as well. So relocating the hive in your particular case was absolutely paramount. That said, if the hive were relocated without being cleaned I'm reasonably confident that the wasps in the local area would have been more agressively drawn to the hive and the hive would be under frenzy again by now. As it is, the hive is now back to attracting scouting wasps, i.e. the lowest rung in the wasp attack hierarchy. The trick will be to ensure that it doesn't escalate further which means intercepting and killing as many scouts as possible.

Anyway, (without wanting to tempt fate) I'm delighted that your bees appear to be regaining some of their vigour and I wish you and them well.

Kind regards,

Karol

 

[Easy Beesy]

Karol

Asked this before but haven't seen a reply. Sorry if I missed it. How do wasps communicate location to other wasps? Is it a 'follow me' thing or can they waggle dance too?

 

[Karol]

Karol

Asked this before but haven't seen a reply. Sorry if I missed it. How do wasps communicate location to other wasps? Is it a 'follow me' thing or can they waggle dance too?

Hi Easy Beesy,

I did post a reply previously;

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=357933&postcount=20

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Why so costly?

I went on line looking for a "High Efficiency Wasp-Trap" and the only one I found was consistently priced at over £25 each plus I found I'd need another cartridge when the trap is full and this was priced at £19. I could see £15 + £10 for a new cartridge but the quoted prices are very high - and the Lord said there shall come a great profit throughout the land.

What's inside this thing that makes it so expensive - it looks like two or three plastic mouldings stuck together. Is it that there's only one on the market and is priced accordingly? Roll on some competition!

CVB

 

[PBee]

.... scouting to swarm programmed feeding to frenzy.

......

I went on line looking for a "High Efficiency Wasp-Trap" ..........

Scouting is the desired effect?