Wasps, wasps and then a few more

[David P]

Have lost one of my colonies to wasps. When opened up this evening I was met by the sight of a box full of wasps, if I had to guess at numbers it would be well in excess of 500. I had reduced the entrance down to about an inch but still they succumbed. This colony had recently lost its queen and it looks like this weakened it too much.
Will be checking my other hives on a different site tomorrow.


David

 

[Frisbee]

The wasps have been a nightmare this year, my sympathies to you, I've had a similar thing.

Frisbee

 

[Somerford]

one of the TBH our association runs was completely robbed and killed - it was a nuc

 

[Rosti]

Sorry to hear your news David, the jaspers do seem to have had a good year of it with wide spread reported problems. R

 

[Haughton Honey]

Likewise, I lost a colony a few days ago - it's really very depressing when you find a pile of dead bees and wasps on the floor of the hive and absolutely no stores whatsover. I will now always combine weaker colonies/nucs during late July/early August to avoid this problem again but do feel that many of us have been caught out by a 'good wasp year'.

Cris

 

[MJBee]

Been a "good" year for hornets too I've got a nest in a disused chimney that I will just have to put up with cos I don't fancy trying to deal with hundreds of very angry hornets 40ft up a ladder!! That nest will get the chop during the winter and that chimney will be covered with mesh
Mike.

 

[victor meldrew]

I've had thousands of wasps in my traps; but thus far none of my hives have been attacked although one is queenless I discovered .
A couple of days of wet weather combined with a sudden drop in temperature has seen a likewise drop in activity on the wasp front . Up until now ,the wasps have been working the balsam long after the bees have retired for the day . Tonight whilst walking the dog , I saw only the odd wasp on the balsam plus the bees from one particularly industrous hive of mine ! Incidently there was a lot of activity around this hive approx 3.30pm. lots of buzzing , landing board covered in bees(some fanning), drones running around. I got the impression that a virgin was out on a mating flight although I saw no signs of a supercedure a week ago .. I had a good look around for a swarm, saw nothing , I don't expect a drop in numbers when I next inspect . Out of the shelter of my apiary it was blowing a hoolie, so any swarm should have pitched in the immediate vicinity!

John Wilkinson

 

[oliver90owner]

I have noticed orientation flight periods have been really erratic recently. It's probably the weather to blame. 16:00 a few days before, and 12:00 on Thursday(?).

Such crazy activity made me think that one hive was robbing out the next, but all was OK and they all settled down to normal in less than 1/2 an hour.

Regards, RAB

 

[East Yorks New Bee]

Didn't think there was many wasps around the hives at my allotment,this trap was only down two days.Better in here than in the hives

 

[Frisbee]

Didn't think there was many wasps around the hives at my allotment,this trap was only down two days.Better in here than in the hives

You're lucky then, I was empying 8 like that a day for a week or more

Frisbee

 

[victor meldrew]

Didn't think there was many wasps around the hives at my allotment,this trap was only down two days.Better in here than in the hives

I see you must have got[sorry gotten] the attractant right, no bees in there.

John Wilkinson

 

[Hawklord]

Didn't think there was many wasps around the hives at my allotment,this trap was only down two days.Better in here than in the hives

What's the recipe Dave?

 

[jbr]

I used Tesco's Value beer and water (half and half) with 2 tablespoons of vineger. Wasps = loads, bees = none.

 

[East Yorks New Bee]

1 to 1 sugar/water syrup mix and an equal amount of Morrisons "The Best" cloudy lemonade.No expense spared on the wasps (just what I happened to have up at the allotment, it was either the lemonade or dandelion and burdock)The wasps seem to love it.

 

[Onge]

Just a spoon of jam in some water.

Works fine so far.

 

[aseeryl]

Minor point maybe. I've noticed more wasps are trapped in 1/2 litre pop bottles than 3 litre ones containing the same mixture. Could the smells be more concentrated? Anyone else noticed this.

 

[Rosti]

Not up to Frisbee standards but the poor victims at the Harewood Hillclimb today were operating an alternative wasp trap. They called it the sugar at the coffee stand, the jaspers rose as one when anyone approached, a lot of forced dieting took place! I renewed my traps this morning and all 3 are half full in a day, where are they coming from and what makes this year so ideal for them?

Aseerly: not noticed any diff between my 1/2 ltr and 2 ltr variants, they are both working I'm pleased to say

 

[oliver90owner]

I think the difference is the start of the season. If the hibernated queens can successfully get the colony going early on, we are in trouble later on. If the weather turns foul while they are single handedly(?) looking after the nest, an awful lot of them will fail and we are spared such problems as this year. It is probably a good year for the bumbles as well.

Regards, RAB

 

[Frisbee]

Not up to Frisbee standards but the poor victims at the Harewood Hillclimb today were operating an alternative wasp trap. They called it the sugar at the coffee stand, the jaspers rose as one when anyone approached, a lot of forced dieting took place! I renewed my traps this morning and all 3 are half full in a day, where are they coming from and what makes this year so ideal for them?

Aseerly: not noticed any diff between my 1/2 ltr and 2 ltr variants, they are both working I'm pleased to say

I just love the word jaspers................well done Rosti.

When I went to pick my apples for pressing on Friday there were lots there too, many fallen apples were just shells of skin..........I had to pick them up first before we could shake the tree, course there were then zillions of the jaspers )) milling around, some of the shaken apples fell on the drive and split, they got filled with wasps, I've never seen anything like it before, I left them a few

I seem to be slightly topside of them now at the hives. In desperation I used syrup as that was all I had, no bees in the traps I'm pleased to say. Once they'd robbed the super they weren't interested in a jam mix or apple juice either as I tried that when I wasn't so desperate.

Frisbee

 

[MJBee]

As a follow on to oliver90owner's post - I refresh my traps and put them out early in the spring - even a few queen wasps or queen hornets trapped then mean many hundreds less bothering the hives in August.
Mike