Wasps

[sharonh]

Worse year I ever saw for them, and still a lot around. How about everyone else, do you think this year has been worse than previous years?

 

[emman]

I've heard others say there have been lots of wasps around this year but haven't noticed them out and about in London or near the hives...

 

[enrico]

There was nothing until six weeks ago, now the worst in five years! Can't find the nests either!

 

[madasafish]

Bad but some years ago was a LOT worse..(but this year badgers have totally destroyed two wasp nests in our garden.)

 

[pargyle]

I've been lucky with my hive .. virtually no serious problems with wasps but I've been to the association apiary today and one hive was completely robbed out (previously a strong colony) and there were wasps inside just about every other hive ...fortunately the rest of the colonies seemed to be coping with the intruders and we saw more than one dead wasp being carried out of the hive by the undertakers ... and gave them a helping hand whenever a wasp landed !

 

[victor meldrew]

This is the second year now with very few wasps. I set traps at a little distance from hives plus one in the garden,mainly as a check ( wasp count) I see the odd wasp working the balsam ,I stress "the odd one "
VM

 

[oliver90owner]

Definitely a 'pussycat' year for wasps.

Beeks are the bees' worst enemy, in many cases, in the first place.any single or combination of too big entrances, weak colonies, feeding, putting wasp traps adjacent to the hives, etc. are all invitations for wasp attention.

RAB

 

[Cazza]

Worse year I ever saw for them, and still a lot around. How about everyone else, do you think this year has been worse than previous years?

No worse than most years here. Last year was an exception in terms of scarcity but still had a colony in our roof as usual.
Cazza

 

[Cazza]

Beeks are the bees' worst enemy, in many cases, in the first place.any single or combination of too big entrances, weak colonies, feeding, putting wasp traps adjacent to the hives, etc. are all invitations for wasp attention.

RAB

Rab is right.
Cazza

 

[sharonh]

I have found it really bad this year compared to last. At the moment, they are even aggressive. They persist & persist ,trying to get into the hive. Have entrance reduced, pane of glass, traps around the garden. Bees seem to be managing for now. Anyone know when the wasps die away?

 

[sandysman]

Certainly been more here but also an abundance of bumble bees both in number and variety and butterflies so its not been all bad.

 

[Tim.S]

None here for most of the year and then they seem to be all over. My hives are in amongst fruit trees and all the apples attract them from miles around. That said as long as the hives are strong it does not seem to be a problem. Only trouble I have had this year was with a weak nuc which was combined with the other hives. No point in moving it as my only other site has even more wasps.

 

[Karol]

Definitely a 'pussycat' year for wasps.

Beeks are the bees' worst enemy, in many cases, in the first place.any single or combination of too big entrances, weak colonies, feeding, putting wasp traps adjacent to the hives, etc. are all invitations for wasp attention.

RAB

If you had said putting low efficiency traps next to a hive then I would have agreed. However, that's not the case with high efficiency traps which work best when placed directly on top or immediately in front of hives. The problem comes when people can't distinguish between the two types of trap because low efficiency traps always look better than high efficiency traps.

 

[beesknee]

wasps

Worse year I ever saw for them, and still a lot around. How about everyone else, do you think this year has been worse than previous years?

very bad year for wasps here,destroyed 7 nests in 3 apiaries,wasps still in large numbers and very persistent at the hive entrance,on the plus side been a very good year for bumble bees and butterflies

 

[PBee]

I agree with oliver90owner. Prevention of robbing by other bees or wasps is all about hive management and maintaining correct colony structure. Wasp traps are an inefficient and unnecessary method, from a practical beekeeping point of view.

 

[oliver90owner]

If you had said putting low efficiency traps next to a hive then I would have agreed.

Hi karol,

Sorry, you are correct, of course. I was generalising and those beeks who make things worse would likely not differentiate between any particular wasp trap types.

Regards, RAB

 

[Walrus]

The only problem I had was with a small nuc - it got over run by wasps so I had to move it - the other colonies are strong and are not letting many in.

I have a couple of those high efficiency traps and they are catching a lot of wasps, much to my delight, plus I have destroyed 3 wasp nests which were close to my hives. It's true that they have a knack of spotting a weak colony and then piling in en masse.

 

[BILL.HEARD]

There was nothing until six weeks ago, now the worst in five years! Can't find the nests either!

As per my thread on the 3rd August, need some good killing frosts now.

 

[Roola]

I've heard others say there have been lots of wasps around this year but haven't noticed them out and about in London or near the hives...

Yep agree! We've got the smaller wasps but they are maybe 5 or 6 around floor below hive picking off dead bees, none attempting entrance although entrance is highly reduced and busy!

 

[Karol]

As per my thread on the 3rd August, need some good killing frosts now.

I really don't want to be a kill joy but you've probably still got another 6 to 8 weeks to go. Wasps aren't phased by frosts so long as day temperatures reach about 10°C. They start to perish from starvation when the last of the ivy stops flowering in November. What beeks need to be aware of is that as naturally occuring sweet foods start to diminish so wasps will 'concentrate' their efforts more on remaining food sources which means in effect your hives.

If you're lucky, the wasps might decide to do another progeny run in which case they may revert back to hunting mode to produce another round of queens and drones. If they do I imagine it'll be in the next week or so in which case they'll suddenly disappear again and probably not be seen until early November but I wouldn't bank on it. We've only seen this happen a couple of times in the past 13 years (interestingly on both occasions prior to very harsh winters).