Wasps

[Cazza]

It's the time of year for the wasp threads to start so for beginners:

Wasps can devastate weak hives very quickly. Keep an eye out for them, look at the entrance daily to see if they can gain access.

I will reduce my entrance size from full width by popping the entrance block in at this time of year.

The best way to keep the wasps out is to be very, very careful when you inspect, try to be as quick as possible. Try not to drip any honey and if you are using any syrup, do not drip any.

Some people will use wasp traps. I don't. If you must, make sure they are high efficiency ones, home made jam traps are more of on attractant than a deterrent.

If your hive comes under attack, reduce the entrance size to one cm (foam does this very nicely), you can also place a glass or clear plastic barrier over the entrance. Your bees will work this out, wasps find it tricky.

If nothing works and it's not too late, move the hive to an out apiary.

I have lost one hive in 20 years, mostly by being very careful. The lost hive went because I was away. I used to slaughter the wasps but have given up doing this as I now believe they are fantastically useful creatures. (Thanks to Karol)

Cazza

 

[Erichalfbee]

Moving the hive away to an out apiary may not be necessary. Wasps are very specific in their target. Move the hive two feet and put a high efficiency trap exactly where the entrance was.

 

[Jimy Dee]

Can you give examples of high efficiency traps please? Know nothing about them.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

WaspBane is the one to which most people commonly refer.

I'm sure there are others. It would be good to have comparators.

Dusty

 

[Blue Spinnaker]

Thanks Cazza/Eric. I too would like to know more about high efficiency traps

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thanks Cazza/Eric. I too would like to know more about high efficiency traps

http://www.waspbane.com/

 

[sean-a]

I have a small nuc in the garden which I have just introduced a new queen to.
It was surrounded yesterday by a cloud of wasps.

I have a small hive without a queen and was advised to add the queen to a much weaker nuc - just about a frame and a half of bees.

Should I move the nuc to a new location for a couple of weeks to let the queen establish?

 

[SireeDubs]

sean-a
I'm sure some of the more experienced beeks will answer your queen questions, but on the wasps subject, I can help...

A cloud of wasps sounds pretty bad. Have you actually seen them getting in? With a small/weak colony, they often do and then will just bring their mates on the next visit (hence the cloud - word's got out in the wasp community).

There are a couple of things you should consider... Ensure your entrance block is in on the hive and reduce entrance on nuc, possibly to one bee space as this makes it easier for the bees to defend. This should be fine as long as you have an open mesh floor, otherwise be careful that they don't overheat.

Invest in a high efficiency trap like Waspbane. Don't muck about with home made traps etc, they're more trouble as they allow wasps out sometimes, as well as in. Follow instructions and they're good.

However, if it really is a cloud of wasps, they'll be back today, and tomorrow etc. Move your colonies to a different site (over 3miles pref) and perhaps set a high efficiency trap there, so any new scouts will be trapped before they have a chance to alert the new local wasp population. I would say this is the preferred option.

Is your queen mated? The more experienced will comment perhaps on wisdom of moving if she's not mated - could cause problems.

Good luck. They really are insistent once they've found a source of food though...

T

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sean, you don't have to move the nuc 3 miles. Who's to say there aren't wasps there. Just a few feet should do it and you MUST then put a high efficiency trap in place of the hive.

Karol has kindly put up lots of information on the wasp bane site.

 

[sean-a]

Thanks Many thanks - I have ordered a Waspbane
I have a home made one which must have 40 or 50 of them swimming in a sugar syrup
Made up from a plastic bottle with the top third cut off and inverted ....it is pretty effective, but there are still more of the wasps coming so its not getting all of them.
No bees in the trap at all.

 

[Torq]

Made up from a plastic bottle with the top third cut off and inverted ....it is pretty effective, but there are still more of the wasps coming so its not getting all of them.

The mistake we all make with these plastic bottle traps is the entrance. We take the top off the bottle and throw it away when what we should be doing is drilling a hole in it just big enough for the wasp to get in. This makes it more difficult (but not impossible) for them to get out.

This year in conjunction with the wasp attractant lidl was selling a few weeks ago, I'm trying these traps.

 

[pargyle]

I bought a small plastic funel from my local home brew shop (it was the smallest of a set of three). I left the PET bottle intact but drilled a hole in a cork that fitted the neck of the bottle, the small funnel went into the hole in the cork and right through to sit so that the bottom end of the funnel was well inside the bottle. The wasps got in to the trap (some syrup to about a third of the way up) but none of them seemed to be able to master the art of getting out - I think it was the way their wings slide through easily in one direction but catch as they try to get back up the bottom of the funnel.

We had a real wasp problem in the garden last year and this trap put out once we started eating outside diverted them all away from us. If you are feeling kind you can let them out by uncorking the top once they have been diverted from the food source. Not tried it with my hive(s) as not had a problem with wasps yet.

 

[joctcl]

Oh that sounds clever what will you attract them them in with?

 

[pargyle]

Oh that sounds clever what will you attract them them in with?

Last year I just used a bit of sugar syrup but it was well away from my bees ... wasps are attracted to anything sweet. The conventional home made trap usually has a soap solution in with the sugar so that the wasps wings get coated and they can't fly and drown in it ... Last year, as there was no threat to my bees, just our barbecues, I had only a small amount of thick syrup in the bottom of the bottle and when I took the cork out most of them escaped alive ... there were a few casualties - overdosed on sugar I would think !

There are some commercially available attrractants and some home made potions .. most of them are either sugar in some form or protein (basically rotting meat essence !) The latter does pong a bit ...

 

[madasafish]

I add soft fruit to the syrup: rasps are ideal. It rots and attracts wasps..

 

[itma]

It's the time of year for the wasp threads to start so for beginners:

Wasps can devastate weak hives very quickly. Keep an eye out for them, look at the entrance daily to see if they can gain access.

I will reduce my entrance size from full width by popping the entrance block in at this time of year.

The best way to keep the wasps out is to be very, very careful when you inspect, try to be as quick as possible. Try not to drip any honey and if you are using any syrup, do not drip any.

Some people will use wasp traps. I don't. …

If your hive comes under attack, reduce the entrance size to one cm (foam does this very nicely), you can also place a glass or clear plastic barrier over the entrance. Your bees will work this out, wasps find it tricky.

If nothing works and it's not too late, move the hive to an out apiary.

I have lost one hive in 20 years, mostly by being very careful. The lost hive went because I was away. …

To return the thread to Cazza's original points.

1/ Reduce the entrance size with the block (if you haven't already).
2/ Be prepared to reduce the passageway right down to a single bee-way if necessary (and it may well be on nucs or weak hives). Scraps of foam (washing up sponges?)pushed in with the hive tool are the easy way of doing that.
3/ When inspecting, be hygienic and quick. If you are taking off supers to inspect the brood box, then TOP your stack of removed supers with the coverboard (and incidentally cover any holes). Don't attract wasps by your actions! (… or inactions … )
4/ If the problem gets really bad, (it needn't) then moving the hives to an out-apiary might be called for.

And wasp traps are an optional addition to your control techniques - NOT the first thing you should think about.

 

[Cazza]

Thanks Itma. it had turned into a slaughter fest which wasn't the point!
Cazza

 

[Teemore]

How common is it for a wasp nest to persist on the same site for a number of years?

 

[Karol]

How common is it for a wasp nest to persist on the same site for a number of years?

Interesting question Teemore albeit a tad ambiguous.

In the UK wasp colonies only survive for one season. Wasp nests however can survive for decades after their wasps have died out. Because there are comparatively few suitable nesting sites for wasps successive colonies are often founded in the immediate vicinity of old empty nests. The old empty nests are not reused by wasps but new colonies do frequently intrude upon them giving the appearance that the old nest is being re-used.

 

[Teemore]

G'day Karol - hoped you might respond to this. I ask the question as whilst waiting for my train home from work in the evenings, I have been watching a colony of wasps grow more active over the past few weeks. They occupy the same spot as a colony I watched last year. The main reason I watched them was that people standing on the platform opposite were oblivious to them except the odd time when someone stood directly in their flight path to and from the next site....
The nest is on a bank under some dense cotoneaster and is identifiable by the "hole" in the foliage that has developed. The colony was active very late in 2013 but it is only recently that traffic has become obvious in 2014. I had wondered whether this might be re-colonisation or something else.