mk2 wasp traps blue peter version

[dexter's shed]

so put up a couple of homemade wasp traps in my woodland, good success on both wasps and hornets, but made a mk2 version, will give me something to do for the next few months

https://youtu.be/64eNPeHcXew

if you don't bother treating for wasps, or are against it, then there's really no point you watching the clip or replying, this is for those that do

 

[Hivemaker.]

will give me something to do for the next few months

Going to be busy then.

 

[dexter's shed]

Going to be busy then.

I own a lot of woodland, and hope to own a lot more hives, so yes,lol

 

[Millet]

I have 4 x bottle traps what I made my self and I also have a wasp bane what I bought.. I have caught very little in the wasp bane but i'm still catching load's in my home made free trap's..

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have 4 x bottle traps what I made my self and I also have a wasp bane what I bought.. I have caught very little in the wasp bane but i'm still catching load's in my home made free traps..

There's the thing.
It illustrates not that the home made traps are more enticing but that wasps escape to bring their friends.
I have caught a few in the waspbanes, some more than others but significantly there isn't a single wasp bothering the entrances.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

There's the thing.
It illustrates not that the home made traps are more enticing but that wasps escape to bring their friends.
I have caught a few in the waspbanes, some more than others but significantly there isn't a single wasp bothering the entrances.

 

[dexter's shed]

being a pest controller has it's good points, the waspbane fluid seems to keep falling out the back of my van, but wouldn't use their traps myself,

 

[Karol]

Hmmm! Sorry Dexter's Shed but the problem with recommending low efficiency traps is that they do cause problems for honey bees rather than alleviate them. This is why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xllp6LCgFQ

Just to put it into context. How many wasps still persisting on this chap's pears and how much of the crop has been damaged?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl83PwkNVpg

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

More duff advice eh? how to build wasp magnets, great!

 

[Torq]

The low efficiency traps seem to fail for several reasons. The traps are too small for the volume of wasps they trap. The entrances are too big and in the wrong position. Finally, and this is obvious in all the videos, the traps become useless when full of wasps.

So the solution is big volume, side entrances and regular emptying of traps. My traps are like this and while I've seen many wasps go in I've never seen one come out.

 

[dexter's shed]

More duff advice eh? how to build wasp magnets, great!

just your opinion fella, and I won't try belittling you on what I think of that....

 

[snelgrove]

couple of blobs of strawberry jam in water in a jar with a whole bashed in the lid works well. Wasps go in after jam and drown bees not attracted

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

couple of blobs of strawberry jam in water in a jar with a whole bashed in the lid works well. Wasps go in after jam and drown bees not attracted

So, what do you think of the first of Karol's videos in post 8?
The inefficiency of the trap allows enough scouts to escape to bring all their friends and family.

Exactly the same thing happens with your jam jar trap.

When people go on about how great their traps are, because they're full of wasps, they're fooling themselves. It's just the opposite.

[It reminds me of when I was young and smokers used to say that smoking was good for you because that first fag of the day made you cough up loads of muck and clear your lungs!]

My experience is the same as ericA's in post 5. I use Waspbane in two apiaries - one in an area with a wasp problem because of the number of pubs nearby. My traps, like hers, have few wasps - though those near the 'pubs' site have more - but I see very few wasps round the hives. That's because the scouts can't get out, can't report back to their friends - and my apiaries are in a sort of 'black hole' as fas as the wasp colonies are concerned.

I fail to see why people can't get this simple principle.

Dusty

 

[Curley]

I understand the difference between low efficiency traps and high (and though I have yet to see an escape from my home-made ones, I know I am not there all the time) , but I thought it was OK to position low efficiency ones (misgivings about massacring innocent wasps aside) at a distance from the hives to reduce the local population.

What is that distance? I have mine about 20 yards from the hive and it seems to have reduced the number of wasps around the hives markedly, but of course, there could be other factors. I know the ivy is coming out and that is an easier option for sweet seeking wasps but I noticed the improvement some weeks ago.

So in the right location could not Dexter's design could be useful ?

 

[Tremyfro]

I have my waspbanes at the right distance from my hives...the wind is always changing direction so I have them some distance from the hives at both ends of the fence line. They haven't caught many wasps. My Bee Yard has been inundated with wasps...they killed one nuc and predated on another....which they almost killed...I hope I saved it by combining with a stronger nuc. The wasps are still around all the hives. When I do an inspection...I see them in the hives too. The bees are doing their best to keep them out. It seems the smell of honey is greater than the attraction of the waspbanes!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

just your opinion fella, and I won't try belittling you on what I think of that....

Not my opinion butty but proven scientific fact, take some time and look at the wealth of information Karol has supplied for us - not just some home made stuff posted on yootoob, but in video form so you should be able to cope

 

[Karol]

I have my waspbanes at the right distance from my hives...

If your hives are inundated with wasps then the right distance is zero inches away from the hive entrance. It's critical to understand that these traps intercept wasps and therefore have to be within and slightly ahead of the scent plume emanating from the hive.

Traps have two levels of attraction - physical and communicable. A high efficiency trap has high physical attraction but zero communicable attraction. A low efficiency trap will likely have high physical attraction but importantly it will also have high communicable attraction which is bad as it attracts more wasps than it kills which simply raises the background population of wasps in the area you want to protect. It also means that it doesn't matter where you site a low efficiency trap it will always kill loads of wasps and you always get the same results.

Typically low efficiency wasp traps are sited to draw wasps away from hives and that's where some people become unstuck when they use high efficiency wasp traps in the same way. This is because at distance the scent plume from the hive will be wider and more dispersed than the scent plume from the trap so the trap can't intercept as many wasps. It has little to do with the hives being more attractive and more to do with physics of air movement (always assuming that the traps are baited up properly).

the wind is always changing direction

Another reason to have the traps at zero distance to the hive entrance

so I have them some distance from the hives at both ends of the fence line. They haven't caught many wasps.

Nor should they be expected to in such a situation. Try moving them literally so that they are directly in front of the hive entrances and just check that they have been baited up safely and properly.

My Bee Yard has been inundated with wasps...they killed one nuc and predated on another....which they almost killed...I hope I saved it by combining with a stronger nuc. The wasps are still around all the hives. When I do an inspection...I see them in the hives too. The bees are doing their best to keep them out. It seems the smell of honey is greater than the attraction of the waspbanes!

High efficiency traps are a tool to be used as a part of integrated wasp management. Just like any tool they can only be as effective as the person using them makes them. To give an analogy. Anyone can go and buy a trowel from a builders' merchant but should they then expect to automatically be able to build a wall? The interesting thing about high efficiency traps is that they can be used for static as well as dynamic trapping. Given that wasps are dynamic high efficiency traps provide another level of functionality that can't be achieved with low efficiency traps.

 

[dexter's shed]

it's great that someone has written a paper and given all this info out, but at the end of the day it boils down to two actions, do something or do nothing end off.

if hornets or wasps find your hives, they will continue to return whether you do anything, is down to the individual, the first year I spotted the hornets I did nothing, let nature get on with it, only the strongest survive, and coming into the new season I had only lost one hive, if the hornets/wasps had any effect on that hive I'll never know, it could have died from a multitude of reasons,
this year having more hives I saw a lot more hornets and wasps before adding traps and then only two traps on only one apiary (I have two areas in the woods)

traps with the wrong sized next may not work, but then that's down to the maker, rather than saying traps don't work

and having a full trap shows that they are catching, if they were not there, than the hornets/wasps would still be there in higher numbers, unless you find and remove the nest then eradication will never be possible, but you can dilute it, and by diluting a strong attack your giving a chance to a weaker hive

who knows for sure?? no one can, at apiaries that only get a visit once a week, some people feel doing something is better than doing nothing, at the end of the day, it does not matter how many papers have been written, it's down to the individual whether they do something or not, and whether that has any effect on the problem or not
there are many things in beekeeping that beeks will never agree on, and probably papers have been written on most of them too, yet people still do what goes against someone else's ideas.

I'll leave it at that, the keyboard warriors and trolls can continue to have their say on why it's a bad thing, they need to feel they have some use in life

 

[Millet]

There's the thing.
It illustrates not that the home made traps are more enticing but that wasps escape to bring their friends.
I have caught a few in the waspbanes, some more than others but significantly there isn't a single wasp bothering the entrances.

I have mentioned it before Erica that I only started trapping the wasp's once they started to gain entrance to my hive.. so basically they are already attracted to my hive with or without trap's of any kind.. I removed my 4 bottle trap's away from the hive after I seen a Red Admiral Butterfly in one of them.. I now have a Wasbane in place with very few wasp's in it but they are still bothering my hive.. luckily I followed Karol's advice and altered the entrance that can be guarded a lot better so the wasp's chewing themselves are finding it just about impossible to gain access .. on the bottle trap subject I have found that if they are regularly emptied most of the wasp's are drowned and i'm yet to see one escape.. but then again i'm not sat there 24/7.

 

[BeeJayBee]

.... and having a full trap shows that they are catching, if they were not there, than the hornets/wasps would still be there in higher numbers,

Using a full low-efficiency trap means that some wasps are getting out of the trap to fly back and tell the rest of the colony that there is food freely available, and where that food is.

If, during the course of the week when you don't visit your apiary, the trap becomes so full of dead wasps that others can't reach the bait food (jam?) then they will look elsewhere for something to eat. So using a low-efficiency trap means you are more than likely attracting wasps to your apiary rather than keeping them away.

As Dusty says, "When people go on about how great their traps are, because they're full of wasps, they're fooling themselves. It's just the opposite."

A high-efficiency trap will attract a scout or foraging wasp and keep it there, so it cannot go back to tell the rest of the colony about the food source.