How to make a wasp trap?

pinkteapot

We have a lovely sunny garden complete with lovely table to eat at... But every meal-time there are 2-3 wasps buzzing around the table.

I know you can get wasp traps which look to me like a jam jar with some orange juice in the bottom. Does anyone know the best way to make a wasp trap? It seems a bit pointless to pay for one when I assume they are relatively simple...

We have a handy tree about ten feet from the table that I can hang something from.

Pink.

Hi Pinkteapot,

I use a jam jar half filled with water mixed with a little jam (or anything else that is very high in sugar) with some more jam smeared around the inside of the jar. If you leave it outside the sweetness will attract them. They usually become trapped and drown in the water because they don't seem to have the sense to fly out again, although I have heard of others where the lid of the jar is kept on with a hole made in it just large enough for the wasp to crawl in. To suspend the jar from your tree just tie around it with string.

There is more advice on these threads on the Greenfingered board:

best sweet stuff for wasp traps?

Stopping Wasps

If you find you are getting an awful lot of wasps then you may have a nest nearby. This thread will tell you how best to deal with it:

wasps

Pink

Fruball

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wasp-Trap

Found this for you

lostinrates

Pink-winged wrote: »

I use a jam jar half filled with water mixed with a little jam (or anything else that is very high in sugar)

Jam is good, because bees are not attracted to jam in the same way as other things, like sugar water. syrup etc. So you don't kill any of our suffering bees with a jam wasp trap!:D

Fruball

Apparently vinegar attacts wasps but bees don't go for it at all so worth mixing some of that in with the jam or whatever you use.

I'd be mortified if I found a bee in there!

jpscloud

I was a bit alarmed at some of the "tips" in that article, Frugal - the yellow tape would encourage hoverflies (definitely not a nuisance in the garden) to investigate and possibly fall in. "This technique also works with other insects like bees" :eek: I'm speechless. Why would anyone want to kill bees? [Edit: just saw your second post ]

The basic design is fine, but I would definitely leave off the yellow tape and avoid anything bright yellow/blue in the construction so that you don't accidentally invite hoverflies to their deaths.

A bit of white wine or cider in water works very well - it shouldn't attract bees at all. Jam in water is ok too, I've never known that to attract bees or hoverflies either.

I wouldn't put raw meat in there - sweet things (and particularly alcohol) have a much higher chance of attracting the wasps at this time of year.

The nests are winding down about now, which means the larvae are becoming fewer and fewer. The adult wasps rely on the larvae for a sugary secretion which they live on throughout the life of the nest. As larva production slows, the adults get hungry and go looking for something to eat, hence their presence at your table.

Their unfortunate fate is to starve to death - that's why they get a bit aggressive in late summer. I'd normally get quite uptight about wanton killing of anything, but for wasps in late summer maybe drowning is a better fate than starvation - who knows? :cool:

Fruball

Agreed - I certainly wouldn't want to kill off anything other than wasps - the basic design and *some* of the advice is useful though.

jpscloud

Sorry Frugal, only saw your second post after I'd finished typing - and I agree, that design is very good

pinkteapot

Thanks all. Fingers crossed the warm weather continues after the wasps have disappeared. And next year I'll be better prepared. Hubby is really scared of wasps so he usually disappears indoors halfway through lunch. *sigh*

jpscloud

I understand how he feels - if I get stung I have a terrible reaction - not rush-to-hospital-worthy, but a very excessive and angry swelling that takes weeks to go away.

One more tip I forgot to mention - if you can suss out the wasps' flight path from their nest to your table, put the trap as close as possible to that flight path, so they don't have to go past you to get to it - if you're drinking wine or sweet soft drinks outside, they'd stop for that rather than go on to the trap.

Emm-in-a-pickle

I`ve used the plastic bottle traps for years - no need for tape. Just insert the cut-off tops upside down in the lower half of the bottle, heat a metal skewer or screwdriver on the hob and MELT a hole through both layes of plastic to put string through for hanging the trap. The string hold the layers together. I`ve never had a bee caught in my traps either.