Yellow-Jacket
It’s hard to imagine with snow, ice storms, flooding and now near 0 temperatures that yellow jacket problems were recently a hot topic of discussion at the monthly meeting. I was asked to write an article on yellow jacket traps and while the timing could be better, perhaps it will be of help come next fall.
During most of the spring and summer adult yellow jackets feed on meet usually from insects and sugar. The sugar is obtained from nectar and also from their young who secrete a sugary substance.
During this time they rarely bother humans or bees. In fact they can be of benefit because they can eliminate pests in the garden. However, later in the season they stop rearing young and nectar sources become scarce. They stop foraging for meat and seem obsessed with anything sweet gathering at picnics, garbage cans, rotten fruit, and bee hives. With the mild weather we had this past fall the yellow jackets were even more a problem than in past years.
Trapping yellow jackets is effective way to reduce or eliminate the problem. If you usually have yellow jacket problems in the fall you may consider trapping well before fall to head off the problem. In fact traps set in early spring may catch emerging queens eliminating a whole colony which may have grown to 500 or more yellow jackets by fall.
There are many commercial traps available on the market. All operate pretty much the same way. They consist of a container with tube or cone entrances the yellow jackets easily find when going in, but have a hard time finding when exiting, bait to attract the yellow jackets and liquid to trap them.
Homemade traps are simple and cheap to make and can be just as effective as commercial traps.
One-Bottle
This homemade trap using the bottle top to provide a funnel like entrance. Some shelter may be needed to prevent it from filling with rain water.
YJ Two Bottle
Two bottles are used here to make a funnel trap as above and provides a simple way to hang the bottle from a string attached to the top.
Of course the trap will do little without bait to attract the yellow jackets. Some commercial traps use a bait containing pheromones but it isn’t necessary to get good results with our homemade traps.
Any fruit juice, sugar syrup in the trap or jam or jelly smeared inside the trap will do. In early spring thru mid summer proteins are highly desirable. Fresh fish, ham or turkey work well but should be fresh as yellow jackets do not like spoiled meat.
Various other recipes for bait also sometimes include various combinations of syrup, banana peals, sliced apples and other fruit. If you find a recipe that works better than the others let us know.
And finally, the bottom of the trap should have an inch or two of water (if it doesn’t already contain syrup) with a few drops of soap to break the surface tension and permanently trap the yellow jackets inside.
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i like the home made trap idea looks very simple , what about using beer to attract them they always try to get into mine during the summer months
Beer… certainly it is possible
Apple juice works GREAT!
A better bait than syrup or fruit is, believe it or not, Mountain Dew. At the company I use to work for, Mountain Dew was poured into the bottom of the (store purchased)traps like the one pictured above. Each day the traps had to be emptied because of the massive amounts of yellow jackets trapped. The company is a food manufacturing facility so chemicals could not be used. I was interested in this because I am highly allergic to stings from any type bee. Just thought you would like to know.
Surprisingly! I will necessarily try.
Many thanks for council!
If you use fruit juice or some other liquid as bait, do you add soap to the juice?
No, only pure juice