Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: European wasps  (Read 7177 times)

Offline prestonpaul

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 254
  • Gender: Male
European wasps
« on: April 11, 2013, 11:32:07 pm »
I am having problems with European wasps in my apiary at the moment. Ther seems to be a couple hanging around every hive as well as around the rest of the property. They are making inspections difficult as they get right in there whenever you take the top off and I believe they are making the bees defensive and harder to work.
Does anyone have any experience or suggestions in dealing with this?
Ideally I would like to find the nest and put an end to it but I havn't had much luck so far. Are there traps available that get the wasps but not the bees?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Paul.

Offline Simon

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 72
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2013, 01:17:14 am »
Paul, a wasp trap might reduce their numbers a bit.  If you do a search of the forum about yellow jacket traps you will find that quite a few people have success using a suspended plastic bottle with some coke/pepsi, some vinegar to keep the bees out , and a saveloy in it.  There's a few variations on the quantities of the ingredients, but they definately love a bit of meat - saveloy, mince, wallaby legs... so with a suitable wasp poison or drowning agent added, you can get rid of a lot of wasps.  Some nice condiment added to the meat like the old derris dust, they might even take home with them to share with their mates.  One of the artificial sweeteners is pretty deadly on them too, Sevin I think, but someone here will know which one it is.

I have also seen artificial wasp nests that you can buy to place in your apiary to deter wasps from other nests from hanging around.  I don't know if that works, but could be worth a try.  If you find their nest, some two stroke fuel added after dark makes them pretty ill and I have heard that a clear plastic bottle jammed in their hive/burrow entrance will kill them too as if there is light still coming in, they fail to realise that they need to dig a new entrance before their air runs out.
Simon

Offline fshrgy99

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 203
Re: European wasps
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2013, 10:06:51 am »
My 'go to' for a wasp nest is a can of quick start. The ether knocks em down just like that. A squirt onto the nest finishes the job. Don't smoke and make sure your smoker isn't nearby.

Offline tefer2

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2318
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2013, 10:17:20 am »
I like the free badminton rackets I find at garage sales. They never seem to pass through the holes unless it's in little bitty pieces. Light weight and you can swing it fast.  :jerry:

Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13489
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2013, 01:13:12 pm »
I like the badminton rackets that you get from Harbor Freight. You know the ones with 2 D cell batteries. Zap,Zap.
 :-D
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline tefer2

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2318
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2013, 02:42:32 pm »
I had one from Harbor Freight, they don't last to long when you miss and bang it against a hive body. I've probably got a dozen garage sale units hanging on a nail close by the bees. Going price for used one runs about $.25.

Offline Geoff

  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Field Bee
  • ********
  • Posts: 918
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2013, 08:57:30 pm »
  They are are around here in Gippsland at the moment Paul.  I have used Simons cut down Coke bottle with suitable bait and they work well. Generally see them a lot earlier than this although I found a few nests nearby last year which were dispatched with appropriate MEDICATION so I may have got into the local population a bit.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2013, 09:24:21 pm by Geoff »
Local Area Network in Australia - the LAN down under.

Offline prestonpaul

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 254
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2013, 10:46:09 pm »
I put some traps out this morning, and had 4 wasps within an hour so it obviously works. I guess this time of year they are super buisy making next years queens so the higher activity is inevitable. Dosn't mean I have to like it though  :-D I will keep an eye out for the nests but there's lots of cracks in the ground at the moment due to the dry weather so it's not so easy. I plan to put out traps in early spring and try and catch some queens as they come out of hibernation.
Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming.
Cheers.
Paul.

Offline Simon

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 72
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2013, 02:01:25 am »
Every winter I get quite a few European Wasps that make their way inside on the firewood.  It's a wonder that the wasps haven't gotten even with me sometime on this "trip".  I have tried a variation on the badminton racket with a rolled up newspaper - rolled lenghtwise for some extra swing - and then aim them at a suitable hard surface  :evil:  I got stung really well a few years ago when a wasp hit me in the neck at about 70km/h and fell down my bike jacket.  My first mistake was thinking that it was a stone thrown up by a passing car ....then the little mongrel came too and punished me for not giving way  :shock:.  I had a large painful lump on my chest for a week and the mark remained for about three months.  Needless to say, I haven't forgiven them and I hold every European Wasp that I see personally responsible for my pain!  Is that prejudice or what?  :-D

Errr, back on the topic.  Ant-Rid mixed in with your wasp bait supposedly kills wasps pretty well and they will even carry their wounded back to their nest, presumably for food.  If you can get them to take the poison with them, you don't have to actually find the nest (or nests) and run the risk of getting a hammering from a defensive wasp nest.  Since Ant-Rid contains Boron (present as Borax), I don't see why standard supermarket variety Borax would't work just as well. It kills ants OK if you mix it with their food.
Simon

Offline rawfind

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 229
    • My Website
Re: European wasps
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2013, 10:30:59 am »
I am having problems with European wasps in my apiary at the moment. Ther seems to be a couple hanging around every hive as well as around the rest of the property. They are making inspections difficult as they get right in there whenever you take the top off and I believe t

I had a few hanging around earlier in the year they seemed to disappear, i was told that wasps usually  only travel about 100 meters from their nest, they eat meat i was tracking them down by placing meat under wire mesh so the birds couldn't get to it, then waiting for the wasps to feed and fly off, i was watching where they flew for as long as i could in order to find the nest, the plan was to move the meat
closer to where i lost sight till in theory id be close to their nest and find them, i ran out of time and never finished finding them, but i reckon it would help find them if you had the time, re Neil

Offline prestonpaul

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 254
  • Gender: Male
Re: European wasps
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2013, 08:10:44 pm »
Time is my main problem at the moment. Whenever I go out to the farm I have a million and one jobs to do so hunting wasp nests is not high on the priority list. I have put out traps made of soft drink bottles with water and some dog food in them, the wasps get in, but can't get out and eventually drown. It probably dosn't do much to reduce the population, but it makes me fell better  :-D
Next weekend I might try some dog food mixed with a little borax and see how that goes, just make the holes in the bottles bigger so the wasps can get out and take the borax home :evil:

 

anything