Here we go again "yellow jackets"

[shemer]

The trap I purchased is non toxic and just has an attractant you place in the water.  Boy, oh boy it worked so great.  I am actually going to purchase a few more this week.

ОК thank you! And what`s that called? i mean an attractant.

[tlynn]

We had them everywhere when I was growing up.  My dad would take a coke bottle and fill it with gasoline and go to the nest at night and shove the bottle into the hole.  Next day no fuzzy yellow things circling around anymore, which was nice because I was the one who always got stung!

[shemer]

We had them everywhere when I was growing up.  My dad would take a coke bottle and fill it with gasoline and go to the nest at night and shove the bottle into the hole.  Next day no fuzzy yellow things circling around anymore, which was nice because I was the one who always got stung!

well my problem is I don`t have a qlue where they set up the nest

[Brian D. Bray]

Got a swarm call today from a local firefighter, got my name off the forum by googling beekeepers in Anacortes.  He wanted to know how to get rid of a yellow jacket nest.  It is 12 feed up on a rafter in his barn.  He said it was the size of a basketball and the YJ's took after him as soon as he opened the bard door.
I advised him to take a cloth sack or pillow case and climb up and fit the sack around the next then cut it lose from the rafter.  The take the whole thing, nest YJ's and sack and burn it.  Doint it at dusk would get most of the YJ's.  Best way to get rid of a hanging paper nest I know of.  Since He's a firefighter he just might get a call someday to use the same trick again.

[shemer]

I advised him to take a cloth sack or pillow case and climb up and fit the sack around

I sure hope he won`t forget to dress properly. Fire fighters protective clothing could have come handy.

[annette]

The trap I purchased is non toxic and just has an attractant you place in the water.  Boy, oh boy it worked so great.  I am actually going to purchase a few more this week.

ОК thank you! And what`s that called? i mean an attractant.

a little plastic tube that came with the trap. It was sold separately also and was called "Yellow Jacket Attractant". That is all the info I have about it. Don't know what it is, but it smelled very strong.  And by the way, the trap is totally filled up with the yellowjackets. Hardly any flying around my hives.

And it is non toxic, they are attracted to the stuff, they fly in the trap and cant get out and they drown in water.

[Dane Bramage]

I read a researcher in CA found that Frontline dog & cat flea killer (1-2 drops to a can of cat food or tuna) will kill the nest by the foragers taking baited meat back to the nest where they feed the brood. I tried the method a year & half ago and I have not had a yellow Jacket problem since.

Now that is the kind of solution I've been looking for.  I'll give it a shot.

[sc-bee]

Like the flea killer hint' Have a neighbor that called me yesterday about a YJ problem. I will relay the hint'

As far as traps bait them with meat. a skewer through a piece of bacon or Bologna suspended in the two liter Bootle over water with a little dish detergent. The dish detergent keeps the YJ from dipping in the water and getting out. But only a temporary fix.

Finding the nest: as kids we would hang a piece of raw fish in a tree and when they cut a piece off trail them back to the nest as they fly. As in bee lining it may take several attempts to narrow down area.

Or catch the sun right and you will see a steam leaving the ground just like seeing your honeybees in the sunshine when leaving the hive. We always looked at the head of the yellow jacket (thorax). If solid black it was in a swamp or thicket or azalea bushes etc. If it had markings like this (ll), the nest is in a field or located in a bank or hillside. Different type of YJ and nesting behavior. WE just called them hill, field, swamp and thicket YJ's. We have very few of the above ground builders in my area.

We then used a railroad/ highway flare to put them to sleep and dig up the nest. Why??? Great bluegill bait :-D

[RayMarler]

OK, here's my story.
Lots of YJ's policing the ground in front of the hives. Tried Frontline in tuna, no go. So I tried the tuna by itself, no go. Tried bologna, no go. Tried some cooked pork fat, hey, they like that more than the weak bees on the ground!

Took me a small water bottle, cut off the top at the shoulder of the bottle. This makes the top be a funnel. I invert this funnel into the now topless bottle, creating a funnel pointing down into the bottle. I put in some pork fat, cooked (trims off the sirloin I BBQ'd the other night  :-D ). Added some gravels out of the driveway for weight. Set bottle in yard. Watched it collect 15 or so YJ's in an hour or so. Went out and shook the bottle so it damaged all the YJ's so they had no way to get out and set back on ground. This is working great. Made me up a couple more of these traps and set them out.

[Natalie]

May have to try this idea, I saw a yellow jacket sitting on the fence post eating the head of one of my honeybees the other day.

[Bee-Bop]

Ray;

Your bottle trap works good.

A hint if I may;
If you have one, a easy & fast way to attach the top & bottom is use your desk paper stapler, 4-5 staples bingo.

Bee-Bop

[Tucker1]

Hi Annette:  I had a heck of a time with hornets this year.  I tried the idea of poisoning the hornets using cat food with dog tick medicine. (Making sure the poison was out of reach by cats, dogs, etc.). That worked. The hornets really liked the cat food.  I tried traps and that worked somewhat.  In fact the traps would fill up with hornets in a very short period of time. (Perhaps, I needed more traps. I had only three.)  Still the hornets kept coming back in large numbers. So, for the next few days, I stood by the hive for about 20 min. at a time, with a fly swatter. I would do this 3 times a day.  I ended up killing alot of hornets. To bring the hornets into the area of the hive quicker, I would partially remove the top cover. The smell from the open hive seem to attract them quickly.

Eventually, I got the situation under control. The hive appears to be able to drive out the 1 or 2 hornets I've seen trying to enter the hive. All of the ideas above worked, however the sheer number of hornets made controlling them a problem.   In eastern Washington this year, hornets/yellow jackets have been a real problem.

Good luck with yellow jackets.


Regards,
Tucker

[RayMarler]

Natalie,
Yes, please do and I hope it works for you!

Bee-Bop
Yeah the stapler would work, but mine fit tight when I pushed it in and then I can remove it easily to clean and restock the bottle if I want. I tried one with packing tape wrapped around the bottle at the seem, but the tape gives off an over powering smell and the trap was ignored. So my next ones I was careful when cutting the top off and now it fits in tight when pressed in. So glad it's working for you. I was going crazy around here with all the yellow jackets. The bees were keeping them at bay just fine, but they were driving me nuts!

[RayMarler]

Hi Tucker,
I guess I'm going to have to spring for a can of cat food. I'd like to find something they like that I could "bait" for them to kill off the nests.

[Tucker1]

The cat food worked great as a bait. I also used in in YJ traps, when the attractant was gone.  The idea that Ray suggested looks like a cheaper solution to the purchased traps. Using home made attractant would keep the cost down. You could also use the dog/cat flea poison in cat food idea. (Just make sure that only YJ's can get to it.  I found that the cheap cat food was smelly and seems to pull in the YJ.  Good luck getting rid of them.

Regards,
Tucker1

[RayMarler]

Canned cat food or dry? Which brand and kind of cat food do the black and yellow striped fighter jets like? I'm thinking it's canned huh?

[BoBn]

we used 1 pint of gasoline: Pour and seal entrance with soil. It is the fumes that kill. ...OK, no arson humor now...

Gasoline is a soup of synthetic chemicals.  Very small amounts will contaminate the soil, vegetation and groundwater.  Much of the MTBE contamination of groundwater has been caused by people fueling small engines such as lawn mowers and chainsaws and spilling tiny amounts.  Some of the synthetic chemicals move through the soil much faster than water.  Pesticides are probably more "environmentally friendly" than gasoline.

Ether (starting fluid) or alcohol is a better alternative.

[sc-bee]

Suspend a piece of bacon or bologna in the top of the trap with a skewer or nail etc. Fill the bottom of the trap with a little water with a few drops of dish detergent. Scentless detergent better. The detergent breaks the water surface tension. The YJ fall in and can't get out. a two liter bottle works good or an open baking pan with bait suspended over water.

They also like fish if you have access to a small bream ---- that's what we used to hang on a limb for them to cut a piece and we would track them back to nest.

[Tucker1]

Ray:  I've used canned cat food.  The cheap stuff.  It also works in the YJ traps, when the regular attractant wears out.
Good luck with the YJ's.

Regards,
Tucker1

[annette]

I am going to try the canned cat food next season.  This year they are pretty much under control now.  I ended up using the store bought traps and they worked so good, but very costly.