Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Anonymous on October 13, 2004, 10:01:43 am

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: Anonymous on October 13, 2004, 10:01:43 am

The yellow jackets are thick around my hives. They don't seem to mess with four of them much but one of them is just terriable. yesterday I sat by that hive for a couple of hours off and on and killed almost 300 of them by crushing them.
Is there some other method of getting rid of them? I tried watching them so I could find the nest but they didn't appear to go any place just hung around the hives all day.
 :D Al

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: BigRog on October 13, 2004, 11:20:12 am

Check this out.
http://www.cooperseeds.com/yellowjackets.php3
I am looking for something like this too.
I'm thinking that if you are going to use  a pheremone base trap you should put it away from your hives to attract them away.

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: beemaster on October 13, 2004, 11:22:07 am

Poor Al

I've had a real hatred as you know for many years after being almost incapacitated y their stings in my hand and mouth. I feel no sympathy to their destruction, although I do like to see them go in a quick and humane manor - like I would any of God's creaters ( I imagine God must have been having SOME DAY the day he invented the yellow Jacket - lol )

I have read that you can poison some food source that they would hourd onto if left alone - something that will safely be kept away from pets, but close enough to the yellow jackets so that they race to it to gather as much scavenged food as possible. I don't know if poison used for rats or other varmit does the job, something tells me that bug poisoning would keep more of them away then attract them.

I can only imagine the safe way is to hang the poisoned food source from a tree by a string and hopefully they will drop like flies as they eat the poison.

Maybe even check with Agway or other farming centers Al, you might be missing a product already on the market - I sure know that every time I go into a store, it has new and neat ways to kill stuff

 :shock:

Title: Yellowjacket Specific?
Post by: romduck on October 13, 2004, 03:18:12 pm

I don't mean to be ignorant, but would the commercial traps, lures and poisons be difficult to have an effect on yellowjackets only?

Does anyone have problems with their bees suffering the same fate when these devices are used?

If not, let me know because I'm beginning to have the same problem with those stingy little buggers.

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: beemaster on October 13, 2004, 06:16:43 pm

Being scavengers, yellow jackets go after anything where honeybee are color driven by ultraviolets and tend to go flower hoping. I rarely have ever seen a honeybee around a picnic table full of food where you would be bombarded by yellow jackets under the same situation.

Could honeybees make their way to these traps, probably, but NOT many of them since these traps are chemically designed for yellow jackets.

It it similar to NOT having blue jays or sparrows attacking hummingbird feeders - hopefully that is a fairly good comparison  :oops:

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: TwT on October 14, 2004, 12:50:02 am

try this simple and easy poor-mans trap

http://www.pollinator.com/gallery/yellow_jacket_trap.htm

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: BigRog on October 14, 2004, 01:07:44 pm

Thats the one I was looking for!
Couldn't find it so I posted the link I did
Thanks
I'll have a couple of these up today!

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: Anonymous on October 14, 2004, 02:22:21 pm

Thanks for the advice everyone, and a special thanks for the link to the simple trap. Has cooled off here some but at 50F this morning the yellow jackets were still about.
 :D Al

Title: Yellow Jackets, and more yellow jackets.
Post by: golfpsycho on October 16, 2004, 02:33:58 pm

Yellow Jackets are hunters as well as scavengers,  and I think the simple soda bottle trap is the way to go.  If you were to use the commercially available pheremone baits, you just draw them into the area you want to keep them away from.   Better to trap the ones that have already found your hives, than lure a bunch more of them in.