DIY Wasp Trap

[Phil McCracken]

So this year, a pack of yellow bellied sap suckers decided to attack couple of my birch trees. I used a roll of "Tree Wrap" to cover all the holes they made. Quite a bit a sap coming out.

Next thing I know, a bunch of black wasps moved in out of nowhere, sucking the sap. Some were pretty aggressive!

Grabbed a jar, and punched a big enough hole on the lid. Put corn syrup in, and put the jar under the biggest birch tree.

The pic is 48 hours later. About 4-5 layers of dead ones and a few still kicking. I figure I got 150/200 in there. And no...I won't manually count them...hehe

All wasps seem to have have disappeared from around the trees!

Worked pretty well. Hope the trees makes it.

[Au revoir, Gopher]

It has been a bad year for wasp! I had to take out three nests. One was under the front deck, directly in front of the door. I had to pull up deck boards to get at it. One was attached to the overhead door to the shop, if I hadn't noticed that before opening the door I would have had a shop full of angry wasp. The third was the side of the garage. Those where the big black ones. They were very aggressive; one nailed me in the face for walking within 20' of the nest (and they would attack the car when I drove by). My face was swollen for three days. They were also very hard to kill, I had to blast it with wasp killer twice and then when I remove the nest from the wall there was still live ones inside so I blasted it again.

ARG

[Stinky Buffalo]

That is fantastic! Some great results there.

If I'm away from home, I have been using the wasp bags. Highly effective. Some people adulterate them with pop/beer, but I've found the original lure that they come packaged with works best.

I had a bad infestation in my yard a few years back; what I used there was a shallow, long container (like a under-bed storage container) and laid a 2x4 across it. I stapled parts of a chicken carcass to the underside of the board, and filled the container up with water to within an inch of the meat board. I also added some dish soap to the water to break the surface tension.

Collected hundreds of wasps that way. They would crawl on to the meat, grab what they wanted, and when they tried to fly away, they got trapped in the water.

[6MT]

Very nice! Thanks, I’m going to try that.

[Big Sky]

Lots of aphids around here this year. That brings in lots of yellow jackets to hunt them. Luckily, the yellow jackets don't seem to mind human activity while hunting aphids. On the plus side, there have been a lot of ladybugs dining on the aphids as well. It's always fun to see a ladybug.

But now the wasps are getting feisty and need to be dealt with. We've got a couple of homemade traps made from pop bottles and a couple of commercial traps. Business has been brisk.

[Sooner]

When we used to camp at the Canyon in Radium every August, the wasps were terrible most times. Same idea but with a candy tub. Two slits, bend down the flap. Pick your soda pop and fill it enough so the buggars have to swim. Caught tons in a week.

[WV911]

Originally Posted by Stinky Buffalo

That is fantastic! Some great results there.

If I'm away from home, I have been using the wasp bags. Highly effective. Some people adulterate them with pop/beer, but I've found the original lure that they come packaged with works best.

I had a bad infestation in my yard a few years back; what I used there was a shallow, long container (like a under-bed storage container) and laid a 2x4 across it. I stapled parts of a chicken carcass to the underside of the board, and filled the container up with water to within an inch of the meat board. I also added some dish soap to the water to break the surface tension.

Collected hundreds of wasps that way. They would crawl on to the meat, grab what they wanted, and when they tried to fly away, they got trapped in the water.

I have done this and it works great, couple of years ago when we had a bad load of them I put out quite a few of these, but I used home depot buckets. Within hours they were all full to the bottom, they just kept piling on.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/attac...1&d=1724776413

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/attac...1&d=1724776413

[rjlester]

Every year I deal with at least one or two wasp nests on our acreage.

About 10 years ago, I had one that was real bad. Spraying would not help, as they were getting under the vinyl siding and made a nest under the front bay window likely between the joists. Probably crawling a few feet to their nest. They had a one inch gap in the siding joints they used as an entrance. How I got rid of them was to tape the shop vac nozzle beside the entrance. Put the vacuum on a timer, it ran for an hour at 8am, noon, 4pm and 8pm. First three days had about 2 inches of dead wasps in the vacuum. Honestly had thousands of them. The sound of them getting vacuumed up and banging down the hose was extremely satisfying.

I should mention I put a couple inches of soapy water inside the vacuum too.

Took two weeks until the vacuum was empty at the end of the day.

Wasps and Hornets should all be in hell where they belong. Got stung a week ago in the face real bad dealing with a nest. So I ordered a Bee suit off amazon, let the b@$tards try that again!! I'm actually going out to deal with ANOTHER nest right now. Wish me luck lol.

[NCC]

How much was the bee suit? Have you tried it out yet?

[rjlester]

I bought this one:

https://www.amazon.ca/Beekeeping-Pro...mFtZT1zcF9hdGY

I got the XXL size, as I heard if you are tall (I'm 6' 1") this one will barely fit. I found it fits just right, I am relatively thin though.

It works great, used it twice now. Had a couple of wasps on the mesh in front of my face and they did not harm me. It was very unnerving to have them that close to my face but sure glad I have the suit. I used welding gloves and have not been stung yet. Make sure you remember to fully zip the hat portion all the way around. I forgot to do that last night, but thankfully the wasps didn't let on that I was the one messing with them. I was reaching around a corner to spray/shake up the nest which was under a rolled up carpet beneath our deck.

Been stung too many times over the years to mess around anymore and for less than 60 bucks, you can't lose. Something odd, when I ordered it a week ago, it was 52 dollars, now it's 57? Strange.

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by rjlester

[...] Something odd, when I ordered it a week ago, it was 52 dollars, now it's 57? Strange.

You need to get 'Keepa' It is a browser plugin that gives you price history for items on amazon. Here's three months for the bee suite.

ARG

[Phil McCracken]

Well my wasp problem is minimal compared to some of you lol!

Also great trap ideas shared!...

[W921]

We don't really have them south of Calgary but when I was at doctors in Calgary they have tons of wasps or hornets. I'm not really sure the difference. This year for the first time we have sort of a wasp but no yellow on them. These are black and sort of Grey. Not very smart or aggressive.

[elkhunter11]

They are just starting to be an issue here, I was stung the other day just standing and talking with someone at the range. But still nothing like last year, when I had to remove a nest from under my deck. I used the foaming spray, on the entrance , and then removed a board, and saturated the nest. Then I was able to use a rake to pull the nest free, and use a propane torcklh on it in my yard. We had a nest in an archery target at the range, I held the vacuum cleaner wand at the entrance, and a friend rapped the target with a spade. After about five minutes, there were no more yellow jackets coming out, or returning to the nest, so we sprayed the foam into the entrance, and no more problems. I sprayed regular raid into the vacuum, let it sit a few minutes, and burned the bag.

[thumper]

If you’re not killing them with soap or insecticide, I understand that chickens love to gobble a pail of them up. Might make for some tasty eggs - without the need for a splash of Tabasco Sauce!

[elkhunter11]

I have two traps up, catching 100 or so every day now.

[burbotman]

With the wasps so bad in many places there are virtually none at my place. A walk this AM showed me why. Mother natures wasp control! 6 spots like this…

The little black bear has been frequenting the lower part of the property and sure has a taste for the wasp larvea

[Savage Bacon]

Elk I like the idea of the vacuum cleaner. I use a portable vacuum to suck up all the flies that are coming in and hanging around the kitchen window. It's so gratifying. When the see through compartment is almost full I shake the crap out of them. God that's a good feeling.


The meat works for the wasps because they are low on protein this time of year.

Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

[burbotman]

Originally Posted by Savage Bacon

Elk I like the idea of the vacuum cleaner. I use a portable vacuum to suck up all the flies that are coming in and hanging around the kitchen window. It's so gratifying. When the see through compartment is almost full I shake the crap out of them. God that's a good feeling.


The meat works for the wasps because they are low on protein this time of year.

Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

X 3 on the vacuum. September fly season the handheld vacs get a workout. My dewalt would be lethal on wasps. Just don’t open to clean it to soon 😅

[Dean2]

Pressure washer with a mid pressure wide angle nozzle, works great. When the wasps start to exit the nest becuase you are destroying it you can kill them in mid air with the pressure stream. Rips the wings right off them so they can't get at you.

The traps work good too. A 2 liter pop bottle with sugar water and a bit of dawn soap, thousands will die in a few traps.

[vinny]

Originally Posted by Savage Bacon

Elk I like the idea of the vacuum cleaner. I use a portable vacuum to suck up all the flies that are coming in and hanging around the kitchen window. It's so gratifying. When the see through compartment is almost full I shake the crap out of them. God that's a good feeling.


The meat works for the wasps because they are low on protein this time of year.

Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

They’ve chewed lots of protein off of me and the family this summer down at the lake! 🤣 Even got the dog while we were out in the kayaks!

[Ackleyman]

Buddy and wife were at Ol Mac Donalds Music Festival, Got there Thursday and said the wasps were brutal. His wife was stung 4 times first day , smudge fires going and he had the jars with sugar water catching hundreds of the buggers. Woulda took me about 5 minutes to pack up.

[sewerrat]

Had lots of wasps by our back deck, they became very Annoying, I placed 2 containers along my back fence with a concoction mix of sugar, apple cider vinegar,dish soap and a little water.
It kept the wasp away. And thousands of dead stingers.

[StillSearching]

The $57 trap sounds pricey to me compared to the jar with a hole in it. No offense intended.

[EZED]

4litre bucket
1 cup water
1cup sugar
1cup apple cider vinegar
Few drops dish soap to break liquid surface tension
Put in your yard away from everything because you don’t want to drawn them into the yard I made that mistake. Clean out the dead wasps at night when they have gone to bed. You will be surprised at the number that you kill

[pikergolf]

Originally Posted by EZED

4litre bucket
1 cup water
1cup sugar
1cup apple cider vinegar
Few drops dish soap to break liquid surface tension
Put in your yard away from everything because you don’t want to drawn them into the yard I made that mistake. Clean out the dead wasps at night when they have gone to bed. You will be surprised at the number that you kill

This, no need to spend money on traps, so many good home made recipes out there, just google it. For bait just remember, meat in the summer, sweets in the fall.