2024 Calgary Yellowjacket outbreak: A DIY Trap that works.

 

(Picture of me foolishly holding a bowl of wasps near my face)

Currently, Calgary is experiencing a wasp outbreak like we've never seen before.      Our local beekeeping mailing list is clogged with reports of our honeybee hives under attack, and requests for advice.

My own honey-house, a shed where I extract and bottle honey, is unusable, as it's been taken over by hundreds of wasps looking for free food.       I'd like to start bottling, but can't.

What to do?

For the last 7 years, I've been enthusiastically recommending the "Rescue Disposable Yellowjacket Trap", but at ~$10 each, these disposables can get expensive.      In any case, they're sold out everywhere in the region.   

2024's wasp war is well underway, and we're already out of ammo.

Thanks to Lyndon of the Calgary Beekeepers Association, I've found a DIY solution that is working very well.     Lyndon credits the Calgary Gardening facebook group, for the bait, and a youtube user for the trap design.

DIY WASP Trap and Attractant:

Materials:

Plastic containers and funnels from dollar store.

Cider Vinegar

Sugar

Dish Soap

 

Procedure:

1.    Make the trap:   Drill a hole in the center of the lid of your container.      Insert funnels, and consider affixing with some kind of glue that can support and affix the funnel.       I used Dap caulking, as I had it at hand.      Affixing is probably not even necessary.

2.  Make the attractant:     Mix 1/3 water, 1/3 sugar, and 1/3 Cider vinegar, with a dash of dish soap:

3.  Here's the final product:  DIY traps, with DIY attractant.  Note that they're already attracting wasps.

Here's a picture of my prototype/trial trap, deployed two days ago:

These traps kill roughly ten wasps per hour, each.    Over the course of a day, that's about 100 wasps.     Location seems to play a part in effectiveness, so if they're not trapping at this rate, relocate.

They can be emptied and refilled with attractant as needed.

The attractant is honey-bee safe, with the cider vinegar making the trap unattractive to honey bees.

Miscellaneous notes on wasp control and behavior:

- Skip the "Fake wasp nests".    Simply put, they're a magic talisman, and don't work.    If people recommend these to you, block them or disown them as sources of incorrect information.   Perhaps take out a restraining order.

- "Rescue" also has a re-usable version of their trap, called the "Re-usable WHY Trap".   I don't care for these as the refills are as expensive as their disposable traps, and these don't work as well.     That being said, if their disposables aren't available, these are a good substitute.    Also, rather than purchasing more attractant, you can use the DIY recipe above.

- Wasps start the summer as pollen-and-nectar foragers, and finish the summer as omnivore scavengers.    By fall, their populations have grown, and their feeding habits have changed - Which is what brings them into our spaces in such numbers.

- Wasps have a reputation for being "Aggressive assholes", but it may not be so simple.  Let's reframe this as "Defending their young from strangers".   When they sting us, it's because we've unknowingly come near their nest, and threatened their babies.   Really, who likes strangers getting into their children's personal space?

- Wasps are not defensive when scavenging.   They're away from their babies, and seem very focused on free-food.      Heck, you can even tickle them, and they'll fly away.    They will sting if restrained or pressed on.     In fact, this year's honey harvest has me to work in a small room with hundreds of scavenging wasps.    It has been absolutely terrible - but also a learning experience.   Even as they buzzed around my head, they didn't sting me, unless one landed on my skin and I touched it, or accidentally touched one while picking something up.  

- Wasp stings hurt MUCH more than honeybee stings.   One a year is more than enough for me, and I've had 10 this year.    Most were hand-placement stings - Accidentally touching a wasp when moving equipment or buckets in my honey house.     They cause swelling, and ache for a week.    In comparison, I get dozens of honeybee stings a year, and hardly notice.

- My honey house has attracted more wasps into my yard than I'd normally have.    Probably a net-benefit for my neighbors, as this will also reduce the interest in their yards. 

- Their invasion of my honey house has distracted them from my hives.    It's both curse and blessing.     While I'm unable to bottle honey, my hives are also being spared the vespan siege that most beehives in Calgary are currently experiencing.

- I put a RESCUE "Disposable" trap inside of my honey house, and they showed no interest in it.  Not a single wasp trapped overnight.     It's a bit puzzling, as I'd assumed wasps were scent-driven like honeybees.      It was warm in the honey house, but dark.    This is unexpected, and I have no theory.     Once placed outside a window of the honey house, it actually drew them outside by the dozens. 

- 12 Hours after posting this blog post, I've trapped/killed about 7oo wasps, and my yard and honey house has significantly less activity.     Here's what it took:

• 3 Rescue disposable traps
• 2 Rescue "WHY" traps filled with DIY attractant
• 5 DIY traps filled with DIY attractant

Curiously, some traps fared better than others.   Hands-down, the winner was the W-H-Y traps with the DIY Attractant.    It actually worked better than the manufacturers included attractant.

- I'm finding that my 4 new DIY traps aren't performing as well as my prototype.    The only difference in is the clear lids.     I'm going to make some new ones with opaque lids, and see if that makes a difference.