# Yellow Jacket Hell (Western Washington)



## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Whoever said that beekeeping is that easy. If it is then.... The early Autumn or late summer yellow jackets must be deal with so that early on next Spring they will not bother your hives that much. Now is the time that they stored up for the coming winter just like the honeybees do. If you get rid of the workers now while they're trying to harvest the bee larvae then next year you will not see them as much. When the workers are depleted then come the queen, even then I squished her if I can. But if they have 100s of nests nearby your bee operation then you have to put up the bee nets and switch to the SC comb. In Europe they put up the Asian hornet nets trying to secure their bee hives. Still the hornets proliferated through out the region into different country. There are traps you can purchase on the online auction sites like comparing ebay prices to amazon. You will see the same stuffs by a title search to compare. Another strategy is to combine them into stronger hives before they got hit. And reduced the entrance a bit so they can defend themselves. That means you will have to make more nucs for a combine later on increasing your number of bee colony. Now you know more about your local bee environment and all the pests with it too. It is not the end of your operation. You just need to find a better way to deal with these pests and end up costing you more. Note it today as yellow jacket day for future reference!


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## jcase (Jul 30, 2016)

I've got a few dozen traps. I'll get them out earlier next year, last year wasn't an issue.


All I can so I hunt and destroy their nests at this point.


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## justin (Jun 16, 2007)

put out ground meat early in the morning, let them have it for an hour or so, then swap it out with the fipripinol meat. i use ground deer meat and they certainly take it home. i also bait my traps with raw deer burger and the lure. swap out the swatter for a shopvac. just tape up the hose when it isn't running.


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## jcase (Jul 30, 2016)

justin said:


> put out ground meat early in the morning, let them have it for an hour or so, then swap it out with the fipripinol meat. i use ground deer meat and they certainly take it home. i also bait my traps with raw deer burger and the lure. swap out the swatter for a shopvac. just tape up the hose when it isn't running.


Ok, i just put some warm ground beef out. Will replace it in 4 hours with poisoned meat.

They seemed to move to another hive, but it is larger so I'm not sure if they have a chance.

They have IGNORED the cat food I put out, but I never did try with non poisoned meat at first.

Any idea how much poison I should put in it?


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## Nhaupt2 (May 31, 2016)

you only want to put a drop or two in the meat and mix it in. the point isn't to kill the wasps straight away when they take the meat but to have them make it back to the hive recruit other forafers and feed the larvae and queen the poisoned food. 

I had decent luck with canned chicken and whiskes white fish cat food.


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## DanielD (Jul 21, 2012)

I have no idea since I don't deal with yellow jackets, but would robber screens keep them at bay or would they figure them out?


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## cdanderson (May 26, 2007)

I hate Yellow Jackets and the only success I have had is with traps.


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## jcase (Jul 30, 2016)

cdanderson said:


> I hate Yellow Jackets and the only success I have had is with traps.


Only success ive had is combing every square inch until I find each and every nest


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## mbear (May 18, 2017)

I have been experimenting with traps. I have killed a couple of thousand yellowjackets this week. You would never know it looking at the traps. I am having good luck with 1 to 1 sugar water with a table spoon of apple cider vinigar in the traps. The honey bees inore it but the yellow jackets love it.


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