# Yellow Jacket Traps



## PCM (Sep 18, 2007)

Get a small can of cat food put some in the trap, Yellow jackets are meat eaters, during the summer, in the fall they go after the sweet honey.

:lookout: PCM


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## hoodswoods (May 15, 2009)

I hung wasp traps (pheromones) last year - I never saw a bee in one (nor did I see a wasp in one either - rip-off). My guess is that YJ traps use the same concepts.

Broadcast application of cides (herb, insect) does nothing good for anything (plant, insect, bird, amphibian, reptile nor fish). Careful, selective application with regard to toxicity, longevity, environmental/geographical issues such as run-off, etc. is, unfortunately, more than 95% of the people using them care about, or are even aware of.

Nice green lawn you have - where is the clover? Was that a grasshopper I saw?

If I have squash (bees loves squash blossoms) in my garden & I have squash bugs - what to do? Squish bugs.

I have 500 acres of squash, which represents 1/3 of my yearly income & I have squash bugs - what to do??? Raise tobacco?

Aphids? - raise ladybugs


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## tim adams (Feb 18, 2010)

I just put out the new WHY traps around my house. It's starting to warm up and wasp are starting to fly. I haven't seen any yellow jackets around my house but each one has about a dozen dead ones after 2 weeks. I haven't seen any bees in them or looking at them.
Tim Adams


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## delber (Dec 26, 2010)

I have heard somewhere how someone took a 2 liter plastic bottle, cut it about 1/3 of the way down. Inverted the top into the bottom so the spout is pointing down. Put some cat food (as was stated) dog food or whatever is cheap. Tape it up and you'll have it. They will be drawn to the food and will be able to get in, but won't be able to get out. I haven't had much of a problem with them yet, but if I do this is one thing I'll try. The site said obviously dispose of the container after it's reasonably full of wasps / yj's. I hope this helps.


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## arcowandbeegirl (Oct 11, 2010)

I made a trap for wax moths out of a two liter coke bottle, a banana peel and some vinegar and water, and it caught alot of yellow jackets, but I saw no bees in the bottle.


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## hoodswoods (May 15, 2009)

Have you noticed honeybees in your traps before?


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## PCM (Sep 18, 2007)

hoodswoods;617248]Have you noticed honeybees in your traps before?

Do NOT use any thing sweet, pour some beer in the trap it works great also.

The home made traps work great also, only thing rain gets into them.

:lookout: PCM


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## Dragonfly130 (Dec 12, 2008)

I haven't seen any honeybee's in yellow jacket traps.

I used the WHY traps last spring and got a couple of the queen YJ's. Didn't have much problem with them last year. They were a real pain fall 09. 

I believe spring trapping works best to control them because you get the queen YJ's and for everyone you get that's one less nest around.


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## Flathead Honey (Aug 1, 2007)

For yellow jackets I use the Rescue brand pheromone baited traps and have never seen a bee in one. I put them out late spring, late may early june . In early summer you catch a lot of queens. Catching queens really knocks back the yellow jackets. 

This year I am also going to use the bait stations recommended by UC Davis in Sept Oct news letter. 

http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/mussen/SeptOct2010.pdf

Yellow Jackets have killed many of my weak hives.

As for the aphid spray as long as the bees arent foraging on the sprayed area and are not exposed to drift of spray I wouldnt wory.


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

delber said:


> I have heard somewhere how someone took a 2 liter plastic bottle, cut it about 1/3 of the way down. Inverted the top into the bottom so the spout is pointing down. Put some cat food (as was stated) dog food or whatever is cheap. Tape it up and you'll have it. They will be drawn to the food and will be able to get in, but won't be able to get out. I haven't had much of a problem with them yet, but if I do this is one thing I'll try. The site said obviously dispose of the container after it's reasonably full of wasps / yj's. I hope this helps.


I have use'd this method for a while. It works great, I like cheese with a little water. About two tablespoon of water.


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## rkr (Oct 30, 2008)

I just got some of these and a few Rescue brand traps. I had 4 hives killed by yellowjackets last fall.


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

just cut the neck of the bottle off turn it upside down with out lid. Like a funnel. Don't have to buy any thing.


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## rkr (Oct 30, 2008)

Will any cheese do?


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

rkr said:


> Will any cheese do?


Yes. Would catch a half a bottle a day.


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## slwethrs (Aug 16, 2010)

I was having a bad problem with the yellow jackets last summer. I tried the cat food, I tried bacon, those did not work for me. I found this recipe for a trap and put three of them tied to tree branches about 10 feet from my hives. Within a week, I started catching yellow jackets and later even moths were getting caught. This worked great for me. This recipe did not attract any bees. :applause: 

http://www.ehow.com/how_1740_make-trap-yellow.html 


I do not want to use any insectide on any plant that has pollen or nectar. I think the aphid spray will not hurt as long trees do not have any blooms that attract the bees.


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## Scrapfe (Jul 25, 2008)

slwethrs said:


> I was having a bad problem with the yellow jackets last summer. I tried the cat food, I tried bacon...


Are you sure that you are not drawing yellow jackets to your bees or at least into close proximity to your bees with these traps?


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## slwethrs (Aug 16, 2010)

I know I was not luring in the yelow jackets with a trap. If I had not been having a problem with them, I never would have needed the traps. This is the situation I was facing: I tried killing them at first. First it was 1 or 2, then 3 or 4 a day, and I would frequently find one or two dead in the hive that the bees killed also. So I thought I would just go out several times a day and kill them. As the days passed I would kill 3 or 4 twice a day. For every one I killed each time there would be at least one get away I could not kill. Then half a dozen several times a day. This went on about 4 weeks before I ever put out any kind of trap. When I finally found this type of trap and put one out, the yellow jackets started going into the traps instead of in and out of my hives.


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## khaas15 (Feb 17, 2010)

I had a big problem with yellow jackets last year. They were attacking my hive bad, there were many dead bees and yellow jackets at the entrance and on the ground. I couldn't reduce my entrance because I was treating for mites. I made a trap from a two-leater bottle of pop and put some sugar water in it. I caught hundreds of yellow jackets. I would check each day to see if any bees were going into the trap. I did not see a single bee in the trap the whole time. As the trap filled up with yellow jackets the disgusting water seemed to attract more and more of them. I wish I would have taken a picture to post.


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