Sugar Based Traps
Traps are made for either trapping the wasp or as a protein baiting station.
Carbohydrate (sugar) traps: include sugar/yeast, jam, apple juice and any number of sweet attractants. These traps allow the queen wasps to enter but not leave. The queen wasp will drown in the liquid after a short period of time.
Protein bait stations: allow foragers to enter and leave to fly back to the nest taking home poisoned food that will help kill the nest.
Keep traps at least 6m (20 feet) away from bee hives so the European wasps don’t discover the location of the bee hives when they’re investigating the traps.
Traps are effective in the spring to catch the queens, and later in the season to catch the workers. Each colony can produce up to 5,000 workers at its peak and 1,500 queens for next season, so eliminating the queens in spring can dramatically reduce their populations in late summer, autumn and the following seasons.
DIY Carbohydrate (sugar) Trap
Type 1
This style of trap has been used extensively in some local wineries with great success and one of the key benefits is rain doesn’t easily enter the trap.
The trap is made from a clear 1.25L PET bottle (soft drink bottle, Milk, OJ or any similar container)
make 3 holes of 12 -18 mm diameter (1/2 to 3/4 inch) about 10 to 15cm (100 to 150mm or 4” to 6” inches) from the base of the bottle.
Screw-cap lids remain on.
The hole diameter is not critical but does need to be large enough for the queen wasp to enter and small enough so she cannot easily find her way out. It is easiest to make holes using a carpentry drill spade bit in an electric drill but you can use scissors or a sharp knife to cut a hole or an X and push it in with your finger.
Making the 3 holes in the mid third of the bottle rather than higher up will limit escape as wasps tend to fly up when they are trying to leave and will fly past the opening in the middle third of the bottle. Tie string on the handle to hang off a tree branch, fence post, nail etc in sun or shade…feel free to mix it up to see what’s working in your location.
Check every couple of days and clean out any dead things using a kitchen strainer (maybe don’t use it in the kitchen again afterwards - make it a dedicated wasp trap strainer!!). I have a small bucket that I pour the liquid into via the strainer and then restore the sugar yeast solution back into the milk bottle and top up with a little more water. After a few weeks I will create a new solution and top up with more fresh mixture and water.
Positioning Of Trap
The following are good locations to hang your non toxic traps:
Hang in a sunny or shady spot in garden. Trying different locations (sun & shade) is good.
Near a peach or nectarine trees with curly leaf is a good place.
Near a wood heap or pile of sticks is also good as queens hibernate under bark.
Hang the trap anywhere wasps are likely to forage.
Height is not critical but 1-2 meters in the air seems good.
Whilst there is nothing to harm people, pets or the environment in the non toxic bait traps, they should be hung out of the reach of children and pets simply to avoid interference.
Shake every few days to let bait dribble out. Keep in place until December (1st month of summer).
Strain out when full, reuse and top up bait with water if necessary.
Replace bait every 4-5 weeks. 2-4 traps for the average house block.
Larger areas should consider 4 traps per Ha or 100 meters apart on boundary lines initially. Then reduce to half that the following season.
***Note: I generally check them every couple of days and clean out any dead things using a kitchen strainer (maybe don’t use it in the kitchen again afterwards - make it a dedicated wasp trap strainer!!). I have a small bucket that I pour the liquid into via the strainer and then restore the sugar yeast solution back into the milk bottle and top up with a little more water. After a few weeks I will create a new solution and top up with more fresh mixture and water.
Issues
Catching Other Insects - By Catch
Bees are not attracted to the sugar mix because of the carbon dioxide released by the fermenting yeast however we encourage users to monitor for by-catch and remove traps if you are concerned about what’s in the traps.
Monitor your traps for by-catch daily at first. Then check weekly.
If you’re catching something you are concerned with, withdraw the trap and reassess. You may simply need to wait a day or two more for the bait to ferment. It should be noted that catching one or two bees or native wasps, while not ideal, is not the end of the world. European wasps kill many bees, paper wasps, and other beneficial pollinators each day so the loss of one or two bees is not really an issue.
Ants
If you get ants in your trap you will need to start over.
Wasps will not go anywhere near anything contaminated by ants.
You can try spraying the branch your trap hangs from with fly spray BEFORE hanging the trap or stand the trap in a pot plant saucer or bucket with water in it. Check occasionally and top up the water as required.
Notes
Don’t be concerned if you don’t catch anything immediately.
It may take some time to catch anything. Monitor traps weekly and top up if required.
Some people complain because they didn’t catch anything. It’s likely there were no queen wasps within foraging distance. On the other hand, many people tell me they catch 20 or 30 queens in one trap a month or more after placing the trap out.
A real difference can be made by working together with neighbours and community groups to cover larger areas such as river banks, parks, and vacant land.
Wasps can survive quite a long time (days) in sugar solutions and depending on how long they have been there, can survive after being strained out. If you strain your catch and reuse the liquid please ensure all wasps are dead. Spray them with household surface spray, or simply squish them under your boot heel.
Type 2
The trap is made from a clear 1.25L PET bottle (soft drink bottle, Milk, OJ or any similar container) with an inverted funnel (made from the bottle).
Cut off the top of the bottle at the shoulders, turn it over and insert the top into the bottom to form a funnel.
Punch or drill holes near the top, and add a wire for hanging the trap.
Place the baited traps around the yard and garden in Spring to mid summer. The traps can be placed approximately every 10meters (30 feet) around the perimeter of fruit crops.
Empty and refresh the bait every 2 weeks to maintain effectiveness, so be sure to put them in a readily accessible location. Note: If it looks like rain, place the traps in a sheltered position or refill with fresh bait.
The level of the liquid should be a little below the end of the funnel so when the wasps fly in and land on the liquid, they fall into it and can’t crawl back out of the funnel.
Commercial Carbohydrate (sugar) Trap
Commercially made traps are available from some hardware stores and these appear to work well.
Flower shaped wasp catchers. These simple addons are available on-line and generally refered to as “flower shaped wasp catchers”. Some people report better results with these in place however your traps will work fine without them.