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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12958  by MickBBKA
 22 Jul 2022, 01:23
They made a sudden surge this week. I lost 5 colonies last year to wasps. 3 were just a single brood but 2 were brood and 2 supers of bees and got decimated by wasps. I ended up using 1 gallon plastic containers as wasp traps and was emptying almost a gallon of wasps out every 3 days, it was a nightmare.
So I have put my traps out this week and hope to head them off early. DEATH TO ALL WASPS !!
 #12960  by Alfred
 22 Jul 2022, 07:33
Ditto
I'm putting the traps out next time .
 #12975  by AdamD
 29 Jul 2022, 06:27
I have noticed a significant increase in them in the past week or two; bees hanging around the entrances to keep them away.
 #12977  by NigelP
 29 Jul 2022, 08:13
Yup, my wasp traps are working overtime at the moment. At least they aren't bothering the bees ..... yet. But reduced entrances going on all hives shortly.
Treated myself to a couple of Hivegates and perisciopes from Thornes which give you a long tunnel entrance into either a hive or a Nuc. In my case a couple for nucs for when my new queens arrive. For any hives in trouble I use Steve's 6inch plank method with a channel cut into it to give the bees a long tunnel to defend against invaders.
 #12979  by Alfred
 29 Jul 2022, 20:01
Let us know how you get on with the hivegates Nigel
I've left it too late to make my tunnel entrances a and now these plastic ones are down in price it is a balance with the time I'd have to spend.
 #12980  by NigelP
 30 Jul 2022, 11:20
Easy to install in my nucs, just need to add bees now.
But it might not be a good year for any conclusions as wasps are (currently) not bothering any of my hives, although my wasp traps are filling up rapidly around 500 in 2 days. Need to empty and refill....apple juice and vinegar seems to be quite attractive to them but alas also attractive to moths. Fortunately only the really small ones can get inside the traps.
I must say I'm quite impressed by the efficiency of these....Think I shall purchase more.

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 #12984  by MickBBKA
 01 Aug 2022, 00:41
Those work well Nigel but they are too small. I am filling a 5ltr container with wasps every 3 to 4 days at the moment. Evil hateful creatures and they are worse than last year when I lost 5 full colonies to wasps. Almost at my whit's end what to do this year, got another 2 months of this :( There looks to be more wasps than bees at the hive entrances sometimes. Bees are stressed to hell when inspecting with clouds of wasps over exposed boxes. Doing my head in !
 #12985  by JoJo36
 01 Aug 2022, 04:41
Blimey Mick that sounds a real nightmare!!
It's a pity you can't lure them somewhere else to get them away from the hive entrance and then exterminate them??!!
It must be a real concern every time you open up your hives??!! :(
 #12986  by NigelP
 01 Aug 2022, 09:02
Mick, you might want to invest in some hivegates from Thornes. Or make alternative tunnel entrances AKA Steve's method. Take a 6inch plank and cut to length of entrance so it slide in then using a chisel (or whatever) make a long 6inch entrance tunnel about 4/5 bees width. They can then defend quite easily against invaders.

Yeah I know the wasp traps I use are quite small....but I have a ,lot of them.