Since my Redhaven Peaches have started to ripen, the black with white stripe wasps have appeared and are decimating the fruit. My current defense is to clean up all fallen and attacked fruit and hang out wasp traps, which are filling up pretty fast. Any ideas as to how to stop this invasion? I have not spotted their nest yet. I prefer to leave the peaches on the tree as long as possible to enhance flavor. Perhaps I have to start picking them when they are not fully ripe.
Sherwin D.
sherwindu Since my Redhaven Peaches have started to ripen, the blac
with white stripe wasps have appeared and are decimating the fruit. My current defense is t clean up all fallen and attacked fruit and hang out wasp traps, which ar filling up pretty fast. Any ideas as to how to stop this invasion? I have no spotted their nest yet. I prefer to leave the peaches on the tree as long a possible to enhance flavor. Perhaps I have to start picking them when they ar not fully ripe.
Sherwin D.
your best overall attack method would be to see if u can find the nes and get rid of it otherwise u will continually have wasps after you fruit. wait until near dark take a flashlight and try and follow the back to the nest. usually u will find in hot weather that there ar wasps or bees outside a hive fanning the hive during the night so i that way u might be able to find where the nest if located. otherwise will have to keep picking and taking in the fruit like u have said. goo luck, sockiescat:)
-- sockiescat
The black/white wasps are probably bald-faced hornets aka White-faced hornets. They are close relative of the yellow jacket, are agressive, will sting. They build paper nests, and are extremely protective of their nests. Be carefull with them. Try to find the nest, and carefully destroy it. Good luck, though, they can travel 1000 feet from the nest, maybe more, and if you live in a dense area you will have difficulty finding the nest.
I'd do what you are doing, and trap them. My yellow jacket traps have hundreds of bees in them - where to they all come from?
No sign of a nest yet, but I'm having an effect on the population as there are less and less wasps appearing in my traps, even though I still have peaches on my tree. I also think the ziploc sandwich bags I put over the peaches is acting as a deterent, as well.
Are these bees attacking your fruit? If not, why kill them as they make useful pollinators for next year's crop? Problem here in the Midwest is that the bees did not appear until late in the Spring, so they were ineffective for pollination purposes. I don't see them even now in my wasp traps, just wasps, flies and moths. Perhaps the bees are not attracted to apple juice, or are smart enough not to enter the traps.
Sherwin D.
The only good yellow jacket is a dead yellow jacket. They are too agressive and are real pests. My daughter got stung by one the other day. I will kill them on site. I also have hundreds of paper wasps all over the place. They are rather gentle, like a honey bee, not all agressive, and I just leave them alone. I also have bumble bees everywhere, and they too are not agressive, so I leave them alone. I don't have the baldface hornet, so the only problem bee is the yellow jacket.
For the longest time I mistook the paper wasps for yellow jackets. I bought some yellow jacket traps, and when the traps didn't catch anything, I contacted the manufacturer. I send them a pic of what I thought was a yellow jacket, and they identified it as a paper wasp. Now I know the difference, and I happily share my garden with paper wasps and bumble bees. Since then, the weather has warmed up and the yellow jackets have started coming out. My yellow jacket traps catch a dozen or more a day, leaving the paper wasps alone.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@rushmore.com says... :) What do you use as an attractant for the yellow jackets. I bought two :) traps and used some stale beer in them, but they didn't seem :) interested. They come to your hamburger pretty quickly, but that :) leaves a mess in the traps (joke). :) :) During the Summer yellow jackets are mainly meat hunters...they feed insects to their larvae and in turn the larvae turns that into a liquid diet for the adult. Towards the end of the Summer, their diet changes from mainly proteins to sugars since for the most part they quit raising new broods for sustaining the current colony. Early Spring, sugar such as soda and juices can help catch the early queens...you might try canned cat food or tuna fish during the Summer, but it can get to be a mess and then once again back to soda and juices after mid August.
Cheap apple juice works the best for me. I am now trying some left over white grape juice. I would not use any attractant until you are sure there is a big problem. Sometimes using an attractant will do just that, and attract more wasps to an area
where there is not a big problem.
I wish there was some substance like one uses on ants that they ingest and take back to their nests and infect the entire colony. If anyone knows of such a product, please let me know. It would work for cases like I have where I'm not sure where the nest is located.
Sherwin D.
sdmg2002 wrote:
The dish soap just helps to kill them, but once inside the trap they eventually die. I can understand how they could be a problem with fruit - I have sooo many of them. I don't know where their nests are, they are not on my property so there isn't much I can do about them anyhow.
I use these traps.
I use this one:
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.