Gathering of 8 Bald Faced Hornets on Hive -- Help...

[CentralPAguy]

Yesterday, I stopped at one of my bee yards and noticed that on my strongest hive that there were 8 Hornets at the top of the Hive -- Six of them were on one side while another 2 were on the other side. I am thinking that if I saw eight that there are alot more that I didn't see.

This hive was overflowing with bees (alot on the landing and some on the outside of the deep). I will be taking care of the overflow problem today.

I did not notice that the Hornets were taking bees, but they probably are.

Can Hornets wipe out a strong hive (50,000+) bees.

Yellow jackets are not a problem, but the Hornets are. Do the Yellow Jacket traps work well with Hornets -- If I put these traps up, how often do I need to visit the bee yards.

At my house, I do notice that both Honeybees and Yellow Jackets are looking for whereever sugar syrup might have spilled. So I do have concern about my bees flying into the yellow jacket traps.

Do Bald Faced Hornets eat Catfood -- But if I put up these types of traps and don't visit the beeyard for a week, will they be effective -- I would imagine that the catfood will be rancid/spoiled -- But would they still attract the Hornets? Do all Hornets like Catfood?

With it being a remote yard, I don't have access to electricity and can't electrocute them.

I would be grateful to hear your experience with this problem and your solution. Thanks.

[KQ6AR]

There is a new yellow jacket trap out this year. It has 2 chambers & uses 3 different ferimone baits. Its supposed to catch yellow jackets, wasps, & hornets. I bought one & it has caught a few things besides yellow jackets.

Its worth a try.

[CentralPAguy]

Did you buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot?

What other things did it catch? Thanks.

By the way, I did stop out this evening and killed one hornet. It seemed like alot less bees on the outside, but maybe I am paranoid.

[Klaus]

Hornets and yellow Jackets are both omnivores. You can make a trap from 2- liter plastic soday bottles. Easy to do;
Cut the neck of the bottle offabout an inch of where the body of the bottle is and invert the neck into the body of the bottle. Use common
staples to secure the neck to the body of the bottle.

You can use a little bit of raw hamburger as bait in the trap, hornets and wasps will go for it....bees won't.:D

Mount the trap or traps near your hives and score one for the ladies.:thumbsup:

[CentralPAguy]

Klaus,

Thanks -- I didn't realize how easy it would be to make a trap. If I put hamburger in it and left it at my bee yard for a week, would the hornets and yellow jackets still go for it on the 7th day?

[Klaus]

You bet ... and the cpatured BFH and YJ will add to the feast:D

[KQ6AR]

I bought it this spring at a feed store, The hardware stores, & costco also have them now.
I couldn't tell for sure what type of wasps or hornets the other ones where. But it did do some good.


Did you buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot?

What other things did it catch? Thanks.

By the way, I did stop out this evening and killed one hornet. It seemed like alot less bees on the outside, but maybe I am paranoid.

[Ben Brewcat]

It's a little late now (but not harmful) to do much in the way of trapping... they've built up a lot and killing individuals does little for overall control. Trapping earlier, in the spring and early summer, can catch queens and will hit them before they build great numbers.

I'll always smash YJs and other wasps when working the colonies... don't want them thinking this kind of behavior will be tolerated :).

[CentralPAguy]

I believe that you are right as I am just killing the workers -- Yesterday, I was in my Glory fighting the nasty YJ. I think I killed 30 or 40 while working my Yard. I also got one of the Hornets too.

I did see a YJ dart into one of my hives and then waited and sure enough the girls chased him out of there. However not all my hives are as strong as that one.

Next year, I will be set the traps out early hopefully to catch queens and avoid this problem next fall.

[mxr618]

I observed yellow jackets going into the hive today. The girls weren't chasing them out, they showed no reaction. Made me wonder if the YJs had set up shop in the hive...

Weirdness. Didn't know they could do that. It's a strong hive but the girls didn't seem to care about the interlopers. I thought there'd be trouble but there wasn't.

[dickm]

I cover the top of my hive-topmfeeders in #8 wire to keep out robbers. Once I had one with a tiny hole in it. It was big enough to let a yellow jacket in but kept the honeybees out. This feeder was full of yellowjackets. Go figure.

Dickm

[CentralPAguy]

Today, I worked the beeyard and I didn't see any hornets, but I saw alot of yellow jackets. One of the hives was under attack probably from bees its sister hives. I reduced the entrance down to only allow a few bees to enter at any given time. I also saw a yellow jacket land on the same landing board and one of my girls grabbed him and they fell off of the landing board.

[rwlaw]

Really didn't have any use for hornets and wasps, first year for keeping bees and I down right hate them now. Bought two of those A S K traps from Home Depot and the **** things wouldn't catch cold. But the time of the year theory seems to hold water.
Been trying everything from ham to bananna skins in the water trap part, don't know if it'll help but try Kombucha (fermented tea), between the two traps propbably caught a hundred yellow jackets in two days (and only one bee) , wish I could take out some baldies too but they won't go for it.
Give Ben Brewcat a shout or google it, besides drowning some bugs it's supposed to be good for ya!

[walking bird]

I soak pieces of cooked chicken in water for a few days (in the fridge). I stick a nice hunk of that into the bait well of one of those standard YJ traps, (although the big plastic soda containers work just as well) and smear it with a little wet cat food. I've usually got YJ's buzzing around before I can finish hanging it.

Because the chicken was water-saturated, it lasts from weekend to weekend. I change the traps each weekend, beginning early in the season.

Most important: YJ's don't range far. Try to find their nest--- it's usually a hole in the ground, and they enter and exit quite rapidly (no buzzing around like bees) so you have to have a sharp eye to find it. Once you do, wait 'til after dark, spray a bunch of wasp spray into the hole, and stick a brick or rock on top.

[Dave Burrup]

Home made hornet traps are real cheap to make. Mix 1 cup of water, 1 c vinegar, and 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar. Add one ripe bannana peel. I put these in 1/2 gal milk jugs with gravel in the bottom. The gravel keeps the wind from tipping them over. The opening in the milk jug is just right for an entrance. The bannana peel repels the bees, but the mix is very attractive to wasps and hornets. It does not smell and will last all season. Last fall we caught hundreds of Yellow Jackets and only two bees.
Dave

[golddust-twins]

There is a new yellow jacket trap out this year. It has 2 chambers & uses 3 different ferimone baits. Its supposed to catch yellow jackets, wasps, & hornets. I bought one & it has caught a few things besides yellow jackets.

I only caught yellow jackets in this trap--no baldface hornets (which I have been having problems with) and not one wasp. Did get a few of my honeybees in it also.

[Intheswamp]

Home made hornet traps are real cheap to make. Mix 1 cup of water, 1 c vinegar, and 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar. Add one ripe bannana peel. I put these in 1/2 gal milk jugs with gravel in the bottom. The gravel keeps the wind from tipping them over. The opening in the milk jug is just right for an entrance. The bannana peel repels the bees, but the mix is very attractive to wasps and hornets. It does not smell and will last all season. Last fall we caught hundreds of Yellow Jackets and only two bees.
Dave
Ok, a thread from the past but I have a question...

This post states that the mouth of the milk jug is a good entrance for the wasps, hornets, and yjs...ok, I get that.

I've also seen other posts stating to use 2-liter drink bottles, keep the cap on, punch a 3/4" hole in the side of the bottom just above where the bottle curves in to the neck...that the hole makes a good entrance...ok, I get that, too.

What I don't get is...what keeps the critters inside until they croak? The milk jug basically is a funnel pointing them to the exit. The drink bottle is just a hole and it seems the bugs would evenutally find the hole since there's no guard around it. Do they eat themselves into oblivion? The holes are invisible to them? They just simply work with no explanation????

Thanks!
Ed

[psfred]

They drown in the water in the bottom of the trap. With the neck inverted style trap, they also have trouble finding their way back out.

The dead ones attract more live ones, too.

Peter

[Rick 1456]

When you find the nests, warm/hot/soapy water (I use dishwash liquid like dawn) in a garden sprayer works great. Just put the nozzle in and let her go:) Little more environmentally friendly.
I keep my hive entrances at 5". Less real estate to guard. I have one hive that I seem to always find some dead creature on the ground in front of the hive. Fortunately, I'm not one of them:)

[rrussell6870]

The most popular traps on the market are the W.H.Y.(wasps, hornets, yellow jackets) traps... you can probably Google it and find a retailer...

The best bait for homemade traps would probably be canned cat food, potted meat, corned beef, or spam...

Intheswamp, they naturally try to fly outward... so they hit the walls and follow them up to where the top has been inverted... thus there is no escape... sure some may get very lucky and find their way out, but its rare, and the harder they struggle, the more they fall into the water...

[Edcrosbys]

Regarding yellow jackets nests - when you find a nest (hole in the ground). Come back at night with a quart mason jar without a lid. Place it upside down over the hole being careful to not disturb the hole. Watch over the next few days as more and more yellow jackets pile up inside. Eventually the queen will show up and die. You can give your wife her mason jar back then!

[Intheswamp]

Ok, I put one out the three days ago just to see what would happen. 2-liter bottle with a couple of holes a little bigger than 1/2" in the upper area. So far not much. A couple of what looks like guinea wasps and a dozen or so moths of some sort. I'm not seeing hardly any flying insects currently other than butterflies, dragonflies, and a few robber flies. I'm not seeing bees of any kind right now around the house. It is currently very dusty and dry. Down the road about 1/2 mile there's an abandoned house with some white jasmine that is blooming...I stopped the other day and honey bees and other nectar seeking insects were working it over pretty good. I did notice some golden rod started to bloom down by a beaver pond/creek about a mile away. I figure when there's more traffic there will be more yj and wasps visiting the trap.

Bait is:
1/2-cup sugar dissolved in 1/2-cup water
1-cup apple cider vinegar
a drop or two of dish washing liquid
1 banana peel
enough water added to fill bottle almost half full

[Lost Bee]

Bald faced hornets can be scary at times. I took this picture of a nest on August 4,2009.
The nest was in a birch tree about 10 feet high from the ground and only a few feet from
a gravel road. Passing this nest with a mountain bike on the other side of the road sometimes
still had a hornet chase me for a distance. Even stopping 30 feet from the nest before passing
it also would still get a hornet coming straight at me. I know these can be vicious. I fear these
much more than yellow jackets anyday. I once sat down on a rock and killed horse and deer flies
landing on me. Bald faced hornets then appeared and took these flies away to their nests I guess.
Lucky for me the hornets wanted the flies and not me.

I'm glad wasps and hornets don't crossbreed with honey bees or
beekeepers would never be able to handle a frame again without
gloves.

686

[suburbanrancher]

This is a very satisfying video for me. I might have posted this already somewhere, can't remember:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WYEyiuE1YE

I also used the store-bought traps (the WHY traps), and it caught some YJ and EH but all in the same section! The area for hornets caught 2 honey bees and the wasp area caught YJ and a few hornets. Go figure. Next year I'm just using the homemade traps. Hopefully I get the queens as they're looking for nesting spots.

[Lost Bee]

This guy in the video feeding hornets is braver than most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qZyIHZ-W5kA

I hope he doesn't try that on a wild tiger or a bigger hive.

It would me take a case of beer before I would even think of trying that. :D