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Honeybees and a yellow jacket trap

7K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  JohnBeeMan 
#1 ·
I am making a yellow jacket trap with the 2ltr bottle, vinegar, sugar,water and a bananna peel. What keeps honeybees from going into one of these?
 
#7 ·
I use cheap root beer (the cheaper the better) and smoked turkey breast in mine and maybe just a 'splash' of pancake syrup works great, I've even caught some Bald Face hornets.
 
#9 ·
>>I heard the smell of the bananas is a signal for the bees to stay away.

>May be this could work for clearing supers at the end of a flow, now this has got me thinking [Smile]

Or maybe it means stay away unless it is back home, and then it means "predator...mass attack!!!" :eek:
. I'm not going to try it...that's for sure!

-rick
 
#10 ·
#12 ·
>>I heard the smell of the bananas is a signal for the bees to stay away.

ScadsOBees: Or maybe it means stay away unless it is back home, and then itans "predator...mass attack!!!"


According to the literature, banana oil is a component of the honeybee alarm pheromone. The chemical in question is 3-methylbutylacetate. Synonyms are isoamyl acetate, and isopentyl acetate.

Wikipedia says, "Isoamyl acetate can be used to attract large groups of honeybees to a small area."

It appears banana oil might summon honeybees, but not for lunch. I wouldn't use it to clear a super.

Yellow jackets apparently respond much differently.

References:

http://www.tnbeekeepers.org/pubs/Pheromones%2520November%25201999.pdf#search=%22honeybee%20pheromone%20banana%22

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate

http://www.mainebee.com/articles/nov.php
 
#15 ·
I used some syurp from my feed supply contained some wintergreen and lemongrass to top off one of my traps. Within 30 minutes I had about 20 dead honeybees. I quickly emptied that trap and refilled with just the sugar water, BP, and vinegar. It was back to catching just moths,YJs, and yellow European hornets in no time.

I am also going to test the tuna fish approach (as soon as the monsoon lets up).

I have also learned to not eat banana on the morning that I am going to work the bees - they do not appear to like the banana breath.
 
#16 ·
JohnBeeMan, are you catching many European Hornets in your trap? I'm having alot of them on apple and pear trees and also catching honeybees around my beehives.I don't have a big problem with them eating the fruit, but when they're messing with my bees that's a different story! A couple of weeks ago I declared war on them with a fly swatter and a badminton racket.I've probably eliminated around 175 or so and given many more a good headache! If the yellow jacket trap is really effective, it would sure be a lot easier to use and there would be no chance of getting tennis elbow!..... Also, it would work 24/7 on them. I have gone out after dark and found them eating my pears. After killing the ones I could, I returned an hour or so later to the same pears only to find more of them munching away. If they are actively hunting for food at night, it makes me wonder how much predation is going on at my beehives at night! Anyone else have any experience like this?
 
#17 ·
BEEmeister: I've had YJ's desecrate 2 of my hives to the point that when I removed the cover you would have thought I was raising YJ's. They appear to work from the outer frames inward. During the spring they need the honey for their flight muscles and during the fall they need the protein for their brood.
Some have suggested that there is a symbionic(sp)relationship between their brood, they feed them the bee carcasses and their brood returns the favor with a sweet discharge.
The cheapest trap to construct is the 2 liter pop bottle one, below the slope cut 4 opposing hole about the size of your little finger, add about 2 inches of cheap root beer (the cheaper the better) and a splash of pan cake syrup, suspend a peice of smoked turkey lunch meat, you can even add some of the rotting fruit, like slices of apples to the mixture. I've had 3 inches of YJ's in a 24 hour period and have even had polistes and bald face hornets in my traps.
When the trap in full you can just throw it away.

[ October 07, 2006, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: SilverFox ]
 
#18 ·
David Eyre of Beeworks taught me to take any old jar and use a big nail to punch wasp sized holes in the lid.
Fill it half full of water and add a couple tablespoons of cheap strawberry jam. Works great.
Tried several commercially made rigs and none come close. Getting the first one in takes a bit of time but after they sense another wasp inside they fill up. Like mentioned above... full to the point the was not enough water to drown any more.

When you dump the water and dead wasps, mix a fresh brew and put a doxen fresh dead ones in. Speeds up the " acceptance"

never had a single honeybee in them. I put one on top / back of each hive to keep them the entrance.

[ October 07, 2006, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: brent.roberts ]
 
#19 ·
Thanks SilverFox for the trap instructions.You really do have quite a problem with YJ's.I' ve never experienced anything of that magnitude here. They used to be more of a problem in the fall when you opened a hive. A half dozen or so would be flying in to take some honey. There don't seem to be as many in recent years. I wonder if Vespa crabo may also prey on YJ's in addition to honeybees. Do you have Vespa crabo in Washington?
 
#20 ·
Never have seen any up here, but that doesn't mean they're not here. Read the description of them and it seems that they also eat honey bees though.
When YJ's start attacking it appears that they do as honey bees do when they find a food source, some how the YJ's inform the nest of the location of the hive they are robbing and increase exponentially, one brings back 5-those 5 bring back 20- and so on, till they over come the hive and it happens in a short operiod of time.

[ October 07, 2006, 01:45 PM: Message edited by: SilverFox ]
 
#21 ·
Beemiester asd "are you catching many European Hornets in your trap?"

Not a lot but ever dead one sure looks great. On a good day I only get 3 or 4 per trap.

The best lure for the European hornet that I have seen is the apple flavored jolly ball that I hung for the horse. Once the hornets found it there would be 10 or more of them at any one time. Needless to say the horse ignored it. However, this required the ball bat approach.
 
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