Wasps -how to trap them.
Created | Updated Apr 29, 2003
The reasons for trapping wasps should be obvious. Anyone who has spend time outdoors in summer with sugary food will instantly understand. It seems irrational to be banished from your own garden by a creature about 1/1000th of your size but all too often it happens. A simple solution is readily availible, the home made wasp trap. To make a wasp trap, you will need:
An old plastic drink bottle (2 litre size is best)
A knife or sharp implement
Something sugary and attractive to wasps.
Start by cutting the top off the bottle at the point where it becomes as wide as the body of the bottle. The bottom part of the bottle should now look a bit like a jar with a lumpy base. Put the wasp attracting stuff into the bottom of the bottle. Put the top of the bottle back upside down so it forms a funnel leading down into the bottle. Seal the edges if there is not a good contact all the way round, using tape, gum, leaves, whatever is most appropriate. The wasps smell the sugary food and fly down the funnel into the bottle. Having eaten they try and leave but here they encounter a problem. Wasp logic dictates that when escaping from inside something you fly to the highest point. The wasps buzz round and round the top, but very rarely notice the exit further down.
I have found that sundew melon rind works phenomenally well, but jam, treacle, molasses, or just a bit of the pop that was in there to start with will all work.
The wasps in the trap attract other wasps with their frantic activity, so the effectiveness of the trap is almost expontential. However, sooner or later there will be too many and the trap will not work so well. This raises ethical considerations about disposing of the trap. A wasp is, after all, an instrument of the wider ecological system it exists in. We humans, sadly, have lost this ability. Selfishly killing wasps puts you in a morally grey area. I am not responsible for feeling of guilt, reprehension, and unfavourable judgement in the afterlife as a result of following these instructions.
Disposal.
The number of ways to dispose of the wasps is only limited by your imagination and psychological stability. Allegedly the most painless way is to put the trap in a freezer until the wasps freeze to death. Filling the trap with water works too but is quite nasty. The advantage of these methods is that they allow the trap to be reused quickly. Releasing the wasps is the most karmically sound approach, but could have unpleasant consequences, so careful thought is advised.
Apparently by filling them with water, putting bread in them and placing the traps on their side in a stream they can be used to catch minnows, but as I have never been bothered by minnow I haven't found a need to test this out.
An old plastic drink bottle (2 litre size is best)
A knife or sharp implement
Something sugary and attractive to wasps.
Start by cutting the top off the bottle at the point where it becomes as wide as the body of the bottle. The bottom part of the bottle should now look a bit like a jar with a lumpy base. Put the wasp attracting stuff into the bottom of the bottle. Put the top of the bottle back upside down so it forms a funnel leading down into the bottle. Seal the edges if there is not a good contact all the way round, using tape, gum, leaves, whatever is most appropriate. The wasps smell the sugary food and fly down the funnel into the bottle. Having eaten they try and leave but here they encounter a problem. Wasp logic dictates that when escaping from inside something you fly to the highest point. The wasps buzz round and round the top, but very rarely notice the exit further down.
I have found that sundew melon rind works phenomenally well, but jam, treacle, molasses, or just a bit of the pop that was in there to start with will all work.
The wasps in the trap attract other wasps with their frantic activity, so the effectiveness of the trap is almost expontential. However, sooner or later there will be too many and the trap will not work so well. This raises ethical considerations about disposing of the trap. A wasp is, after all, an instrument of the wider ecological system it exists in. We humans, sadly, have lost this ability. Selfishly killing wasps puts you in a morally grey area. I am not responsible for feeling of guilt, reprehension, and unfavourable judgement in the afterlife as a result of following these instructions.
Disposal.
The number of ways to dispose of the wasps is only limited by your imagination and psychological stability. Allegedly the most painless way is to put the trap in a freezer until the wasps freeze to death. Filling the trap with water works too but is quite nasty. The advantage of these methods is that they allow the trap to be reused quickly. Releasing the wasps is the most karmically sound approach, but could have unpleasant consequences, so careful thought is advised.
Apparently by filling them with water, putting bread in them and placing the traps on their side in a stream they can be used to catch minnows, but as I have never been bothered by minnow I haven't found a need to test this out.
