How to keep yellowjackets away?
Summary
Keeping yellowjackets away can be a challenge, as they often return despite control efforts. Our forum users have shared a variety of methods they've found helpful, from traps and sprays to preventative measures around the yard. Some users suggest that maintaining strong hives can help bees defend against yellowjackets, while others focus on trapping or eliminating the wasps directly. It appears that a combination of strategies may be the most effective approach to managing these pests.
Here's what our forum users are saying:
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Trapping:
- "Put out yellow jacket/hornet/wax moth traps each spring and keep up till early summer! Make your own out of two liter soda bottles-do a search on yellow jacket trap on this forum should provide some info." -- power napper, Beesource.com
- One user makes traps and places them near hives, catching hornets, yellow jackets, wasps, and moths, unsure if vinegar or banana keeps honey bees away. -- Bees&Wood, Beesource.com
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Elimination:
- "Soapy water makes quick work of them. A teaspoon of dish soap, a wand garden sprayer and spray away. The bubbles get onto their faces and forms bubbles that cause the YJs to suffocate." -- kenargo, Beesource.com
- One user shared they got rid of 34 wasp queens by using a spray. -- grozzie2, Beesource.com
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Prevention:
- "The US Postal service sent out a message for all letter carriers to put a sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow-jackets away... It really works. The yellow jackets just veer around you." -- puppypaws, Lawnsite.com
- "I use permanently reduced entrances, and the only time I ever get a wasp problem is when they get into a weak hive somewhere away from the entrance." -- Robert Brenchley, Beesource.com
- "The 2" entrance reducers have been on for a month or more. They really do help concentrate the efforts of the guard bees." -- Phoebee, Beesource.com
Post Mentions
- Put out yellow jacket/hornet/wax moth traps each spring and keep up till early summer! Make your own out of two liter soda bottles-do a search on yellow jacket trap on this forum should provide some info.
- This is what it says, try it and tell us if it works !!! Bounce - Who Knew? The US Postal service sent out a message for all letter carriers to put a sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow-jackets away. Use them when playing baseball, soccer and when working outside. It...
- Soapy water makes quick work of them. A teaspoon of dish soap, a wand garden sprayer and spray away. The bubbles get onto their faces and forms bubbles that cause the YJs to suffocate. You could also bait them. Using fish, meet, bacon, etc hung over the top of some water with dish soap but...
- I make these up and place near my hives. Have had hornets, yellow jackets, wasps and moths in the traps. Not 100% sure if it's the vinegar or banana that keeps the honey bees away. You might want to try a few.
- I use permanently reduced entrances, and the only time I ever get a wasp problem is when they get into a weak hive somewhere away from the entrance.
- I've never had luck with the 2L soda bottle traps. See lots of flies, and a few bees in them, but rarely a wasp. We put a few commercial wasp traps out this spring. So far, they have caught a bunch of flies, and a few mason bees, no wasps. Day before yesterday I saw wasp queens out and about...
- The best way to deal will YellowJackets is to keep strong hives. These girls are scavengers and will clean up the sick and dying bees at the entrance. I know it's harsh to see them eviscerate a honeybee, something they do with great efficiancy, but it's my opinion yellowjackets do more good...
- And I keep forgetting to take the video camera with me when I feed Nuc #2 down in an outyard. These feisty little rascals have been fending off yellowjackets for a couple of weeks. Last week they put on a really good show, a two-bee, one yellowjacket bug-tussle on the landing board that ended...
- I have some wasps that hang out beneath one of my top bar hives. Every now and then, I'll see one buzz the landing board, tag a drone, and jump it when it hits the ground. Wasp almost always gets to keep the drone. Within about 5 minutes, the wasp and it's buddies have dismembered the drone and...
- My neighbor asked me how to ask you guys; how do you get rid of hornets/yellow jackets permanently? He sprays them every year but they keep on coming back. How do you get rid of hornets/yellow jackets permanently? Thank you
Related Threads
- This is what it says, try it and tell us if it works !!! Bounce - Who Knew? The US Postal service sent out a message for all letter carriers to put a sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow-jackets away. Use them when playing baseball, soccer and when working outside. It...
- Pre-bee beginner here. I plan to get a couple of beehives in the spring, so am doing all the learning I can now. We live in a rural area, and have a lot of wasps around our house. They are not yellowjackets, but are mostly paper wasps, with a few black-faced wasps. I've been looking to see...
- For some time now, I have been seeing a few yellow jackets around my hives. They have been less that 10 or so and I usually kill a few with my hand every day.I see them go in the entrances now and then and the bees don't seem to mind at all. This morning I went out and lifted the cover off and...
- I have given up using pesticides in my yard and am getting used to the ants and mosquitoes. However, now it seems that yellow jackets have made a nest in an exterior wall of my home. I hate to think I have to wait until Winter for them to die as they have already stung my wife and my dogs. My...
- Last year I had a yellow jacket problem late in the year. I blame them for the eventual death of that particular hive, but I recognize it may not have played a part at all. My question is, can yellow jackets get through a queen excluder? If not, I could put the queen excluder under the brood...
- I am a 1st year bee keeper in NW Pa . All seems to be going well. but when I watch the front of my hive, there are 4-6 wasps/yellow jackets around the bottom of the hive. They are doing a good job of cleaning up dead bees and they don't seem to be trying to enter the hive, but I still don't...
- Hello All, I'm new to beekeeping and could use some guidance. Yesterday I went to do an inspection on my hives and was stung while getting my equipment on. I was surprised considering my hives were 30ft away but didn't think anything about it. Thought I must have done something to upset the...
- I went over today to put my entrance reducers on and get my hives ready for winter. It was a little over 50 degrees so I expected the bees would be flying. I saw no activity on one hive so I cracked it open slightly and saw the bees were in a cluster between the two boxes. So I set it back...
- My neighbor asked me how to ask you guys; how do you get rid of hornets/yellow jackets permanently? He sprays them every year but they keep on coming back. How do you get rid of hornets/yellow jackets permanently? Thank you
