2 weeks of yellow jacket trapping!

[Pilot]

Baited my trap & went on vacation. Here's what I got from one trap while I was gone (if I can figure out how to post a photo.) If that doesn't work, there about 60 queens in one trap, about 20 in another on my 10 acres.

 

[texasjohn]

Wow

 

[Cottonhawk]

The yellow jacket queens must had a convention on your property! I have two traps out and each caught ONE in last few weeks.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

I have two traps out and didn't catch a single one...

 

[mscheer772]

Can someone post a picture of a yellow jacket 'queen" and a yellow jacket 'worker" ?

 

[Pilot]

Check The Yellow Jacket Wasp ....................................

The queen is the only one that survives the winter, so here in NW Oregon the queens are the only ones hitting the traps. They are about 50% larget than workers. Workers will start to come out in very late June or early July.

For those who haven't caught many, move the trap. And are you using the ones with the pheromone attractant or using meat? In my experinece, the pheromone works best. The traps I use are now carried by Costco.

 

[HomeBrew2]

That makes you the winner, by a landslide I got 4 on my 5 ac. Moving the traps as you said really did the trick. Agree about the pheromone too.

 

[midlf]

In '05 I had 4 nests around the house that caused a lot of problems and were hard to kill off. Last year I got two of those traps but they only caught 4 or 5 yellowjackets each. However we had no yellowjackets or nests that we noticed that year so I guess they worked. This year, so far, I have caught about 15 so far and I just reloaded the traps with attractant. The first load of attractant caught none. The second load caught the 15. I suspect the timing is very important. I closely follow the instructions on placement location and timing. We'll see how it goes this year.

 

[SPIKER]

I saw 1 in my trap today, and it looks to be a worker not a queen. not sure if they are going yet though...
mark M

 

[Pilot]

Location and temperature are important. If daytime highs run much over 75-80 in our area, the queens head for the traps. Cooler than 75, you might as well put the traps away.

If you aren't catching any, and especially if you see them flying around, move the trap. Sunny spots are best because the greenhouse effect in the trap kills them quicker. Some do escape the trap, so the quicker they die, the fewer escape.