If you read last week's blog you will know that I am distressed by early wasps patrolling the apiary and I took advantage of P being away on cricket tour to try some of his beers as bait in the wasp traps in an effort to catch more wasps and fewer other insects. I also used the blog as a test to find out whether P ever reads the blog himself. The results are unequivocal!
In third place....
It's the French beer flavoured with Tequila, Desperados. I can report that wasps don't like it at all. Neither do any other flying insects. The two traps baited with Desperados caught nothing! I've since found out that P doesn't like it either!
In second place...
Hobgoblin. Yes, that's the other beer I tried last week. Initially I thought that Hobgoblin, the Wychwood brewery's "Traditionally Crafted Legendary Ruby Beer" was a more selective bait than the old wasp trap recipe because I thought I could see only wasps when I peered up in to the bottom of one of the traps after a couple of hours. However, it transpires that these were the only wasps caught all week. Sure, European Hornets, moths and flies weren't attracted to the Hobgoblin but only a couple of wasps were too. P's beer is safe - notwithstanding that wasps menace beer glasses in pub gardens all August, they somehow are not remotely attracted to wasp traps baited with beer.
We have scoured the garden for wasp nests to no avail. The neighbours are on high alert but the villains could be coming in from the field. Meanwhile, I refilled all the wasp traps, this time using a modified recipe from the local beekeeper's magazine. I mixed a couple of teaspoons of home made blackcurrant jam with a little boiling water and topped it up with cold to 1/4 pint before filling the traps and hanging them on hooks near the apiary and in the orchard. Within minutes, i.e. between hanging one trap up and taking out the next one, this bait started working and there wasn't even a teaspoon of alcohol included unlike the old recipe.
In this next picture, if you look carefully, you can see two wasps heading for a trap.
In first place...
So the clear winner is the fruit jam and water bait.
Don't waste your beer on wasps and remember, never use honey or sugar because that attracts bees into the traps.
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