North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com>]

I am getting some good results for a general purpose trap made from two liter bottles.  I cut 2  1' holes in the sides that will be about 1-2" above the level of the bait fluid and roughly opposite of each other, which puts them around 4" inches above the bottom of the bottle.  Hole size is important, if they are too big, then things escape.

For bait, I use nearly pure fruit juice, a little water and a little dish detergent (couple of drops) plus about a 1" square piece of lunch meat.  It is essential that the bottle cap remain in place and that the bottle has mostly vertical, rather than horizontal space.  I've tried horizontal traps that do not work.  Typically the trap does not catch much for a few days until things start to ferment a bit.  I catch yellow jackets, fruit wasps, lots of flies and sometimes at night a lot of moths.  Once the trap kicks in within a day or two I'll get and inch or two of dead pests in the bait, at which time the trap becomes ineffective and needs to be drained and rebaited.  I think a fair amount of vertical space is needed to make the trap effective.  I have also used fruit waste, such as skins in water, which seems to work but not as well.

I just started doing this a few weeks ago as I am having a lot of trouble with fruit wasps and flies, but have been seeing yellow jackets in the traps as well.  Don't have much of a problem with yellow jackets here, but the fruit wasps and flies are the worst I can remember.



--- On Fri, 7/18/08, Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com> wrote:

From: Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] yellow jackets, help!
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Friday, July 18, 2008, 9:35 AM

We have never seen the like of yellow jackets.  I take that back, once we 
did in the 1980's when we set the kids to killing queen wasps in the
spring. 
They kept count and killed 600.  That year Mother Nature filled the vacuam 
with yellow jackets.  It is an experiment we will never repeat!  Anyway, the 
yellow jackets are so thick that I have been stung twice already, in July 
when they are not normally a problem.  The first time was on my right index 
finger, as I stood on a ladder cutting a branch from a hickory to try some 
summer budding.  The second time was dusk, one flew inside my shirt as I was 
walking along.  Picking blackberries has required examining each fruit from 
all sides before touching it.  We have discovered that MOST of them go to 
bed fairly early so we can
 pick blueberries.  I have seen two holes where 
skunks have dug out nests in the woods, but the remaining nests are surely 
growing by the day.
    We have never managed to make a yellow jacket trap that worked.  We 
bought one at Tractor Supply that has collected a total of 2 in a week.  Do 
you all have any suggestions?     Donna 

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