I use yellow jacket traps that I bought at a local farm store. They are
a canning jar at the bottom and a special cap that has three tubes that
extend an inch, or so, below the top of the cap and there is a (black)
shield covering the top of the holes, about an inch up so that the critters
can't see anything but blackness if they look out the tubes they entered
with. The very top of the cap is a bright yellow to attract insects as they
fly by.
For bait I use 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup hot water - hot is needed to
dissolve the honey to obtain a dilute solution. I place the traps in the
sun which continually propels the honey aroma out of the jar even after
there is an inch, or more, of dead bugs in it.
I use these traps when I pick blackberries and they RARELY catch a honey
bee and have never caught a Bumble Bee.
Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN 56472
For jams, jellies & syrups:
www.bberryfarm.com
(877)265-6856 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]
[NAFEX] Catching Yellow Jackets,
Jim Fruth, 07/20/2008