|
|
|
Wasp Catcher
Angela
McKey, Lake Dallas, TX
Trap
design by Joy McKey
This
wasp catcher is great for catching flies and wasps, however you may need to
take it down if you start catching honey bees. My mother-in-law
Joy McKey (who
designed this catcher) has had great success at just catching flies & wasps.
Items
needed
Open paper clip (small)
Plastic bottle (20 oz, liter, whatever size),
with cap
Straw, cut to ¾ to 1 inch (any size straw)
Candle
Lighter
String (for hanging the wasp catcher)
Juice & sugar |
|
Entrance Hole
You’ll dip the opened paper
clip into the flame of the candle to get it hot (please be careful!). You
may need to wrap a wet piece of paper towel around the paper clip so it
doesn’t get too hot to touch.* Then press tip on bottle using either end of
the paper clip, but the smaller end may make the entrance hole (for the
straw) a little easier. You’ll probably want to make the entrance hole a
little less than half way up the bottle. It will take several passes of the
hot paper clip to make the entrance big enough so that the straw will fit
through. You don’t want the entrance hole too big. Cut the straw into a ¾
to 1 inch size. If it fits snuggly into the hole then that’s what you
want. If it’s too big you can either tape it up and start over, or you can
add some wax from your candle around the straw and close it up a little
(just be careful with working with hot wax). Try to not have the straw
hanging out much from the outside of the bottle (it doesn’t matter how far
it sticks from inside the bottle). You can make as many entrance holes as
you want on the bottle (if a 20oz bottle or smaller, you may only want one).
Aroma
Vents
Now you’ll want to make
lots of vents so that the aroma of the juice can float out and be smelt by
the wasps & flies. Using either end of the hot paper clip, you’ll make
aroma vents all around the bottle, but make sure that they’re slightly above
the entrance hole (see illustration). You can make another set of vents
higher up on the bottle. Since the juice is closest to the entrance hole,
hopefully they’ll find the entrance faster if it’s lower than the aroma
vents. You can space the vents as close or far apart as you like (get
creative).
Juice
You can try a variety of
nectars. The most success has been with using cheap apple juice with sugar
added to it (about 1/3 a cup). Others have used orange juice, and then some
have even put raw/ground hamburger meat into the bottom of their bottle.
Get creative and see what works best for you – the sweeter & smellier, the
better. The
color yellow seems to attract wasps, so perhaps using yellow-colored
Gatorade with sugar (or putting something yellow on/near the bottle) will
help draw the wasps in. Pour it into the bottle (be careful when pouring so it doesn’t come
out the vents/hole, using a funnel will help). Fill the juice to about an
inch below the entrance hole.
Hanging
Take two pieces of string
and tie them around the lip of the bottle and then tie those two loose ends
around a tree branch or hook.
When
your liquid evaporates, you can take the lid off and pour more in (using a
funnel helps). If you use a clear bottle & clear type liquid you can see
what sorts of insects & wasps were trapped in the bottle. Good luck! |
|
|
|
| Notes: Not comfortable trapping wasps? Try
distracting them by putting out their own feeders with a stronger
concentration of sugar water than what you have in your feeder.
Experiment with presentation to find the best distraction, pour it on the
ground, in a container with rocks, in a shallow dish, etc. Be sure you
place your new feeder somewhere you won't mind having wasps and bees
accumulate!
My thanks to Angela McKey, who I met at NatureQuest in
Concan, Texas. We started visiting and talking about teaching and
nature, and somehow we got to talking about Angela's mother-in-law, Joy
McKey, who had
designed her own wasp trap to distract wasps and bees from her hummingbird
feeder. Angela did a nice job of writing it up and illustrating the
trap, and I appreciate that! Hope you do, too!
Let me know if you
try it, and what kind of nectar you tried! Send an email to
sandy@naturallycurious.com
* This was emailed to us:
That looks like an excellent design. I'm going to try it in Colorado
where we have way too many wasps in the summer.
I have a safety issue -- albeit a small one.
In the instructions, I notice it says to use a wet paper towel to hold
the hot paper clip. Anything wet will transfer heat more quickly than
something dry. You could hold the hot clip with a pair of pliers and
not have to worry about ever getting burned.
Thanks,
jb
|
|
1-888-258-4687
