QUESTION: I’ve never had a complaint about anyone catching a bee in yourwasp trap, but often my customers ask “what’s to stop a bee flying in and being trapped?”

I’m glad you’ve never caught a bee! We are not aware of our traps ever trapping bees; we’ve certainly never received feedback that they do. Bees are important pollinators and are very beneficial.

It seems that the yellow colour of our Wasp Trap, and the entry hole size makes them a magnet for wasps, but not bees! A couple of other ideas to make sure our great friend the bee never ends up trapped.

Avoid trapping bees by placing the trap away from plants in bloom. For example, don’t place the trap in a blooming fruit tree or in a flower garden. Using meat helps avoid trapping bees.

Another effective idea; smear a little vinegar around the opening of your wasp trap. Honey bees are typically repelled by the smell of vinegar. Wasps, however, are not. This will keep the honey bees out and the wasps in the trap.

QUESTION: I stock your Wasp Trap in my shop. We sell a lot of them and customers often come back and say they work very well. Thing is, we are sometimes asked 1/ why don’t the wasps fly out if they can fly in and 2/ how do they die when they are inside the trap? Probably very simple questions but I thought I’d ask the experts!

Thanks for asking! As the entrance holes are funnelled inward, the wasps have no problem entering. They are also attracted to entering the trap due to the sugary-sweet juice attractant (and maybe a bit of meat or fish added too!) inside the trap.

Getting out, however, is not so easy (similar to how a cray-fish pot works) – they simply can’t fly out of the exit holes with the same ease that they can get inside the trap! And how do they die? Well, they “buzz around” until they get tired then the land on the juice you put inside as the attractant – and drown…game over.

Please be careful that all of the wasps are dead before you empty the trap; maybe leave disposing of the dead wasps until the end of the day when the temperature cools a bit, just to be safe.