The second half of summer and the beginning of autumn are the period of active life of wasps. It is at this time that beekeepers set traps for these stinging hymenoptera insects, hoping to protect the bees from the attack of such aggressive neighbors.
Today we will talk about the varieties of wasps that are especially dangerous for the apiary, as well as the main methods of dealing with them.
The content of the article
- 1 Wasp Bee Enemies
- 2 The main measures for the protection of the apiary
- 3 How to make a trap
- 4 Poisonous bait
Wasp Bee Enemies
Wasps include many stinging insects with webbed wings. This group unites a fairly large number of individuals in the way of life and body structure close to honey bees.
The most aggressive towards bees are hornets, polish, philanthropists (bee wolves).
Hornets and polys are ranked among folded-winged ones.… A characteristic feature of insects is the front wings folded along the body at rest. Hornet is the largest wasp of this species..
Insects settle in tree hollows or build special nests from gray paper pulp, placing them in a secluded place – under the roof of a house, in outbuildings, empty hives.
In late summer and early September, near the hives, you can find several varieties of leafy wasps: forest, German, red, medium and common wasps. They attack weakened hives, plundering honey and killing bees. Dead honey bees are used by female wasps to feed their own larvae.
It should be noted that the mass death of bees from the attack of insects from the wasp group is observed only in those years when there is no other food in nature. In conditions of hunger, predatory insects make their way into the hives after the bees gather in the club, drink honey here and massively destroy the owners of the nest. Hornets are especially aggressive in late autumn, easily overcoming the protection of the hive due to their impressive size and strength.
The danger of an aspen attack lies not only in a strong weakening of the nests, but also in the likelihood of the bees becoming infected with some infectious disease!
The digging wasps, the most dangerous for the apiary, include the philanthropy of the triangle or bee wolf.… In terms of biological characteristics, the golden palarus is close to it. Insects of this species live in the soil. The larvae are also taken out here, feeding them paralyzed insects caught in the hunt.
The philanthropists look elegant – they have a slender hairless body, elongated legs. Adults reach a length of 1,2-1,7 centimeters, have strong jaws, a characteristic black and yellow body color and have black triangles on the back.
A distinctive feature of crown philanthropists, another variety of burrowing wasps, is a crown-shaped pattern clearly visible on the frontal part of the head.
Predators are active on hot, sunny days. They hunt from morning until 6-7 pm at an air temperature of at least +23 degrees.
They readily inhabit light soils suitable for the construction of underground tunnels and burrows, preferring sandy loam and podzolic soils. Typical holes, pointing to an insect colony, can be found along roads with embankments, on the slopes of ravines and ditches.
The males do not pose any danger to the apiary, but the female philanthropists willingly hunt bees, available within a radius of 2,5-5 kilometers from the mink. They put up to seven paralyzed bees in special chambers, and then lay eggs in their thoracic regions.
Predators live up to 1,5 months and equip up to three nests during this period. During nesting, honey bees are actively caught, picking them up on the fly or on flowers during collection.
The main measures for the protection of the apiary
The question of how to get rid of wasps in an apiary can be answered unequivocally: success will depend on the comprehensive measures taken by the beekeeper.
Large wasp colonies can greatly weaken bee nests, since predators prefer to settle in exactly the places where they hatched. Pupae of insects tolerate wintering well, which also contributes to the spread of the colony.
The fight against wasps in the apiary includes the following measures:
- To destroy philanthropists, it is necessary to plow or dig up areas occupied by a colony of predators for the winter. These wasps love to settle only in dry areas, bare of vegetation. Therefore, it is advisable to sow the plowed soil with grass or constantly moisten this area by covering it with straw, fallen leaves, and small brushwood. During the period of mass breeding of predators, the transfer of the apiary to another place, located far from the wasp minks, helps. You can pour insecticide into the nests themselves.
- The fight against hornets in an apiary is unthinkable without the early destruction of their paper nests. In the spring, it is necessary to kill the female, since it is this step that will provoke the death of the entire family of predators (there will be no one to feed the young).
- For leaflets and hornets, insecticides are used in a mixture with an attractant (ether-2,4-hexadienyl butyrate). They are used to treat the nests of pests.
- Another effective and affordable way is to set traps in places where predators accumulate.
How to make a trap
The easiest way to make a wasp trap is to use an old plastic bottle.… The upper part with a neck is cut off from it (the height of this part is up to 10-15 cm). The neck unfolds with its narrow part down and fits tightly into the bottle. The result is a narrow entrance through which it is difficult to get out.
The trap is filled one third or less with bait. As it is used:
- a mixture of water and honey, honey fed;
- wine bite;
- fermented compote.
Honey feed is used with great care to avoid the death of bees! Bottles are installed in the late evening, and removed in the morning before the start of the bee summer. In order not to constantly be on duty in the apiary, it is preferable to use wine vinegar, which absolutely does not attract bees.
As the traps are filled with the corpses of wasps, they are cleaned and refilled with bait.
Another way to catch nascomy predators is to use a glass liter jar and a household plastic funnel.… The two listed parts are fastened together with a rubber ring.
Inside, at the bottom of the jar, 20-30 g of sour fruit juice is poured. Then the jar is placed sideways on the lid of a hive. You can knead it on the ground right next to the hives. Both wasps and flies willingly go for such a bait. Bees do not react to sour fruit juice – the device can be used around the clock.
After 3-5 days, the “catch” is filled with clean water. After the destruction of the pests, the resulting mass is poured into a cesspool, and the trap is filled with a fresh portion of the bait and set in place.
Poisonous bait
An alternative to simple traps can be the use of poison baits. Here are three practical ways:
Amanita mushroom use… A fly agaric hat is thoroughly crushed and boiled for three minutes in a mixture of 100 g of honey and 250 ml of water. The poison should not be placed on the apiary during the active summer! It is better to spread the bait near the aspen colony. Then, after poisoning, the predators will have time to get to the nests and feed the bait to the larvae. As a result, the entire colony will die.
Attention: all work with the fly agaric must be carried out with gloves.
Use of dust… The event is held in autumn, when there is no active summer in the apiary. The holes in the hives must be closed! During the work, utmost care must be taken so that the bee colonies are not injured. Deep plates are greased with a thin layer of honey and sprinkled with dust (DDT). Then the bait is installed in those places in the apiary that were most visited by female wasps. For 50 bee colonies, 3-5 plates of dust are enough. Predators willingly sit on the bait and soon die. The method gives good results after three days – the pests almost completely disappear.
Important: as the sun rises and the air temperature rises, all plates are removed from the apiary, and the entrances are opened.
The use of chlorophos… To attract philanthropists to a tree branch near the hives, it is necessary to hang 200 g of meat. The bait is located approximately 50-60 cm from the ground surface. Predators quickly find meat and willingly gather in this place. The next day, the bait is treated with a chlorophos solution, and a bucket of water is placed under the meat. Paralyzed philanthropists fall into the water and die. With a strong colony of predators in one day, up to 100 philanthropists, 300 wasps and 50-60 hornets can be collected in this way.
For a successful fight against hornets and wasps in the apiary, the beekeeper needs to be extremely careful. Complex measures are carried out from early spring to late autumn and include both the physical destruction of pest nests and the use of various methods for catching and killing individual individuals.
