Can someone post how to make a yellow jacket trap?I have a lot of them around my hives! Thanks,Bill
From what I've "read" take a fruit jar and place some tuna fish in it. HB won't go to tuna fish but YJ will. Put an inverted screen in the jar (like a jar minnow trap) Make sure the hole in the screen is small enough they can get in but will have trouble finding when they want out.
Before I got bees I would hang up mountain dew bottles around my humming bird feeders. I would cut a small narrow smiley face in several places about 2/3's of the way up. Then bend it slightly up on the outside. The yj would enter at the holes and go down to drink the mountain dew. Then they would fly to the top of the bottle looking for a way out. After a while they'd get tired and drown in the mountain dew. I haven't done that since I got bees. I'm afraid it'd take out a lot of bees as well. I use to dump out about a third of a bottle every few days with yj.
A two liter bottle with holes cut around the middle large enough for them to get in, and baited with vinegar, banana peel, sugar syrup and some meat usually works well...
I will have to try these next year. I can't count the number I decapitated with a hive tool.
I made some simple ones by cutting the top 1/4 or so off a plastic soda bottle or jug [any size], flipping the top upside down to make a funnel that goes down into the rest of the bottle. Duct tape the edges and put in 1/2 cider vinegar, 1/2 water and a few drops of dish soap. I've caught hundreds of yellow jackets at my hives in just a few days.