Yellow Bug Sticky Traps - Will Bees be attracted to them?

[mgmoore7]

I want to use these for bug management in our garden.  Our hives are in our garden as well.  Do you know if bees are attracted to the yellow like many other bugs?

[DayValleyDahlias]

I gave up using sticky traps in my1/4 acre dahlia field.  They trapped too many beneficial insects, and not enough naughty insects.  Are you trying to trap white fly?  Some bees did perish on them...You can spray with Lilly Miller Vegol to control white fly, as well as using worm compost & compost teas...

[mgmoore7]

Aphids are the biggest issue to control.  Attracking good bugs to them is an issue too of course. 

[JP]

Mg, sorry I don't have a solution for your aphid problem, of course some type of biological control would be best. As you will see, sticky boards will catch non-targeted insects as well. The thing with pest control is of course to target a specific insect or use a product (low toxicity) that includes on its label the pest you are trying to control. Good luck.

[Cindi]

mgmoore7.  I would not use the sticky traps, it is correctly said, many beneficial insects would not necessarily be attracted to them, but by happenchance might fly near them and get stuck on them.  There are some good products, like what DayValleyDahlias indicated.  Try one of them.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful day.  Cindi

[randydrivesabus]

i think safers soap works on aphids. or any weak soap solution. and ladybugs and lacewings.

[mgmoore7]

I do use a soap and oil solution and it definately helps.  I was just trying to add to my "natural" efforts as I am significantly increasing the variety of vegies that I will be planting in the fall. 

[Moonshae]

Why not buy some ladybugs? They are avid aphid eaters and make things easier for you. If I remember correctly, the best time to install them is when it is as dark as possible for you to still see what you're doing...sprinkle them around the bases of plants, and they should crawl right up. By avoiding the daylight, you minimize the number that will just fly away. When the sun comes up in the morning and they've discovered the feast of aphids, they won't have any impulse to fly away with food so readily available.

[mgmoore7]

The ladybugs are a good idea and one of the things we are doing is planting some plants/flowers that attract ladybugs and other good bugs such as marigolds. 

[DayValleyDahlias]

Springstar's Aphid Chaser...uses pheramones...I have NO aphids in the garden, as I use worm castings in the soil which have chitans in them, and as the plant uptakes the nutirnts it gives off the scent of DEAD APHID...also, if yu have aphids there is a good chance you have ants...Ants harvest aphids for their honeydew...control ants with Grants' Ant Stakes, anyhow that is how I organically control aphids...

[Cindi]

Sharon, you are right about the worm castings.  THey are absolutely wonderful for deterring the "bad" bugs from the garden.  We live some distance away from a worm farm and one year I bought a 50 pound bag of the castings.  I spread them all around my gardens, but did not have nearly enough.  It was too far to go and get another bag of castings, but I believe that the gardens were helped immensely.  We are really lucky, in that we have worms coming out our ears in my gardens.  Eveywhere I dig I find worms and worms and more worms.  Yeah!!!!!  And holy smoke, when I turn over my enormous (and I mean enormous) compost pile, the worms almost make you scared there are so many.  It is like going into an alien world of twisting, curling, moving, slithery little critters.  Ooops, just thought of another thread that I am going to start.  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life and health.  Cindi

[DayValleyDahlias]

Yes Cindi, aren't worm casting fantastic!!  Yahoo for the worm poo!

[mgmoore7]

I don't know anything about these worm castings????

All of my garden is in containers on top of weed guard fabric and mulch.   

[nepenthes]

I would leave ants alone, they go after Caterpillar, and similar pests. And not all of them do "farm" aphids, remember their are thousands of species of ants.

[Moonshae]

You can buy worm compost kits, where you throw your household and/or yard waste into the container, and the worms break it down into castings. Then you screen out the worms and their eggs, and use them to break down the next batch of waste. I think they tend to use red worms, not nightcrawlers, for these since red worms are more content to stay put, whereas nightcrawlers may roam away.

[mgmoore7]

ahh ok, I know a little about that.