Get Rid Of Wasps: Traps & Tips
If you’ve ever been stung by a wasp, you know they live up to their reputation of being aggressive and having painful stings. When you regularly spot wasps in your yard, chances are there’s a wasp’s nest on your property or nearby. These are not pests that you want hanging about, especially if you have children running around. The best way to get rid of wasps is to find the nest and destroy it, but if you can’t find it or if it’s not on your property, you can use wasp traps to tempt them away from high-traffic areas to another part of the yard to kill them.
Here are directions for two easy homemade wasp traps, they require the same materials and and have the same concept, but two different designs (one’s ideal for hanging, the other for setting on the ground). I used graphics that show soda inside the bottles, but you need to use empty pop bottles (ignore the soda levels shown in the images).
How To Make A Wasp Trap: Ground Version
DIY Wasp Trap
- Take an empty two liter pop bottle or any plastic bottle that has a consistently even width along the sides.
- Using a sharp knife, cut off the top of the soda bottle just below where the start of the bottle sides are at even width.
- Fill the bottom of the bottle with wasp bait about 2″ deep (ideas below).
- Insert the top of the bottle upside down into the bottom of the bottle (remove the bottle cap first). The pieces should fit together nice and snug, but use duct tape along the top edge to secure the pieces together if you need to.
- Set the wasp trap out wherever you’ve seen wasps (in flower beds, close to a hedge, near the bird bath, etc.).
- The wasps will fly into the trap to get at the bait, but have trouble finding their way out. They’ll eventually drown in the liquid bait.
- This trap setup will also work for killing fruit flies.
DIY Wasp Trap: Hanging Version
This trap is well suited for hanging in tree branches or along the eaves of a house (away from entrances since this trap will attract live wasps). The wasps will fly up into the trap from underneath, but have trouble finding their escape by flying down and out.
Homemade Hanging Wasp Trap
- Take an empty two liter pop bottle, tighten on the cap then cut off the bottom few inches of the bottle.
- Taking a second two liter pop bottle, remove the bottle cap and cut off the top part of the bottle right underneath where the width is the same as the rest of the bottle.
- For the bigger bottle piece, puncture two small holes, one on either side of the bottle (at the top) and push through each end of a piece of heavy string or yarn, knotting at each end inside the bottle (this will need to be long enough to hang the bottle and strong enough to hold the weight of the trap).
- Seal the holes where the string runs through with duct tape to prevent wasps crawling out and escaping.
- Place the small piece up inside the bigger piece, securing together with duct tape around the edges.
- Fill the trap with wasp bait about 2″ deep and hang.
Tips:
- Do not fill the trap so full of bait that there isn’t plenty of air space between the bottom (or top) of the pop bottle opening, you want the wasps to be able to fly in with no trouble.
- Empty and refill the wasp traps regularly, wasps won’t be too tempted by a trap filled with drowned wasps. You can submerge the trap in a bucket of water for about 1/2 hour to make sure all wasps are dead before cleaning and refilling.
Wasp Bait Ideas
Just like ants, wasps can be looking for two different types of food sources depending on the colony’s needs at the time: protein or sugar. Set out two different traps to see which bait tempts the wasps best, then continue to fill with that type of bait. Or you could do a sugar & protein bait together (for example: mixing juice with a piece of meat).
- Jam dissolved in water (sweet enough to attract the wasps but diluted enough to drown them)
- Fruit juice
- Beer
- Sweet Soda Pop
- Wine
- Maple syrup diluted with water
- Molasses diluted with water
- If you need protein baits: Try adding a piece of raw hamburger or a chunk of canned tuna, canned dog or cat food to a trap with fruit juices or even plain water (deep enough to drown the wasps but the piece of meat bait needs to be sticking out above the liquid surface to effectively attract the wasps).
Wasp Prevention Tips
- Keep garbage cans and recycle bins covered.
- Don’t leave food or beverages sitting outside, keep beverages covered with a lid. Wipe up spills as soon as they happen.
- If you have water sources in your yard (bird baths, ponds), the wasps could be hanging around for the water (they get thirsty too).
- If you have fruit trees, keep the fruit picked and remove any that have fallen on the ground.
Don't Miss These Tips:
First Published: July 7, 2009
Filed: Household
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This does not work if you have a log house(which i do). Pretty much nothing but a good ol can of wasp spray and/or a flyswatter is your only hope!!
This assumes that trapping wasps makes the area wasp-free. In fact, the science-based literature on wasp control says that it doesn’t do much good: wasps just make lots more wasps real fast, and it only takes a few to be bothersome, so it’s only effective near the end of the season when numbers naturally diminish. Even then, it doesn’t usually reduce numbers enough to matter. Plus, if there’s bait around, you can bet the wasps will keep coming.
Instead of trapping, the approved approach is to give them a poison which they will take back to the nest, where it will kill the lot of them. The recommended poison is microencapsulated diazinon, and the bait is shrimp- or fish-based cat food. Here’s one discussion of the issue:
http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu/jacket.htm
Hi Gerry,
any idea where one can buy this “Knox Out” mentioned inthe article ?
I live in Toronto.
Thanks
Too late… EPA cancelled their registration December 9, 2002. Check it out here…
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Product.jsp?REG_NR=00458100335&DIST_NR=004581
Hi there,
Why do we not know a loving way to collect & move God’s creature’s around without the
end ( them ) theme. There was a book on TV a couple years ago called something like
( Natural remedie’s and bug and rodent repellant. If anyone has one of these books or
knows where I could get one please let me know. I would like to not have poison around
etc. I have kittens and myself and them won’t be dancing with wolves or wasps yet there
has to be a natural way to get them to relocate. Ants too yet have made friends with them
and try to have them eat out. But maybe the wasps are dinning on their food. Thanks for any help for caring repellant, no poison, natural ideas !
Helen,
Not really sure if wasps are among God’s creatures – I think he subcontracted that job out to the Devil…
Anyway, the only way you can get wasps to relocate is to kill the queen and the only way to do that is to put up a trap or poison them. If you enjoy getting stung over every inch of your body, you can try to move a nest but you won’t get too far before you are curled up in the fetal position crying and begging the wasps to forgive you for your transgressions.
Trapping is a natural remedy – it won’t get rid of the nest (that takes poison) but it will reduce the numbers.
We usually wait till it cools down at night and spray the crap out of the nest with WD-40. The wasps are cold and calm and easy to soak. The WD-40 coats their wings so that they can’t fly. Then knock the nest down and squish is and any wasps that are squirming around on the ground.
To move wasp nest, eg, paper wasp nest, simply hose thoroughly at least twice a day, more if you can. They will move away in a short time and you won’t get bitten. They spend all their time drying their nest out and this is not good for the community.
I have had trouble with wasps for several years. I have sprayed nests with Raid that sprays 20 feet so I don’t have to get close and then I knock down the nest. It works well when you can see the nest. I now have wasps going under the siding in the corner of the house by the front door. I have sprayed it but I can’t get the spray up in the tiny space they crawl in. If I can get the WD40 with one of those tubes to spray up there, will they just come back? They seem to not like the Raid for an hour or two and then come back because I can’t get it up inside. HELP!
I have been having trouble and I have learned that gasoline will kill them instantly. I used to use the spray and it sometimes worked but it never killed all of them. If you can get close enough to the nest, just splash some of the gas on the nest and your done! Dont smoke while doing this for obvious reasons!
Wasps are not the invaders or the problem. People are the problem. Stop poisoning, killing and ruining the natural world. Learn to live with nature or move back to the city. Try to grasp this concept–YOU do not own the planet. The world was not created just for you. Other creatures have the right to live. Accept it.
MotherNature, you have forgotten the first rule of evolution… The world belongs to the smartest, fastest, and richest.
And I will do whatever I have to in order to protect my family from being stung. [sentence removed--admin edit--sorry CityGirl, a little harsh so I removed your last sentence]
Please note; The devil didn’t make wasps. Wasps of all kinds, but paper wasps in particular pollinate more fruits, flowers and garden plants than any other thing, including bees. God made them with stingers to protect them and keep you away from the nests where they raise their young. Do not kill this most beneficial of all God’s creatures; many times more essential to the environment than the humans who depend on them for basic survival.