Topic: Boy, we're in trouble

[GrannieAnnie]

We have both wasps and yellow jackets on the raspberries, the latter make a hole in the end of the berry and crawl in. One must look verrrrry carefully at each berry before touching!

[Digeroo]

they're like a city centre street on a friday night.....

I must say that the thought of tipsey wasps is rather amusing. 

[manicscousers]

makes it easier to stomp on them  :)

[thifasmom]

can't say they have been a problem with our apples thus far but earlier in the  month there was an amazing amount on the fennel flowers, never seen that before, but they were very well behaved as in no aggressive behaviour.

[Emagggie]

They certainly enjoyed my figs :-\

[saddad]

So far they have left our figs alone... (fingers crossed) probably because we have picked them regularly...  :)

[Geoff H]

Always a problem at this time of year when they switch from collecting protein (other insects basically) to feed their young to sugar to feed the overwintering nest. Problem is that the easiest place to find the sugar is windfall fruit but that will contain a lot of alcohols of various descriptions, they're like a city centre street on a friday night.....

chrisc

Wasp nests dont overwinter. The nests are dying out now because brood rearing will have finished. the only wasps that will overwinter will be the mated queens that hibernate individually and then come out in the spring to set up new colonies in new nests. When the wasps take insects back to feed the grubs they get a sweet substance off the grubs as food. As that source of sweet food for the wasps has disappeared that is why they become a nuisance in late summer/autumn.
As a beekeeper I have had a lot of wasps hanging around the hives. They overran a tiny colony, killed the bees and stole the  honey.I set out wasp traps that consist of milk cartons with a small hole in  the side and bait of orange juice, sugar and water. a bit of fermenting apple also attracts them. I have killed hundreds using these traps.

[GrannieAnnie]

I tried your suggestion of bottles with jelly around the rim amongst raspberries and it does work well!  Next yr will have to start that earlier.