Best Ways to Trap Yellow Jackets

Do you find yellow jackets as a big nuisance in your house and neighborhood? Are you trying to find some natural traps to get rid of it? Then you have landed at the right place! We are here to provide you an insight into some great ways to trap yellow jackets naturally! There is no need to buy those expensive traps sold in your nearby stores! You can make these traps yourself without much of an expense, using materials available in your household itself! If you own an outdoor café or if you wish to conduct a BBQ party outdoors, these traps can be a great help for you! Here are some easy to make yellow jacket traps to solve all your yellow jacket woes:

Use Pop Bottles!
Pop bottles are easily available. Take one pop bottle, cut it in the middle portion and place any sweet liquid like lemonade in the bottom portion. Now, turn down the top portion of the bottle and use tape to secure it tightly. Now you can leave this bottle in the areas where yellow jackets fly often and disturb you. It is a great way to temporarily distract the yellow jackets and make them go away. Even if they come inside the bottle by being lured by the sweet, they won’t be able to get out and will eventually die!

• Use Meat During Early Springs
  If you are planning to set up the trap during the early spring season, then make use of some protein-rich foods as yellow jacket trap bait instead of using sweets. Yellow jackets are on the lookout for food containing proteins during the early spring season as they usually build their nest and lay eggs during this time. You can use a piece of meat or maybe a slice of hamburger as the bait. Cook the hamburger only partially so that it can be tied to the trap easily. Another great advantage of using this trap during early springs or late winters is that there is more probability that you might catch the queen herself! If the queen dies, the rest of the wasps fly away and look for another place to nest.
• Sweet Works For Summers
  In summer seasons, you can use sweets as baits. You could even use root beer or some slices of fruits as diy yellow jacket trap baits. Mashed up grapes work well in luring yellow jackets.
• Use Sugar Water
  Anything sweet will always lure the yellow jackets. Hence, you can fill up a container with water mixed with sugar and place it outside. The yellow jackets will get lured, fall into it and get drowned!

Glass Trap
Use a colored and sturdy glass to set up this trap. You have to add the lure which can be a sweet or a piece of meat and some water in it. Then the stopper can be replaced. You can either hang or place the trap in areas where there are concentrated wasp infestations. Wasps often fly inside the glass through the hole in the bottom and get trapped in it. Later, they will get drowned in the water. After about two weeks, replace the bait with some other sweet liquid like lemonade.

Use Tuna Cat Food
Take a can of tuna cat food and add about twenty drops of tick or flea control used for dogs in it. Leave it in a pest-infested area. It is believed that the worker yellow jackets take the bait and carry it to the nest thereby eliminating the nest within five days. But the downside here is that you have to keep a constant watch on the tin to ensure that it is not eaten by any pets or children.

Use Bubble Wraps!
Bubble wraps are easily available as almost every product you buy comes wrapped up in it. Take some bubble wraps with small or big bubbles; the size doesn’t matter. Now lay it all around the areas you suspect to be the nest of yellow jackets. Ensure that you lay it only during night time when the yellow jackets are deep in slumber and inactive. When the daylight seeps in, the light gets reflected in the bubbles, and the yellow jackets get confused by these reflections. They won’t be able to find the exit holes and will gradually die inside the nest. This method is very effective in cases where you are unable to find the entrance and exit holes of the nest.

Use Sticky Fly Strips
Get some sticky fly strips and pull out the strip. Now, place the small tube at the end portion of the strip over the hole. Now you can slowly let go of the strip’s end so that the strip will fall as a ball. This twisted and loose ball of the fly strip will get spread into and around the nest. When yellow jackets try getting out of the hole, they will get stuck to this strip. This will create a commotion, and all other yellow jackets will try to attack the strip. Thus, all of them get stuck to the strip. You can dispose of the strip safely after assuring that all yellow jackets have got stuck on it.

Repel With Bounce Dryer Sheets!
This may not be exactly an eco-friendly way to get rid of the wasps, but it works well! It contains chemicals that repel the insects. You can place these sheets on your tables outside, near patios or playing areas of kids. Even if one or two yellow jackets come near, you can simply wave the sheets at them. They will scurry off away from you.

Use Homemade Yellow Jacket Trap To Get Rid Of The Wasps!

There are many homemade traps, and yellow jacket trap bait recipes that can help you in getting rid of yellow jackets easily and quickly without spending too much money on exterminators or store-bought harmful chemicals. Let us take a look at some of them:

Use Lantern Traps!
Lantern traps are vertical shaped sticks that are bright and looks like a garden lamp or sky lantern. These traps are found to be extremely effective in getting rid of yellow jackets. It helps in easy elimination of wasps without using harmful pesticides or pungent smells that spoils your outside environment. This trap can be used during late autumns and early springs to catch the queen. This trap works well even in hot climates as the glue does not dry up even when it is sunny and hot. The trap is neon green in color and looks like an insect nest. The yellow jackets will be lured by the bright color and will approach the trap hoping to make it their nest. The trap has an adhesive band inside it. As soon as the insects fly inside, they get trapped and gradually die inside it. You can place this trap on the ledge outside your house or the walls of your building.

Pacifier Traps To The Rescue!
This trap looks like a child’s pacifier and hence the name. It is bright yellowish. You can fill the trap with a water sugar mix you get along with the trap. The wasps will get lured by the color and fly inside. They will get stuck inside and die inside the trap. The main advantage of this trap is that it can be reused as many times as you wish. You need to have the water = sugar mix with you. The only downside is that these traps are difficult to clean as the neck is too narrow. You can instead empty the contents and clean it.

Disposable Traps For Trips And Picnics
If you are camping outside or planning a picnic with your family and friends, you could opt for these disposable traps to enjoy your day without being disturbed or attacked by insects. This trap won’t be effective in getting rid of a large colony of wasps, but it can drive off one or two wasps that seem to be following you and spoiling the mood of the picnic. You need to add some sugary juices like apple juice or lemonade in it and place it about twenty meters from your picnic spot. The yellow jackets will be lured by the sweet and will get stuck in the trap. You can later seal the opening of the trap and dispose it off away in a trash can. It saves you from the time taken to clean traps also.

Trap With Milk Jug!
Get a milk jug, about a gallon size and empty its contents. Now, use a sharp knife and make three cuts all on one side of the jar itself. The cuts can start by about three inches from the jug’s bottom and then go further down. The flap can be bent inside and crimped downwards using your fingers. The yellow jackets will land here. Now, fill up the jar with water till it reaches half an inch from the opening. Bait the trap using some sweets like jelly or honey. Place the bait on the flap so that the yellow jackets will be lured by the sight of sweets. After feeding on the sweet, when the yellow jacket tries to fly off, it gets trapped inside as they only fly in the upward direction. When they fly up, they hit on the top cover of the jar and fall into the water below. They slowly drown to death inside the jar.

Use Beer Trap
Take some small containers lying around in your home. You can use old cat food or tuna cans. Now, sink these cans inside the soil in areas where yellow jacket infestations are more. Next, you must fill up these cans up to about 2/3rd part with beer. The yellow jackets get attracted to the beer and fall inside it, drowning to death. Dispose the contents in an area away from your garden and reuse it!

Use Banana Skin!
The banana skin which we often throw away after eating bananas can be effective in getting rid of yellow jackets! Get a two-liter bottle, a coke or 7up bottle would be enough. Drill a hole of size one inch in its bottom and put inside two cups water, two cups sugar, half cup of vinegar, and three to four pieces of one-inch banana skin. The trap can be placed about one foot away from the yellow jacket nest. The top portion of the bottle can also be cut and flipped inside into the bottle itself. The only downside is that it gets filled with rainwater as the hole is made on the sides of the bottle.

Place Bait Inside An Oil Trap
Oil traps can be used with baits. Baits can be either sweets or meat. But sweets also lure bees. Meat only lures yellow jackets. Meat used in a pool of vegetable oil can trap yellow jackets and drown them.

Get To Know Some DIY Yellow Jacket Traps To Catch Yellow Jackets!

Why depend on exterminators and costly traps when you can make traps at home and drive away the aggressive yellow jackets? Check out some of the easiest ways to set up traps and catch yellow jackets:

Wax Trap
Get a wax moth trap, two liters in size. Make a one-inch hole in the bottom of the bottle’s side on the part where it curves and opens. Fit the cap and fill it with water, banana peel, vinegar and sugar just as you fill in a banana skin trap. You can now hang this trap on a tree and catch the wasps.

Non-Toxic Traps
Use non-toxic traps that don’t use chemicals or other harmful substances. It uses starvation, drowning, exhaustion and asphyxiation techniques to kill the wasps. Place it far away from human dwellings and about 2-4 feet above from the ground level.

Powdered Insecticide
You can cover up the exit and entrance holes of the yellow jacket nest with powdered insecticides. When a yellow jacket tries to get inside the nest, the insecticide sticks to its body and the wasp carries the insecticide into the nest. Thus, all the yellow jackets get killed.

Use Soap Traps
This trap can be used to get rid of yellow jackets that build the nest in open areas. The best time to eradicate a nest is early mornings or cool evenings when the yellow jackets are less active. Mix up one part soap in seven parts of water. You can use any soap, detergent or bathing soap, both work fine. Now, pour the mix on the nest. The yellow jackets will get killed.

Plastic Bowls
You can also use plastic bowls to eliminate yellow jackets. When you find a yellow jacket nest in the ground, take a transparent bowl and place it upside downwards over the nest. The best time to do this is during cool nights when the yellow jackets are drowsy and less active. Weigh down the bowl by placing some weight on it. You can place some potted plants over it. Ensure that you do not leave any gap for the yellow jacket to crawl outside. The wasps will die inside the bowl unable to escape or fly outside.

Points To Take Care of
After you trap the yellow jackets and empty the trap after a few days, ensure that there are no live wasps inside it. If anyone of them can escape, it will fly back to the nest and warn others. This can make the wasps aggressive, and they might attack you as a swarming group. Also, never crush the body of dead wasps. It releases a chemical, and it sends a warning signal to other yellow jackets in the area. It is always better to let an exterminator take them out of the trap and dispose of it safely.