so this year we have Yellowjackets everywhere it occurred to me that those
store-bought traps that we get have to be designed to be packaged and shipped
and everything but what if we built our own larger traps
so I started fiddling around today and using some cardboard boxes and I decided
let's create a dark room with holes in the side and then the skylights once
they get in there will be these plastic bottles that they'll fly up into and get
caught and here they are so I just took two liter plastic bottles cut the top
off inverted it and then cut a hole to match that size on the top of a
cardboard box and put it in there ever notice when you go in your garage if the
garage is dark and the windows are light the flies and bugs and Yellowjackets and
everything else fly to those windows and staked home well that's the principle
here and then I decided to make these little covers for the entries to create
even more shade so that once they fly through to go in they're encouraged to
follow the light out into my little bottles of certain death that's just
photography gaffing tape there that's holding them on just fun to play around
I also purchased store-bought Yellow Jacket traps that are designed for
northeastern United States Yellow Jackets and they aren't doing anything
maybe one or two the top-performing one that I have hanging out here I found
six in it they've been up this is the second day they've been out and they're
not doing very well at all and they're again I mean it seems convenient you
pull it open after you cut that little circle out on top you fill it with water
up to the fill line there's an attractant pouch inside the dissolves
over the next three to five hours and then that aroma is supposed to go into
the air and the Yellow Jackets just swarm to it well they really don't at least
not this time of year and not up here in the snow belt region near the Great
Lakes of the United States follow the instructions they also have west of the
Rockies version so this is the east version
but when you compare that to my homemade trap here that's really kind of garbagey
my homemade traps are just outperforming it like crazy of course when it rains on
these cardboard boxes they're eventually gonna give in I also decided to come
back and drill some little holes in the top of these bottles so that the air would
flow through you can put any kind of bait inside the box and the Yellowjackets
will just go right in the holes and then when they're done eating whatever it is
they fly up into your traps I also have a root beer Trap going on here to the
left I have other formulas I'm just testing everything and then I decided to
take this pretzel container and I cut apart a small water bottle and made a
riser tube through the center through the normal lid of the pretzel container
then I made my own welcome yellowjacket sign there yes I know I misspelled
welcome I left the e off yellowjackets can't read and then they just go in
there they go up into the bottles and you've trapped them so if you're trying
to keep honeybees out I did notice one honey bee that went up into one of these
traps but the rest were all Yellowjackets add a little meat or put
some vinegar in with it and you'll deter your honeybees and you'll get just
hopefully Yellow Jacket wasp I'm giving you another look here these rescue
Yellow Jacket traps were a complete waste of money for me anyway maybe they
work better in spring maybe they're awesome in the summertime but here in
early October they really aren't performing at all and this is what I
consider a very busy zone for the Yellowjackets the foragers are
everywhere I put these in close proximity to my homemade traps as well
and nothing's going in there you can even hear Yellowjackets flying by while
we're looking at the trap hanging in the overhang here if my bee observation shed
and there's a yellow jacket doesn't give a hoot about going in maybe you've had
great experience with these I just can't recommend them but I do suggest you have
some fun to make your own traps think in terms of creating a darkroom
leaving some holes in the side so the Yellowjackets go exploring foragers go
into every little hole while they're trying to find food and then when
they're done eating they'll just fly to the light which is any kind of plastic
container that you put on top of them it's kind of fun really
and you'll exploit their natural instinct to fly into the light these are
two Yellowjackets just hanging out there sometimes they
bomb right in I also recommended making the holes even smaller so there's less
light coming through the entry point they even follow the deck and come in
underneath so it's a lot of fun two boxes you really can't ruin it but your
homemade traps are gonna absolutely outperform the store-bought traps if you
see the orange colored traps that are hanging there we're testing all
different formulas the store-bought yellowjacket east of the Rockies traps
are a complete fail for me thanks for watching have fun making your own and
maybe make a video and share it with the rest of us