"Bug" Lure and Trap

Wasp/Hornet Trap

Attracts wasps, hornets, house flies and moths, but not honey bees.

2 liter small neck bottle

          Cut off the top where slope meets vertical sides.

          Punch two holes opposite each other on the top of bottom piece and on the edge of the piece cut off.

          Invert the top into the bottle bottom and string strong thread through the holes.

Bees enter the bottle to the sweet liquid and can’t find their way out through the hole and drown. Leave the string long enough that you can pull the inverted top up and empty the contents and refill.

Mix together and put in the bottle

          1 cup sugar

          1 cup apple cider vinegar

          1 banana peal ripped into four strips

          Mix some water to fill bottle half full

Insects can be dumped out – use a strainer and save liquid to use again.

The banana is essential as honey bees do not like the smell of bananas and will not enter the trap.

Hang from a tree, shepherds hook or other post near where wasps are flying.

Small Hive Beetle (SHB) Lure and Trap

Make holes in a plastic sandwich box with hot soldering iron that are small enough to exclude bees. You can see an example here.

Put lure in bottle cap and oil around it in sandwich box. Put on cover and place on top of frames. Place a ‘riser’ on hive to give space for lure container.

Lure recipe:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 ripe banana peel, cut up finely

Combine and allow to ferment before adding small quantities to the trap.

Bananas smell like the alarm pheromone which attracts the SHB.

The lure is just to get beetles into the trap where they get stuck in the oil. A black container is best as beetles like dark spaces. A way to drive beetles from a hive is to let sunlight in!!! Consider opening a hive on a warm sunny day and let nature drive the beetles away.

Lures outside the hive also will attract SHB but this could bring beetles from some distance. If used outside the hive consider placing the lure away from your apiary.

SHB do not survive in the ground in northern climates where the ground freezes, so we have to be alert in the spring/summer when bees are brought into an apiary.