How to get rid of wasps on grapes yourself with improvised means

how to get rid of wasps on grapes
How to get rid of wasps on grapes

Hello! I have a good friend, Petya, who often sends me a gift in the form of homemade wine.

It has large vineyards, bringing a solid harvest and the source material for winemaking.

But last year, he had serious problems with wasps, which began to completely destroy the grapes. Peter was desperate, but found an interesting way to deal with this problem. Want to learn how to get rid of wasps on grapes? Below I will describe in detail the entire process of combating insects.

How to get rid of wasps in the vineyard

Often, many complain that wasps destroy grapes. People try to fight them, but this struggle is either ineffective (they hang different bottles of syrup near the clusters, make traps), or too labor-intensive (they sew different kinds of bags, put them on each bunch, etc.).

Important!
And if you do not fight wasps at all, then you can lose the whole crop. Usually, to combat wasps, it is advised to make traps from a plastic bottle, the upper part of which is cut off and inserted upside down like a funnel in the resulting cylinder. Something sweet is poured into it (sugar syrup or jam with water, honey, etc.)

Wasps climb into this trap, but cannot get out, they die there. Therefore, these traps often have to be cleaned, which is not very convenient. Or they are also advised to destroy wasp nests. Well, if you can find them, you know how to destroy them and you can easily get to them.

And if these nests are located at high altitude or in an inaccessible place. And in general it is dangerous, you can be bitten by wasps. But I would like to use a method of struggle that would be both effective and take up a minimum of time.

Personally, I use a method of fighting wasps, which protects not only my vineyard, but also destroys all wasps in the area, even vagrants. Wasps in my vineyard are practically absent. And he requires a minimum of attention and care. What does it consist of?

When the time comes to ripen the grapes, I hang the halves of plastic bottles in different places in the vineyard (cut the bottle in half, throw the top out and tie the bottom to the wire on the trellis.) Pour sweet syrup into these halves of the bottles (usually old jam diluted with water).

And now the most important thing: I’ll definitely add some kind of insecticide to this syrup, designed to control the caterpillars of fruit trees. I usually use the drug "Aktara". And in order to make it easy for wasps to get to the syrup, I insert several sticks into these halves of the bottles, along which the wasps descend to the syrup. Everything.

Now care consists only in periodically adding syrup to these plastic jars. There is no need to clean them, since wasps do not die immediately, but after the syrup gets drunk and flies away.I remember the first time I started using this method, dead wasps were scattered throughout the vineyard.

This method of struggle completely saved my vineyard from wasps. But in my arsenal there are a few more ways that I want to talk about, maybe someone will come in handy. I myself did not apply these methods, there was simply no need.

Advice!
Spray with such a syrup any vegetation near the vineyard. Due to the presence of sugar in the syrup, it sticks to the leaves of any plant and attracts wasps. And thanks to the presence of an insecticide, wasps, having eaten such a syrup, die.

Instead of syrup, you can put in jars pieces of ripe vegetables and fruits (melons, watermelons, pears, sweet apples, plums, etc.), previously treated with some kind of insecticide. The same poisonous pieces of vegetables and fruits can simply be laid out in the garden in places inaccessible to poultry and animals.

As a deterrent, you can use the so-called "Liquid Smoke", used in the smoking of meat and meat products. The scare effect is based on the fact that both animals and insects avoid places where there is a smell of smoke.

Save grapes from pests

Often you can meet a gardener or farmer who complains that wasps destroy the harvest of his grapes. Of course, they are trying to fight them, but the results are far from desired.

Traps or hanging bottles with syrup have no effect. And embroidering bags on each bunch looks painfully laborious. If you give up and do not resist wasps, then losing the whole crop will be very simple.

As an alternative way to deal with wasps in the vineyard, the following option can be proposed. As soon as the grapes begin to ripen, plastic bottles should be hung in half throughout the entire vineyard.

The upper part of the bottles is discarded, and only the bottom remains, which is tied to the wire on the trellis. These halves of the bottles are filled with old jam diluted with water. Now, the main thing is to add the desired ingredient. A caterpillar control agent, an insecticide, is added to this jam.

It turns out that the whole set of further actions comes down to regularly adding syrup. There is no need to clean the wasps, as they do not die directly in the bottle, but after they leave it. That is, they get drunk syrup and leave the site. Of course, it is possible that you will have to stumble on dead wasps in the vineyard.

Attention!
Another way to scare away wasps from the vineyard is “liquid smoke”. Insects, like animals, will aggressively avoid places where the smell of “liquid smoke” is present. In addition, you can slightly transform the way wasp control with syrup in plastic jars.

In order not to bother with the placement of cans, you can simply spray the leaves of plants with syrup and insecticide. That is, wasps will again be lured to the site with a “sweet” smell, after which your site will not be disturbed anymore.

How to save clusters from wasps that eat ripe berries?

The fight against wasps is not easy and time consuming. I start it in early spring, when I see the queens overwintered and begin to fly. They give rise to the aspen nest and it is them that I try to destroy.

Currently, I already have baits for nesting wasps: opaque containers turned upside down. It can be old troughs, pans, buckets, boxes, paint cans.

I put them in elevated places (up to 2 m from the ground), leaving slots below through which wasps can crawl. Periodically, mainly in the evening, I check the capacity. If there are wasps, I close the cracks and after a few days they die of hunger.

Chemicals destroy wasps in inaccessible places. Say, in the attics aerosol is well suited, in the pipes I pour insecticide from the kettle.If the nest is in such a place that you can use the fire, then you can burn it with a torch.

Wasps are not aggressive during the day when it rains. At this time, they can be destroyed by rinsing with water from a hose or from a bucket. And I also learned how to beat them with a rubber band 50-70 cm long. I hold one end with the fingers of my left hand and point it towards the target, and I stretch the opposite, then release it and the rubber hits the axle. However, this can damage the grapes.

Therefore, before hunting, I select the nibbles that have been cracked, cracked and unsuitable for consumption, and hang them on wire hooks in places where the wasps can be clearly seen. Here on these bait and hit. When there are a lot of wasps, they become careless and you can simply take them with tweezers by the body, wings, paws.

Important!
A convenient place for hunting wasps with rubber is the old wooden structures located in sunny places. From these surfaces wasps take wood to build a nest.

In the early days, when the early grape varieties ripen, I destroy 50 to 100 wasps daily. It is clear that in the future the number of pests decreases and during the ripening of mid-ripening varieties they are almost gone in the vineyard. I tried to place bottles with sweet bait near the bushes, but bees more often got there.

One more tip. If you were bitten by a wasp, cut the bulb and attach it to the affected area with a cut. Repeat this procedure several times after five minutes, and there will be no tumor.

Sometimes ants harm berries of grapes. I try to fill their minks with water when watering the bushes. Against them, you can use belts lubricated with grease such as solid oil.

Pest control

Caring for a vineyard cannot be called easy: what is the fight against wasps on grapes worth it! But in addition to these sweet lovers, you have to protect grapes from birds and many small pests that can destroy healthy plants.

From the moment the first berries ripen, birds begin to visit the vineyard. Each time they peck a new grape, picking up juice for their chicks, and after them wasps appear that eat away the flesh.

After such visits, the vineyard is a sad sight: the most ripe clusters are pecked, a lot of fallen berries lie on the ground ... Moreover, the birds are not scared away by any stuffed animals, or sparkling tins and CDs, or rattles, or a stretched tape.

It is better to use a mesh cloth made of polymer fiber, so that birds, faced with such a barrier, fly away.

You can also try to stretch the fishing line in 2-3 tiers or white and black threads between the wires of the trellis, to which the grapes are tied. Like snares, threads will scare away birds, protecting the crop.

The fight with wasps by the most popular methods

In the first summer months, wasps can be considered useful insects, since at that time they successfully destroy the caterpillars, requiring protein food. But by the end of summer, wasps become real agricultural pests due to the increasing need for sweet food.

Advice!
Large colonies of these insects can spoil a considerable number of berries, especially in varieties with thin skin, and painful wasp stings significantly complicate manual harvesting.

Chemical processing of vines is undesirable, otherwise ripe grapes will be unfit for food, so winegrowers usually choose mechanical methods of dealing with annoying insects. The most popular wasp control methods: nest destruction and hanging traps.

Nests are easier to find in the morning, when wasps fly out in search of food, or in the evening when they return. Destroying the colony in the nest is better at night, while most wasps are inside. When dark, wear glasses, gloves and protective clothing so that no areas of the body are left open for bites.

The flashlight should be covered with something red, since wasps do not see the red light.Spray a suitable insecticide directly into the hornet’s nest. You can also use smoke bombs: from the smoke insects fall down, and already on the ground you calmly crush them. After destroying the colony, be sure to remove the empty nest.

You can limit the wasp population by luring them into traps bought in a specialized store or made by yourself.

It’s easy to make a trap: at the plastic 2 or 1.5 liter bottle, cut off the top and insert it back with the neck down, after pouring jam on the bottom of the bottle. If a wasp flies inside, the wasp will not be able to get out and get stuck in jam.

It is advisable to use sweet jam or syrup for traps at the end of summer, in June-July, wasps will attract more a piece of fresh fish, meat or liver. The bait is placed in a small container fixed to the bottom, filling the bottom with soapy water, in which wasps will sink.

So that wasps and bees do not spoil the grapes, sometimes they put covers on grapes from ordinary nylon tights. The leaves around the clusters should be removed, otherwise the berries will rot.

The main pests of grapes and methods for their destruction

Some pests cause damage to the vineyard no less than birds and wasps. Various types of caterpillars, beetles and ticks eat grape buds, damage the eyes and berries, cause the death of leaves, bite young shoots.

Attention!
All this greatly affects the harvest. In most cases, special preparations are used to destroy pests of grapes.

Common pest control measures:

Grape Felt Mite. Forms on the leaves a swelling of a reddish color on the outside and a hollow with felt coating on the inside. It can damage young shoots, clusters and flowers, which is much more dangerous than leaf damage. Against a tick in the summer, plants are sprayed with sulfur-containing preparations.

Spider mite. He punctures the leaves, sucking the juice out of them, as a result, growing yellow spots appear on the surface of the leaves, and then the leaves die off. The tick surrounds the habitat with a thin cobweb. They help get rid of the spider mite by spraying grape bushes with phosphamide, neoron or DNOC.

Biennial leaflet. 1st generation caterpillars damage the buds by arranging nests in them, and the 2nd generation of caterpillars eats berries. When the flight of butterflies begins, it is necessary to treat the vineyard with any insecticides. It is also necessary to remove plant debris on time and provide the bushes with good ventilation.

Grape leaflet. Caterpillars eat blooming buds, young shoots, inflorescences, leaves and berries. The control measures are the same as with the biennial leaflet. To destroy wintering pupae, the boles and sleeve bark should be cleaned, immediately burning everything cleaned.

Bunch of grapes. The 1st generation of caterpillars gnaws buds and young ovaries, and the 2nd and 3rd generations eat green and ripe grapes, braiding them with a web. They get rid of bunch leaflets by spraying the vine bushes with Iskra-D, Spark Double Effect, Commander, Sherpa, Confidor, Fury preparations.

Grape mosquito. Its larvae bite into the leaf plate, forming swelling. With significant damage, the leaves are deformed, and the inflorescences and ovaries die. Wintering pupae can be destroyed by annual digging of the soil in the vineyard.

Important!
Phylloxera. Settling on the roots of a grape bush, a small insect punctures them, causing the roots to rot, and the plant weakens or even dies.

There is no effective control method yet; only phylloxera-resistant European grape varieties and a thorough examination of seedlings before purchase helps.

How to protect grapes from wasps?

Grapes - one of the most sophisticated and exquisite fruits. Thanks to delicious sweet and juicy berries, he has many fans. Not only people love him, but also wasps.Although wasps are not the most dangerous pests for the vineyard, they can significantly spoil ripe berries.

If the grape is intended for subsequent sale, this will significantly reduce its price due to the unpresentable appearance, which will affect the profitability of viticulture in general.

What methods of struggle exist

Ways to protect the grapes from invasion are active and passive. Active methods of struggle:

  • Destruction of hornet's nests. This must be done before the time when the crop ripens. If there is no nest, then there will be no one to damage the crop. True, this method is suitable only for small vineyards in their own personal plot;
  • Making traps for wasps;
  • Use of poisoned lures.

Passive methods of protecting the vineyard from wasps do not imply the death of insects as with active exposure.

Processing repellent preparations of grapes. This method is effective, but before you consume processed grapes, it must be thoroughly washed.

Packing grape brushes in special mesh bags. This method is the most faithful, but costly and time-consuming. For example, if in a vineyard from 30-40 bushes it is still possible to protect the crop in this way, then if there are 100 or more bushes, it will be very difficult to do.

Traps

Along with high efficiency, wasp traps are also a safe means to protect the grape harvest. They will help get rid of pests without the use of chemicals and the chances of being bitten by wasps when processing the vineyard are significantly reduced.

Wasp trap
Wasp trap

Material for the manufacture of traps is affordable, not requiring significant costs. You will need empty plastic bottles, sugar, or sugar products. Instead of sugar, you can use fermented jam, beer with sugar, bread kvass, or even brew for moonshine.

The bottle must be cut across into 2 parts. The upper part is inserted with the neck down into the lower part. Now sugar-containing liquid is poured.

Advice!
Do not add honey or sugar syrup to the trap, this can attract bees, which are exclusively beneficial for the vineyard.

Such traps located throughout the vineyard at the beginning of summer will help to almost completely get rid of the problem of wasp fruits. For a day, several dozen insects can fall into one trap. Sometimes their number reaches hundreds.

It is possible to place traps for wasps as it will be convenient. They can be hung on trellises or spaced aisles. The more traps there are, the more reliable the protection against the invasion of parents will be. Experienced winegrowers recommend placing at least one trap near one bush.

Poisoned Bait

Poisoned lures are one of the most reliable ways to protect the grapes from wasp damage. Today, there are many effective drugs that perform the function of a poison bait that you can buy in a store.

The most popular means that have received positive reviews from winegrowers: "Lambda Zone", "Delta Zone", "Get". All these products are practically odorless and harmless to animals and humans. However, for insects, they are deadly poison.

Lures are poured into containers: saucers, bottoms of plastic bottles, wide mugs, etc. Use what is at hand. Settled baits in prominent places near the vineyard. The same rule applies here as with wasp traps. As the wasps evaporate and eat the bait, it must be added.

For the basis of the bait we take any sugar-containing liquid, the same as for traps. Now add the finished insecticidal preparation here. Also, boric acid or chlorophos can be used as a poisonous substance. The proportions to be observed are 10: 1.

Sometimes as a bait for wasp growers use lard or meat, which are processed from above with any of the above insecticides.

Destruction of hornet's nests

The procedure for the destruction of hornet's nests is quite time-consuming and also fraught with unpleasant consequences. You can simply be bitten by these stinging pests of grapes.

Attention!
Wasps will definitely protect their nest, they can attack with a whole swarm. All manipulations to destroy the aspen nest must be performed in tight, closed clothing and a beekeeping mask. This is best done at night when the wasps are at rest.

Most often, wasp nests are made under the roofs of sheds, in pipe cavities, between walls and exterior decoration.

There are several ways to destroy wasp nests:

  1. Burn, pre-dousing with gasoline. The material from which wasps make a nest flares up well. Therefore, be careful, do not forget about fire safety;
  2. Pour insecticide solution into the container, place the hornet’s nest there and tie. It is most convenient to heat a hornet's nest under the ceiling. It is enough to bring a bucket filled with a solution and press down the nest, holding the bucket tightly against the ceiling;
  3. Spray an insecticide sprayed on a hornet’s nest. Processing will have to be done several times. Each time after spraying, a significant portion of adult individuals and larvae will die, thereby reducing the population.

Mesh bags for protecting grapes

This method was used before the advent of special bags to protect the grapes from wasps. Resourceful winegrowers used ordinary women's tights as a protective cover.

This method was not effective enough, as the berries began to burst on the growing clusters.

Today it is possible to purchase grids of the size that is needed. To put on grids on grape brushes should be already after the discovery of the first damaged fruits.

How to get rid of wasps in a vineyard in a garden plot

This question excites all those who are engaged in the cultivation of these tasty and healthy berries on their site. So at our dacha two years ago there was no end to these annoying insects.

Important!
It would seem that our vineyard was planted according to all the rules, and pruning was done as experts in this field advised, and the berries grew large. But as soon as the berries began to ripen - wasps came in and in just a couple of days from the still not fully ripened grape harvest there were only skins and seeds.

How to get rid of wasps in the country and preserve grapes, we did not know. It was already time to think about cutting down the entire vineyard, planting fruit trees there. However, a random companion helped in the country bus. We have been using its method for two years now, and the grape harvest only makes us happy.

One of the main ways to fight wasps is to destroy their colonies. The best time for destruction is the time after dark. When the wasps are in the nests. Helps trapping wasps. You can buy traps for wasps, or you can make them yourself.

We use a homemade trap. To do this, cut off the top cone of a plastic bottle with a volume of one and a half to two liters. In the lower part we make several holes, this is done so that the air does not stagnate inside the trap, and we make two more holes on top of the trap, we insert a wire into them, by which the trap can be suspended.

At the bottom of the trap we put the bait, it can be a piece of fresh meat, slave, liver. You should not use sweet baits, as they can get useful insects, for example, bees.

Insert the cut off top of the bottle with the neck down. We process the bait with the drug from wasps, we hang the trap in the vicinity of the vineyard. Thus, we save the grape harvest, not allowing it to be destroyed.

This method of dealing with wasps in the vineyard is not the only one with which you can protect your vineyard from wasps. Brush grapes can also be sprayed with saline, or cover them with non-woven material (agrospan, spandball).True, in the rain in such a shelter the grapes can rot.

Another way

Bags for grapes from wasps, a protective net, traps and spraying with saline - what summer residents do not go to to save the grape harvest! But our reader Andrei found his effective and, according to his assurances, a very effective way of protection.

Advice!
Many grape growers know how difficult it is to save a sunny berry crop from wasps. Conventional traps filled with sugar syrup or jam can do this poorly.

And no matter how traps are set, the crop will still be half (or even more) eaten. I want to share with readers one of my very valuable and rather unique observation.

At one time, I also waged a relentless struggle with this striped hordes, sometimes using quite expensive methods. But when my family and I sold the cottage in the suburbs and moved to live in the village, everything changed. For some reason, the local insects ignored my grapes ... Maybe the wasps are wrong here?

But then again, they regularly attacked the grape bush that I planted in the front yard. Then I thought, what is the reason? For two years I tried to find out and finally realized!

As it turned out, the reason the wasps disliked my grapes was a small pine forest at the end of our garden, near which I planted my own sunny berry. Apparently, striped beasts do not really like the pine aroma.

Last year, I decided to check if this is really so. After the wasps threw the first landing on the bush planted in the yard, I cultivated the grapes and the soil near it with the following composition: 10 l. water dissolved 8 ml. (240 drops) Novosil and 100 gr. Humate potassium liquid peat.

Firstly, these are purely biological preparations that stimulate plant growth, improve the physicochemical composition of the soil, accelerate ripening and significantly reduce the risk of diseases of grapes and other garden plants with bacterial and fungal diseases.

Secondly, Novosil has a strong pine smell, as it is an extract from fir, and wasps, as we have already found out, do not like him.

Attention!
True, after 10 days, the treatment had to be repeated, since insects again began to fly to reconnaissance.

After another 10 days, I last sprayed, and in August I took a gorgeous grape harvest from this bush.

Methods of controlling and protecting grapes from wasps

Wasps - the main pest for grape harvest during its ripening. In a favorable year for the development of the wasp population, the number of this pest increases many times, and wasps are capable of causing irreparable damage to the grape harvest in just a few days, up to its complete destruction.

The fight against wasps must begin long before the ripening of the bulk of the crop. It is best to carry out preventive measures to reduce the population of this striped pest throughout the season, regardless of the visual assessment of their number.

Just because you don’t see them does not mean that they are not there. It only says that the source of their food is currently not included in the zone of your interests. But when your meeting takes place on ripening grapes, it will be alas too late, since it is practically impossible to sharply reduce the population that has grown over the season, it is much easier to keep it at a minimum number throughout the entire grape season.

The whole difficulty in the fight against wasps lies in the fact that the timing of the mass defeat of the vineyard crop by this insect coincides with the partial or complete ripening of the berry and harvest, which makes the use of insecticides and other chemicals. drugs to kill harmful insects impossible.

But do not despair, experienced growers have found ways to deal with the pest and reliably protect their crops. I will describe the simplest and most effective methods of protecting a vineyard from wasps.

Physical destruction of pest nests

Starting from early spring and throughout the season, it is necessary to examine the places of possible concentration of enemy forces, surveillance and other types of espionage for the enemy to the place of their permanent deployment are appropriate and strongly welcome.

Important!
If a nest is detected, it must be destroyed. Preparation for the destruction of enemy manpower should take place in the best traditions of tactical and strategic assessment of the enemy’s strength, the location of the deployment base, the correct choice of the time of day of the attack, and weapons of destruction.

As in all operations for sudden attack and destruction of the enemy, it is best to use the dark time of the day when all the wasps are in the nest (hive), their attention is weakened, the will to resist is suppressed, the assessment of what is happening to them is difficult, in general, they sleep bluntly.

An adult with a strong nervous system, without special moral and ethical prejudices, is chosen from a family of winegrowers, well, in general, who does not mind. My mother-in-law fulfills this role.

This subject receives equipment appropriate for the occasion - tight clothing covering all parts of the body, shoes, gloves. A beekeeper’s hat is put on his head, if it is not there, then an ordinary hat, and his face is wrapped with a towel.

Theoretically, only from the appearance of this combat unit, and even at night in the light of a lantern, wasps should die, but in order to be sure, the destroyer is presented with a weapon of mass destruction - a dense plastic bag.

Pack the bag tightly onto the nest and quickly remove the hive by closing the bag. Everything, the hive with all the wasps in the package, the further destruction of the wasps awakening in it depends only on your imagination and ethical education.

Since the Geneva Convention does not apply to wasps, the use of chemical weapons (such as dichlorvos), burning alive and other types of sadistic entertainment are quite acceptable, as they say: “Winners are not judged.”

If you tolerate bites well and run fast, you can try to let the wasps away from the vineyard, they will be very happy and will try to fully express you a feeling of gratitude, love and affection.

Using traps for wasps

There are purchased traps, but no worse than home-made, made from ordinary plastic bottles. The upper part of the bottle is cut off, turned over and inserted into the lower part with the neck down and inwards in the form of a funnel. Or a neck is cut off from one bottle and inserted into the side cut of the other.

Advice!
Solutions of water with sugar, jam, honey, fruit, beer, and other products that attract attention are used as bait.

Traps are hung on grape trellises at different points in the vineyard throughout the season, changing contents from time to time.

Poisoned Bait

To prepare the bait, they take the same honey, sugar, beer, grated fruits and mix them with an insecticide. It is desirable that the insecticide used does not have a pungent odor of repelling wasps.

The resulting bait is laid out in OPEN trays so that the poisoned insect can freely leave the feeding place and lead to the “tasty” of the remaining adult individuals and bring the poison into the nest.

The trays are set up or hung high, out of reach of children and pets evenly around the perimeter of the vineyard.

The method is very effective, but dangerous for bees and other beneficial insects. Use it only as a last resort in case of massive "invasions" of wasps, after flowering of all the main crops on the site.

OS nets

This is the most reliable, but the most expensive and time-consuming way to protect grapes from wasps. Grape growers buy or make bags themselves from a thin mosquito net or similar materials having good ventilation and the ability to quickly dry after rain (most often these are synthetic materials).

Bags are worn individually on each bunch, which significantly increases the cost of manual labor in the vineyard, but at the same time it protects the bunch by 100% not only from insects, but also from birds.

Wasps and the fight against them in the vineyard

The wasp colony begins in the spring with a single, overwintered, fertilized uterus. The uterus becomes active with the onset of spring heat, and begins to build a small nest in which it lays eggs, after 30 days 4-7 working wasps appear.

The colony reaches its maximum growth at the height of summer, until this period, inclusive, wasps feed and feed their offspring mainly with protein food - caterpillars, carrion, etc., i.e. are beneficial insects.

Attention!
Toward the end of summer, colony growth slows, and wasps switch to sweet food, becoming agricultural pests.

In the vineyard, wasps feed on ripening grapes and are sometimes present in such large numbers that they seriously harm the crop. Unlike bees, wasps can gnaw through the thin skin of berries.

Since they do not consume all of the sweet juice, it goes to the mushrooms, bacteria, flies, or bees that follow the wasps. When manually harvesting grapes, wasp stings can cause trouble for pickers.

Fighting wasps as pests of grapes is a difficult task, since there are no permitted insecticides to control them in the vineyard, due to close harvesting of grapes.

Nest destruction

The destruction of colonies in the nest remains one of the main methods of combating wasps in the world. In the morning, when wasps massively fly out of the nest or in the evening, when they fly back, we find nests. There are several insecticides to control wasps that are labeled “against wasps,” other insecticides against flying insects should also be effective.

The best time for destruction is after dark, when the working wasp is in the nest. It is necessary to take precautions against possible bites of the eyes - wear protective clothing, gloves, glasses or a protective net, there should be no open areas of the body.

The edges of the clothes should be tied so that the wasps could not get under the clothes. Use a red flashlight or cover it with red cellophane - wasps do not see red light. Spray or spray the insecticide into the nest.

Traps

Trapping uterus and destroying nests in spring significantly limits the wasp population, since the destruction of one uterus is the destruction of a future colony, but in some regions it is not very effective due to the subsequent arrival of migrants colonizing the liberated territory.

Later use of traps can help reduce damage to the grapes, but their use should be started early and should continue until the end of the harvest. Traps will not eliminate all wasps in the area, but will help reduce the problem.

Important!
In many countries, a ready-made trap for wasps can be bought at any household goods store; for now, they are rare or expensive. But the wasp trap is not difficult to do for yourself. Two types of traps are effective, which we will use, given the seasonal taste preferences of wasps.

A trap with a protein bait (meat, fish) is suitable for spring and early summer. We take the usual empty 1.5-2 liter plastic bottle (for convenience - it is better wide), cut off the top cone from it. We make several holes in the lower part with an awl so that the air does not stagnate inside the trap, and on top there are two wire holes for which we will hang the trap. We fix the wire.

In the middle of the bottom of our future trap, we fix some kind of plastic cylinder: a container from the film will do. You can fix the cylinder, for example, by slightly melting its bottom on a gas stove and pressing hot. At the bottom of the trap we pour a solution of soapy water, so that its level by 3-4 centimeters does not reach the upper edge of the cylinder.

Soap reduces the coefficient of surface tension, wasps cannot stand on the surface of the water and drown. Add a little laundry soap or a not-so-smelling detergent.

As a bait we take a piece of any fresh meat, fish, liver, which we put on a cylinder in the middle of the trap. Insert the cut off top of the bottle with the neck down. That's it, the wasp trap is ready!

It remains only to hang it or install it near your vineyard, so that in the wind it does not swing much. The wasp flies into the trap through the funnel, takes a piece of prey and falls into the water when taking off.

Although, of course, with the help of this trap you can fight wasps not only in the vineyard. Do not forget to periodically change the bait in your traps - rotting meat of wasps does not attract, and also, remove caught wasps.

Since mid-summer, when wasps begin to pull for sweets, depending on the climate - mid-July, August, work with traps is simplified. Small plastic or glass bottles are suitable as traps.

Advice!
In which you can pour: compote, diluted juice, you can turn sour, water with honey, molasses, beer, there is always something suitable. Traps are hung near the vineyard, periodically change the liquid - when it is full of wasps it loses effectiveness.

In both cases, food lures can be dispensed with using various substances that attract wasps (attractants), for example, heptyl butyrate, isobutanol, 2-methyl-2-propanol, but they are difficult to find and, often, they attract only certain varieties of wasps.

Nets

In some vineyards with the beginning of ripening, the rows of bushes are completely covered with a fine-mesh net, which, at the same time, serves as protection against birds. Covers made, for example, from nylon pantyhose can be worn on a small number of grapes.

Covers should be loose enough not to squeeze a bunch. Remove the leaves around the bunches, they will be better ventilated, which will reduce the risk of rotting berries.

Poison bait

In the United States, special anti-wasp microcapsules are available on the market for anti-wasp control, containing a diazinon, an effective anti-wasp insecticide under the shell. Microcapsules are mixed with canned cat food as bait.

The working wasp carries a piece of bait with microcapsules into the nest, feeds the uterus and larvae to them, the shell of microscopic capsules decomposes in the digestive tract of insects, which soon die.

Care should be taken that baits are not accessible to children and animals. As an example of such microcapsules, a drug manufactured by Pennwalt Corporation under the brand name KNOKS OUT 2 FM.

The advantages of this method are undeniable:

  1. A very small amount of pesticides is used.
  2. If everything is done correctly, then only wasps are affected.
  3. The effect is achieved with minimal effort.
  4. Only harmful species are destroyed.
  5. Minimal environmental pollution.
  6. There is no need to find wasp nests.
  7. Fighting can begin at the beginning of the season, until the population has reached a maximum.
  8. The colony can be destroyed in the fall, before the beginning of next year.

For maximum effectiveness, the program requires daily attention during the first two weeks of control activities. The baits should be laid out in the surrounding area (the wasp’s summer distance from the nest is 200 m), as early as possible in the morning. Summer without wasps is virtually guaranteed.

Biological control

Quite effective methods of biological methods of combating wasps are absent. Parasites, predators, and pathogens have little effect on the population dynamics of wasps. Biotic agents are effective only in weakened colonies.

Attention!
Neoplektanid nematode is a possible biological control agent, but the spread of this parasite requires 100 percent relative humidity. And this condition is practically not found in wasp colonies. Several species can be harmed by certain parasitic flies.

Although many different animals prey on wasps (birds, reptiles, amphibians, skunks, bears, raccoons, spiders, praying mantises, spotted wasps), none of them provides satisfactory biological control at home.

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