Who can rid Blackwood and Barry’s Reef of the most Queen European Wasps?
The Queens are out and about this time of year looking for new nesting sites, so it’s a great time to trap them.
Each Queen can potentially produce up to 40,000 off-spring, so you can see what a great investment you can make right now to protect the district from swarming wasps early in the new year when the weather warms up.
Trapper | Queens | Potential wasps (x 40K) |
Violet and Pete from Barry’s Reef | 17 | 680,000 |
Diana D | 6 | 240,000 |
Peter D | 6 | 240,000 |
Post Office crew | 3 | 120,000 |
Nicola S | 2 | 80,000 |
Total | 34 | 1,360,000 |
How many have you killed? Send your tally and tips to admin@blackwoodlandcare.org.au
Traps can be bought from hardware stores and come supplied with sachets of “attractant”. But this time of year Queens seem more interested in sweet home-made remedies. Alexander from the Post Office has had success with this recipe:
Take two rashers of bacon and dice and fry them until the fat liquifies. About about 250gm of sugar and fry until caramelised.
Put a litre of boiling water into a bowl and add the bacon mix along with as much sugar as can be dissolved (say 300 grams).
Transfer to wasp traps.