Building A Better Wasp Trap

The wasps and hornets have pretty much been taking over this past summer. Not a good thing for enjoying the back yard. (And since the summer weather seems to have finally come in September, we're spending more time outside now than we did in June or July)

My wife Francine came up with a great easy-to-make wasp trap which I think she read about in one of the many places she finds things (and I honestly don't know if it was from a magazine or newspaper article or something she found online) -- but in any case, because it worked so well for us, I thought I'd share the simple wasp trap.

(And, for the record, when I say wasp, I'm talking about the flying stinging insects and NOT White Anglo Saxon Protesants)

What You Need
- 1 2 litre clear bottle (ie, a Coke bottle)
- 1 cup of fruit juice (apple, cranberry or mixed fruit)
- 1/2 cup of liquid dishwashing soap

How To Do It
You take 1 to 1.5 cups of sweet juice beverage (we have used apple juice, cranberry juice and mixed fruit juice drinks which all work equally well) and mix it with about half a cup of dishwashing liquid soap. Pour it into an empty clear 2 litre bottle and you're done.

It's a simple, yet effective trap. The insect is drawn into the opening by the sweet smell but is unable to find its way back out.

Each trap we have set up in the months of August and Sept have attracted three dozen or more of these flying stinging insects. And the great thing is that they seem to attract wasps and hornets and not bees. I've watched cute little bumble-bees fly on past to our flowers while the hornets climb inside the bottle and are unable to escape.



(Oh, and one last thing -- for best effect, you need to place the "trap" outside -- it works better there -- unless your house is infested and over-run with wasps and hornets like those terrifying scenes in a horror novel or movie -- in which case, don't bother with the traps, listen to that evil moaning voice booming: "Get Out!" in a thundering voice and run like hell as fast as you can out of there . . .)