Yellow Jacket Trap

[Sean Kelly]

Hey all.  I think I know what's happening with CCD.  Those darn Yellow Jacket traps you hang from a tree!  I bought one because we were having real trouble with yellow jackets already and on the box it said "Does not trap benificial honeybees".
It's a lie!
My trap has only been out for one week.  Checked it today and it's completely full of MY honeybees!!!!  Not a single yellow jacket!!!!  If enough people in my neighborhood has these, my bees will be gone in no time!

Probably not the cause of CCD, but just a thought.

Sean Kelly

[Mici]

dang! what kind of trap did you buy, or even better question, what kind of lure did you use?
although i know the answer-wrong kind

best/cheapest hornet trap:
buy 3 beers a six pack
drink half of every beer, now this varies, if you're tougher you can buy a twelve pack, or two six packs
now that you have 6 bottles half way empty, just leave them in front of your hives, hornet climbs in, but can't climb neither can he fly out(physics). it works for wasps to, but i think not that efficient. although the lure does work.

[Robo]

Bait it with meat.  The honeybees will leave it alone.

[Brian D. Bray]

A Barberque is not a Barberque without spitting a few Hornets or Wasps out of your mouth after taking a sip from you beverage can.

[Sean Kelly]

This was just one of those standard yellow colored traps that you put the "Yellow Jacket" pheremone inside on a cotton cloth.  It's sorta shaped like a humming bird feeder with a one way cone trap inside.  They've worked great for yellow jackets in the past but I never bothered to check if they were yellow jackets or honeybees.  I had it hanging from my gutter, which is clogged with mud and standing water.  My bees have been drinking from the gutter right near the trap.  Might explain why they've been hanging around this trap.  Even still, right on the box in big letters is says "Does NOT trap benificial honeybees".  If my camera wasn't broken, I would have taken pics and emailed them to this company.

I'll try the meat idea.

Sean Kelly

[TonyBOD]

This was just one of those standard yellow colored traps that you put the "Yellow Jacket" pheremone inside on a cotton cloth.  It's sorta shaped like a humming bird feeder with a one way cone trap inside.  They've worked great for yellow jackets in the past but I never bothered to check if they were yellow jackets or honeybees.  I had it hanging from my gutter, which is clogged with mud and standing water.  My bees have been drinking from the gutter right near the trap.  Might explain why they've been hanging around this trap.  Even still, right on the box in big letters is says "Does NOT trap benificial honeybees".  If my camera wasn't broken, I would have taken pics and emailed them to this company.

I'll try the meat idea.

Sean Kelly

Perhaps they'd just tell you that your bees weren't beneficial! I can just see the lawyers arguing in court that beneficial is a subjective term and company does not classify your bees as such...

P.S. - Love the picture of your little one in the veil!