Friday, August 26, 2011

Wasp attack

Hi,
We are under unprecedented attack from wasps this year, especially on our grapes!  The bees are also under attack but defending their hives successfully now I have made the entrances smaller.
We were looking forward to a great harvest from the vine on our veranda until about 10 days ago.  The grapes are nearly ripe - quite sweet and edible.
We have tried, imitation wasp nests and traps without any great success (they keep on coming!) and in desperation I have started protecting the bunches in plastic bags, will see if that works.



If you have any other suggestions do let me know.

3 comments:

  1. Hi there, I know the bird Merops apiaster eats wasps and has been seen in the UK.
    A cage for the birds and grapevines together would probably solve a wasp problem but them birds might pich the grapes from the vine..
    Another way is to cage the vines with a mesh of 2,5mm hole size. The last option would reduce the amount of sun stored by the grapevine but might work if the sun is already good.

    Good luck with your sustainable activities!

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  2. Thanks for that, good creative thinking, in the event someone must have killed the nest I guess as the problem dissapeared after a couple of weeks.

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  3. Don’t let those annoying wasps harm your sweet grapes. If you can’t control them anymore, hire a pest control expert to exterminate them. They know best what to do on wasps without harming your plants. Anyway, I hope you still had a good harvest that year and may you have a good one this year!
    Jeffrey Goude @ BugManiacs

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