The website https://www.waspbane.com/ has some suggestions about
protecting bee hives from wasps. Some of them
(https://www.waspbane.com/?page_id=1172) involve using Waspbane but
https://www.waspbane.com/?page_id=1243 illustrates the advantages of a
tunnel entrance. The same effect could be produced by adding a strip of
wood on the outside of a hive with a landing board...
Best wishes
Gilliane
On 18/07/2018 16:28, Oxnatbees wrote:
(For those who don't know, Will's town hives are on top of a building.)
I wonder if the assault has started early because their other food sources have diminished due to the drought. Because your hives are at peak strength which would normally dissuade them until they are desperate in late Autumn. So you can expect the full strength of the wasp nest in the assault.
The one year I had real problems I researched this and found
(1) wasps are highly territorial and each nest has a territory of only about 100 yards radius. They are probably nearby.
(2) wasps are visually oriented hunters, bees returning to the nest are smell focused. So if you lean a pane of glass in front of the entrance the wasps will try to get in t the evidence they can SEE and bounce off the glass while the bees go round.
(3) Wasps don't like tunnel entrances (easier to defend).
(4) I eventually found 11 wasp nests in that zone with the aid of asking neighbours (in your case maybe ask building maintenance?) and destroyed them one by one (I sprayed Raid and ant powder into them). One was really near in an airbrick in my own house just 20-30 feet from the hives - it was at ankle height and I'd never noticed it until I looked. Another was in a roof space with no access. Others were dug into the ground under hedges. After destroying one in a neighbours' wall the attacks suddenly switched off, completely.
Paul
On 18 July 2018 at 14:10, Will H <whanrott@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:whanrott@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
All my hives have wasps trying to get in. I've seen them at dawn
in town
and in the heat of the day at home so I assume that they're trying
all
day long.
I'll be reducing entrances down to a minimum. Does anyone have any
other
suitable advice for coping with them? The wasps were relentless and
successful last season in my apiary.
Will
