Do Yellowjacket Traps Actually Work?

In this blog we help with your question: "Do Yellowjacket Traps actually work? " We feel they work very well, however, we noticed that Yellowjacket Traps work best during late Spring and throughout the warmer Summer months.

While Bees and Wasps are beneficial pollinators, yellowjackets are particularly obnoxious. They seem to be the only wasps that climb onto our hummingbird feeders regularly, they can be found in our terracotta plates full of dried mealworms, and we have even seen them drive away birds from a meal in some situations. Of course, running over a nest with a lawn mower is never fun either. But what can we do about it? How can we reduce the number of yellowjackets and also keep the majority of these pests from interfering with your backyard birding adventures?

A yellow jacket trap with lots of dead yellow jackets!

I strongly recommend yellowjacket traps for this! If anyone asks you the question "Do Yellowjacket Traps actually work?" You'll be able to tell them with certainty - They really do work. In fact, this year so far I have likely dumped out well over a hundred yellowjackets from our single trap. Here’s how a Yellow jacket trap works:

1. There is a small cotton ball or cotton pad that you pour special, concentrated nectar attractant onto.

2. This cotton ball/pad is inserted inside the plastic trap, which is essentially a funnel with holes at the bottom which are the exact size of a yellowjacket. Smaller pollinators like bees or even larger wasps will not fit or are small enough that they won’t get stuck and can climb back out. (We have verified that no honeybees or other wasps have been found inside our trap after 2+ years using these!).

3. The 3 pieces of the trap snap together and can be quickly hung from a hook, cable, or low-hanging tree limb. You’ll want to position this someplace fa bit further from your house and feeders. It doesn't have an odor or anything that would bother you, but you don't want to lure the pests to your door! I’d recommend 30-50ft or further from your porch/deck or feeders if you have the space.

This yellow jacket trap has just attracted it's first customer!

Here is the direct link to the product on Amazon: Yellow Jacket Traps (2-pack) If you intend to empty out the trap of all the dead yellow jackets, do so at dusk, as they are typically less active at this point in the day and you are then also far less likely to encounter any live ones. The nectar slowly loses its effectiveness and typically you will want to replace the cotton ball, or at least refresh the nectar once each month or month and a half.

An under-side view of the Rescue Brand Yellow Jacket Trap

The Rescue! brand Yellow Jacket traps allow the insects to crawl inside from the bottom of the trap, but they find it impossible to leave. The hole sizes have been engineered to allow Yellow Jackets specifically, but larger and smaller wasps either won’t fit, or won’t get stuck! In fact, we have tested this and only have found dead yellow-jackets inside of our trap, now in the second year of usage!

A lot of yellow jackets were captured with this Rescue Brand trap

This trap has been busy for about a month. (May-June) It is time to take it down, ideally at dusk before the Yellow Jackets are too active, clean it out and refill the attractant concentrated nectar. This is our 3rd or 4th trap full of them this year!

Another view of a well-used yellow jacket trap

Once again, here is a link to the yellowjacket trap we use, and it has been working even better than we expected!

Direct Product Link: Rescue! Brand – Yellow Jacket Traps 2-pack

The package indicates that this trap is ideally placed in early Spring to eliminate future Queens and prevent them from building new nests. We didn’t catch any queens this time around, but we are hopeful for next Spring. Also, the activity was slow at first. Maybe only 3-5 yellowjackets per week were trapped for April-May. But once the weather became warm, and eventually just hot, there were fewer food sources available and the trap quickly began to fill with these pesky wasps!

After a couple of months the nectar attractant goes stale and doesn't attract more yellow-jackets. Can i order refills of the attractant? You sure can! If you need to order some now to get ready for Spring/Summer, here is a link to the attractant

Does Rescue! make any other traps for garden pests? You bet! They have an entire arsenal to help get rid of various Wasps, Gnats, Fruit Flies, House Flies, Japanese Beetles, Ants, Moths, Carpenter bees and more! Check out their Amazon store here: Rescue! Amazon Store link.

Have you tried another brand or style of trap from Rescue! or another company?

We’d love to hear about your experience! Please leave us a comment below!

Thanks for reading and supporting your local backyard bird nerds!

-Birds of West Cobb

(Lisa & Dan)