DIY Hornet, Wasp and Meat Bee Trap
DIY Hornet, Wasp and Meat Bee Trap
After I posted directions for the DIY Fake Hornet Nest the other day, I got a couple of emails asking “WHAT ELSE can I do to keep the hornets out of my yard besides resorting to chemical sprays?” My answer is the DIY Hornet, Wasp and Meat Bee Trap.
This homemade wasp trap is effective at trapping and killing wasps, meat bees, hornets, and yellow jackets. It’s not 100% either BUT use it in conjunction with the Fake Hornet Nests, and you’ll be on your way to less stinging things and more fun!
Homemade Wasp Nests
The fake nests are NOT 100% effective; they discourage wasps from making nests, hanging out, living IN and AROUND your work area. BUT wasps will still be in your yard because they’re flying through, they’re coming for water, they’re coming for aphid nectar, whatever they’re doing, they’re still around. But there won’t be nearly as many as before.
How to Kill Hornets
What can you do to reduce the number of wasps in your yard even more? Make an easy DIY Hornet Trap! So easy, super effective! The wasps still hanging around your lawn, fire pit, chicken house are there for a reason, usually food or water-related.
So if you can make a couple of these traps and put them around where hornets congregate, you’ll be sure to reduce your numbers even more.
These are highly effective and will soon be filled with dead wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and so on. Don’t worry you won’t attract honeybees and bumblebees because they are more attracted to flowers.
What you need for a DIY Hornet, Wasp and Meat Bee Trap:
- a plastic water bottle or a 2-liter bottle and even a milk jug will work
- scissors or a knife
- cutting board
- bait for your trap-a sweet aromatic fruit juice like apple juice, or use meat scraps that will attract lots of hornets, wasps, and meat bees
- tape-you might need this to make little tabs to lift the lid of your trap to discard dead hornets and reload your bait; you could use scotch tape or packing tape
How to Make the DIY Hornet, Wasp and Meat Bee Trap:
- remove the lid from your water bottle
- cut the top 2-3 inches off the bottle, the part of the bottle with the lid
- invert the piece you cut on top of the bottle
- place it where hornets are found, ours have still been heavy out by our fire pit, so I put a couple out there
- DONE
- Well you need to bait it, add a couple of inches of sweet juice to the bottom or a couple of pieces of meat or even the combo meat AND juice works too-sometimes you need to try a few different juices or meat scraps to find what works for you. If you bait it and you DON’T get hornets, pour it out and try again with a different bait
- If you need to create a little tab with tape to lift the lid on and off, it’s better to do it now before it gets sticky or filled with hornets.
I think I’m tossing out a couple of dozen hornets a day now with this handy trap and when the season is over, I’ll pour it out, rinse it and recycle the whole thing.
Do meat bees have stingers or just bite?
omg I think they sting and bit but the worst is that they just constantly land on you if you’re eating or cleaning salmon–makes the kids scream every time!
This is an easy practicle solution! We’ve got raptors and otters at our facility, and we feed them a lot of fish and meat outdoors. This will help a lot. Thank you so much!
oh excellent I never thought of that but you’re right I bet that IS a problem!
Where is a good place to put the traps? Wouldn’t it draw them if you put them in your yard? It seems you’d want to draw them away?
I place them where I have active hornets or bees!
Did you say raptors????