Yellow Jacket trap

Click on picture for larger image

It's that time of year - September into October - when those blasted "Yellow Jackets" appear in our part of the country (and many areas too!). These little creatures are quite aggressive, more so than the hard-working Bumble Bee. Jackets are not good at pollen dissemination either and they're able to sting humans as often as they like without hurting themselves, unlike the more useful bee. A Facebook member with the handle Kerryg has put together an excellent page describing the differences between Bees, Yellow Jackets and Wasps. You'll find Kerry's explanations here.

Now, here's my "trap" idea: These little buggers are attracted by anything sweet that I happen to be eating or drinking (Hey! You guys stay away from my Manhattan, the "brown" martini made with the sweet vermouth and, my preference, Canadian Club). So, I put a lump of sugar-rich jam on a napkin and placed it on top of my outdoor grill. Wow!  Did they flock to that treat, as you can see in the above photograph. In fact, after about twelve hours, these hungry devils with a large sweet tooth had consumed just about every last bite of that rather significant clump of jam.

It was then a simple matter of doing a mass execution with a fly swatter. Next, I tried some peanut butter, but that didn't work. Their preference is jam!