Wasp Sucker Clears The Air

[Matthias Wandel] had something of a wasp problem so he built this trap to catch the pesky fliers. These look like Yellow jackets and they can build some huge nests (check out the picture of a 2-year old dwelling). We’ve experienced a large nest in the walls of an apartment and weren’t as clever at fixing the issue. [Matthias’] solution uses a 1/3 horsepower blower to snatch the wasps out of the air and retain them in the trap above. The trap sits on the blower with some insect netting as a filter, the hose acts as the inlet and is placed at the entrance to their lair. It took nine hours to fill this trap; we wonder where he chose to release them. Enemies of [Mr. Wandel] beware.

[Thanks Trebu]

83 thoughts on “Wasp Sucker Clears The Air

  1. Standard Mischief

    Squirrels bury nuts so they can get them later. However, a Squirrel actually has a horrible memory. They end up just finding other nuts from other squirrels because they don’t remember where theirs are…. so they have sort of an unintentional egalitarian kleptocracy. Point being, I’m sure your squirrel just stole nuts.

  2. I’m relieved to see I was not the only person (in the minority) on this blog post that has some respect for what we once called “God’s creatures” but now call “pests” – though we do seem to be in the minority.

    No surprise there. You might be some smart guys, but book sense ≠ common sense.

    For those who might accuse me of anthropomorphizing inhuman species, watch this:
    http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html

    Nature truly works in mysterious ways; man’s just plain dumb. After we’ve managed to exterminate ourselves, in about a century or so, the wasps and crows will still be around.

  3. Put the whole enclosure in a freezer for about an hour. the cold will make them fall asleep.

    take about 10 or so, get a stick, and some light fishing line.

    tie the bees with fishing line slightly shorter than the stick to the end of the stick.

    wake them up for your very own wasp flail.

  4. Wasps don’t tolerate anyone near their house, why should we tolerate them in ours? It isn’t necessary to kill them off, however, if we can relocate them. Perhaps, after catching all of workers, he should remove the nest and transfer both the nest with queen and the box of workers off to a remote location and release them … wearing beekeepers’ coverall or using remote operated robot from safe distance!

  5. “man’s just plain dumb”

    And yet it’s the wasps who got stuck in a DIY trap. Funny how that works. Maybe you should go spout your feel-good hippy nonsense somewhere else.
    It’s survival of the fittest and until wasps start bulding pumps that can capture us, we’re better than them.

  6. put them in a freezer for an hour, let them fall asleep, scrape them all into a box, put something very watery/sugary inside too (perhaps on a sponge). Close box (cut off side tabs) and wrap in paper. Post to enemy.

    When enemy opens paper, the bees are released.

  7. > we’re better than them <

    Yes, that is certainly true, but how much better?

    The bigger question at hand is not whether we are "better than a wasp", but whether we are better than our own instinctive reflex reactions. Enough to understand the totality of our actions to avoid destroying the environment we occupy.

  8. Not that anyone asked, but I always found that commercial insect sprays were slow acting and ineffective on angry bugs – big spiders, insane wasps, and swarms of bees. I got tired of wasting a quarter of a can trying to kill bugs that couldn’t take a hint.

    One day I realized that “point and squirt” carb cleaner is designed to dissolve deposits that are 90% identical to the material that forms the internal structure of most insects.

    It takes the fight right out of them, largely because box lungs can’t work when there is nothing solid to press against, you can’t fly when your wings are dissolving and it’s hard to harass a target when your central nervous system and compound eyes are dissolving while you suffocate.

    I understand that the pentagon has a research program underway to deal with stinging pests, and are attempting to deploy something that will be as effective as a heart attack, basically spelling suicide for these pests. As I understand it, the goto guy on the project is Julian Assange, and we should see results very quickly.

  9. “I’m posting from my phone — a bunch of wasps just built a huge shop vac and sucked me up when I went to my front door. What now?”

    Holy shit, wasps read hack-a-day. We’re all doomed.

  10. How dare you interfere with those insects god given right to take over your home and attack your loved ones.

    You put them right back where they belong and start looking for a new home mister. This one’s been taken.

  11. Hey – they started it. If they chose a part of my house to build their nest, they’re the invaders. If I tried to mess with their nest, they would sting me if I could, so I’ll do the same.
    KILL THEM WITH FIRE

  12. This is exactly the problem….one “nature nutbar” admonishes the inventor for the humane gathering methods but “suspects” he killed them and sets off a firestorm of nutbar comments.
    This is the problem with our whole society…people talk when they have no facts, or idea about what they are talking about and others jump all over it.
    What an a-hole!

  13. @ rooster-

    People claiming to know what’s safe or not in altering elements of our ecosphere truly scare me.

    Hacking a tech device Vs essentially Hacking the literal “Life Support” systems of our entire PLANET are acts that demand vastly different degrees of caution.

  14. Guessed? I “guess” some of you guys are mind readers and think this guy is a wasp murderer…
    Why on earth would anyone go through the trouble of building something like this just to kill them afterward? He could easily just have bombed them or perhaps made wasp powder with a wet/dry vac. There are so many easy ways to kill wasps. I applaud the effort. I agree it would be nice to move the nest & queen as well but don’t ask me how the hell you’d do it.

  15. So.. do you relocate cockroaches in your wall? Ants in your kitchen? Termites under the foundation of your house?

    In my experience the vast majority of extreme nature lovers don’t live with much nature at all. I assume many are just anthropomorphizing based on fuzzy cartoon animals. Don’t. Nature is not peace an love… it’s brutal.

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