wasps are eating my raspberries

[Bama Chick]

Does anybody have a suggestion? The wasps are eating my raspberries. It is too late for Sevin or any other bugacide because we are picking. Squashing the wasp is not practicle or smart! Please help, the little buggers are eating my entire crop.

 

[lesa]

Very strange, can't imagine wasps eating berries!! What about some kind of fabric- row cover type stuff?? The deer netting holes are too big, but something with smaller holes might work. That is a bummer, be very careful when picking!!

 

[Bama Chick]

Thanks for the reply. We talked about netting but with prickly raspberry bushes I think it might be more trouble than it is worth. I may try to cover a small section of row just to experiment.

 

[lesa]

Just thought of an idea, for next year! They claim if you get those wasp traps out early, you will catch the queens and have no problem with wasps. I think it would be worth a try...A few traps in your garden, might help your immediate problem too. There would be at least a decrease in population...Good luck!

 

[vfem]

The wasps like SWEET, we have them all over our hummingbird feeders and they are chasing off the birds.

I like the idea of netting.... try to bend some pipe into hoops like the hoop houses. I would suggest using Tulle rather then any commercial nettings at places like Lowe's and Home Depot. Most garden centers sell the larger stuff. You can get tulle at any fabric store, like Joanne's.

I would never suggest using sevin or any other chemical to kill bugs during harvest time.

 

[hoodat]

I don't have any solution but that's normal wasp behavior. A neighbor had to take out a beautiful mission fig tree because his yard was so full of wasps he was afraid to go outside.

 

[patandchickens]

What about putting out some wasp traps (the kind where they are attracted into a bottle or etc by some sweet liquid in there, then are unable to escape) near enough for the wasps to find 'em?

Also, what kind of wasps are they. If they are hornets/paper-wasps, you may be able to discourage them (at least next year) with one of those inflatable "fake hornet nest" things, which I have not used myself but *supposedly* are reasonably effective in discouraging 'em from nesting nearby.

Good luck,

Pat