[grinling]

Moved to a house with a pear and apple trees. Fruit is now ripening and there are lots of wasps. Should I pick the fruit now and what should I do about the wasps? Help!!

[Trillium]

If they're mature trees, you'd best pick what you can. Some people tie paper bags around individual fruits to protect against wasps, but if you have a lot of fruit, this is a monumental task.

As for the wasps, if you can follow a few to locate their nest, you can buy a wasp spray and zap them at night when they're at rest (never in the day).

[mobilekat]

My trick for picking plums and not wasps is to wear gardening gloves and use the snips to drop the fruit into a colander, then remove fruit from colander and put on a bowl with a fly cover over

Just been out attempting to pick plums, got a couple of big bowl full, the bad ones have gone straight to be composted a a few under-ripes still on the tree. And not stung once!!

And there were LOTS of wasps, if you move slowly they tend to be too busy attacking any damaged fruit to both with a human!

[dugless]

And there were LOTS of wasps, if you move slowly they tend to be too busy attacking any damaged fruit to both with a human!
[/quote]

I find they are the ones doing the damage, do they stay on one fruit they have damaged

Ho no they attack fresh ones every day 

[joyfull]

I have a bee keepers hat and veil that I wear when collecting fruit off out trees 

[Paul Plots]

I'm glad I read this before I finally go to the plot to harvest my first ever really bumper harvest of plums. Both trees plastered.

I haven't noticed any wasps around the trees at all but, knowing my luck, the local population will all be there awaiting my visit.

Would offering them a plate of something sweet nearby distract them do you think?

[mobilekat]

Always worth a try, my Gran always has a jam jar with a bit of jam left in it and topped up with water- this is her wasp trap- seems to work as always bodies floating in it!

I had a trug on the floor where I was collecting the bad fruit, and this seemed to have quite a few wasps it it!

I ended up taking a fly cover with me, and covering the picked fruit with that, as I didnt want to take the wasps in with me!

[Paul Plots]

I ended up taking a fly cover with me, and covering the picked fruit with that, as I didnt want to take the wasps in with me!

That sounds a good idea but I think I'll leave mine uncovered in the bike-trailer and hope the wasps get left behind in the breeze.  

[grinling]

Thank you for your replies, tracing the nest will be hard as i back onto fields. The idea of the hat sounds brill.
I am wary of being stung asMum was allergic to them.

[sunshineband]

I ended up taking a fly cover with me, and covering the picked fruit with that, as I didnt want to take the wasps in with me!

That sounds a good idea but I think I'll leave mine uncovered in the bike-trailer and hope the wasps get left behind in the breeze.  

I do wish I was good at drawing cartoons 

[Paul Plots]

I ended up taking a fly cover with me, and covering the picked fruit with that, as I didnt want to take the wasps in with me!

That sounds a good idea but I think I'll leave mine uncovered in the bike-trailer and hope the wasps get left behind in the breeze.  

I do wish I was good at drawing cartoons 

A recipe for disaster... perhaps (My cycling not your drawing  )

[operabunny]

Perhaps you could get a fruit picker (sort of bag on a pole) and stay well away from the wasps? Also helpful if there is fruit out of reach so you don't have to resort to a ladder.

Google 'fruit picker' and there are some good but cheap ones available.

[simonwatson]

You can buy a simple wasp trap to hang in the tree. You see them quite often in pub gardens and sometime theme parks. They work on the same principle as the lobster pot, easy to get in hard to get out. You put some beer or a jam and water mix in the bottom and the wasps get in and can't get out. They're very effective.

[JayG]

The Greeks are very resourceful when it comes to making wasp-traps, and they need to be on somewhere like Skopelos, where my friend and I spent the whole day in a taverna beside a beautiful beach which was unfortunately absolutely swarming with wasps (they were even swarming above the sea!!!) 

They used large plastic pop bottles; the top few inches are cut off and inverted back into the rest of the bottle with something sweet in the bottom as simonwatson suggested.

We just sat there drinking Retsina, snacking, and watching this bottle fill up with wasps like a rather gruesome hourglass until the bus finally came to rescue us!

[Salmo]

Wasps nests are invariably within 100 yards of where they feed on fruit.

To follow them watch where they vanish over your boundary and then go the other side and follow the line of flight. Alternatively tell your neighbour that they probably have a wasps nest.

You could catch one and tie a piece of cotton wool on it to make the job easier.