ARS | Publication request: Social wasps trapped in the Czech Republic with syrup and fermented fruit and comparison with similar studies (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Submitted to: Bulletin of Insectology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: October 31, 2006
Publication Date: December 1, 2006
Citation: Dvorak, L., Landolt, P.J. 2006. Social wasps trapped in the Czech Republic with syrup and fermented fruit and comparison with similar studies (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Bulletin of Insectology 59(2):115-120.

Interpretive Summary: Because of concerns with adverse environmental and human health effects of many pesticides in use for controlling insects, new methods are needed to control insect pests of agricultural crops. Natural materials and chemical attractants for insect pests are useful for trapping and sampling targeted species. Researchers at the USDA-ARS Yakima Agricultural Research Laboratory are developing baits and chemical attractants for several insect pests of tree fruits, including yellowjackets and paper wasps that are pests in apple and pear orchards as well as vineyards at harvest. It was determined in collaborative studies with other researchers in the Czech Republic that a number of different species of these social wasps can be trapped with fermented fruit baits, and new distribution records were provided for wasps in central Europe. This information demonstrates how such attractants can be used to monitor the spread and abundance of species of wasps as their distributions change over time.

Technical Abstract: Eight species of social wasps were trapped in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with syrup as bait. Vespa crabro L, Vespula germanica (Fabricius), and Vespula vulgaris (L.) dominated trap catches at most sites, comprising 32, 28, and 35% of the wasps trapped respectively. Nearly all wasps captured were females of the worker caste. Greatest diversity of wasps in traps was from late July into early August. A capture of one Polistes nimphus was a new elevational record for this species in the Czech Republic. Nearly all Vespula wasps trapped were species in the Vespula vulgaris species group, with Vespula rufa (L.) conspicuously absent from traps.