Wasps wasted

Early in the year, wasps are welcome visitors: they gobble up aphids and caterpillars by the dozen to feed to their young, leaving your plants pest-free.

By summer, though, they become a nuisance, eating holes in ripening fruit and swarming over picnics, making outdoor life almost impossible and occasionally downright painful.

You don't have to destroy wasp nests unless it's posing a risk to you or your family. But it's wise to keep the insects at bay using a combination of deterrents and traps.

Wasp traps can be as simple as a jar with some sugary water in the bottom to lure them in, or a device which fits into the top of a plastic drinks bottle, allowing them to crawl in but not escape again. 

 

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