Whether you love watching birds in your yard or you're a pest control professional, there are various reasons for attracting birds to your yard or garden. A variety of pests and insects bother you while you enjoy the outdoors and damage garden plants. The best way to deal with such an issue is to attract insect-eating birds that can help prevent pests and insects from eating your plants in summer and spring. In this article, you'll learn about various easy steps to attract birds that eat wasps, and also some other ways to get rid of wasps.
Understanding Wasps
The body parts of wasps are thin and cylindrical. They have a smooth body and legs. The junction between their thorax and abdomen is slightly narrow. Common wasp species you may notice around the yard include paper wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets. Wasps usually build papery nests and are very aggressive. Many wasps are beneficial natural predators that feed on other insects and other wasps.
Now that we've described wasps' characteristics, let's discuss when they can become a problem around your home:
During late summer and early fall, wasps become a problem as their population grows, and that rising wasp population causes most late-season wasp problems around the house. As a result, wasps look for alternative food sources and are attracted to items like carbonated beverages, juice, candy, meats, cakes, fruits, vegetables, and ice cream, unlike bees, which are important pollinators. In search of such food alternatives, wasps move in larger numbers to your yard, creating problems while relaxing outdoors.
Wasps That Are Harmless
Various species of wasps do not cause any trouble to bird feeders. One such species is the Mud Dauber wasp, which is harmless to bird feeders and, unlike problem wasps, helps support pollinators in the garden. These wasps are appreciated in residential backyards. Such wasps are harmless and help in pollination in your garden.
How to Attract Birds That Eat Wasps?
Provide Shelter To Birds
Birds look for a safe shelter to seek protection from extreme weather and to relax and revive. Good shelter also helps birds nest safely, so one way to attract birds to your yard is by providing them with a harbor in your yard. Use shrubs and branches from dead trees to help the birds build nests more easily. Try hanging some birdhouses and nesting boxes in your yard or along the fence. Purple martins are more likely to settle nearby when you provide a properly placed martin house or similar housing.
Taller Trees
Wasps eat birds like Tanagers, which love nesting in the shade of taller, older trees. If you have such types of trees in your yard, they're likely to visit and make a shelter there. These birds will solve your problem by hunting for small insects, such as wasps, and eating them.
Summer Tanagers love nesting in the shade of taller, older trees. If you have such mature trees, especially oak treesin your yard, they provide better perches and nesting cover, so the birds are more likely to visit and make a shelter there. These birds are wasp specialists that catch prey mid flight and can help reduce stinging insects.
Birdscaping
Birds love berries, so plant native plants such as blackberries, blueberries, black raspberries, crabapple trees, and Virginia creeper as a lasting food source. These plants also support flying insects, butterflies, and other pollinators that help keep the yard ecosystem balanced. Virginia creeper gives fruit in the late summer and early fall. Their fruits attract birds.
Fruits on Feeders
You can also try putting fruits on the feeders. Consider picking up over-ripe bananas, sliced apples and oranges, cherries, and raisins. Keep feeders clean, since ripe fruit can also attract yellow jackets and bald faced hornets. They also love suet. Place the feeders higher on the branches of trees or outside a second-story window because tanagers love being high. This will increase the chances of attracting them, and high placement may also help keep hummingbirds at nectar stations with less wasp pressure nearby.
Offer Worms
Try offering insects to the birds. Many species known for eating insects will also take beetles and ants, not just worms. Many birds, especially the bluebirds, love to eat mealworms (protein-packed morsels), and while birds eat wasps when available, mealworms are often the easiest way to bring them into your yard first. Just placing a few worms on or near the bird feeders will help you attract the birds to your yard.
Try Insect-packed Suet Cakes
Birds need energy for migrating and nesting. Insect-packed suet cakes provide birds with high-energy nutrients, such as fat and oil, helping them stay energetic throughout the day. Suet can also support insect-eating birds while they hunt wasps and other flying insects around the yard.
Place Multiple Bird Feeders
To attract more birds, install two or more bird feeders in your yard. Spacing them apart can also reduce conflicts with hornets around bird food. This will help attract a wider variety of insect-eating birds. Once the birds enter your yard and find food in one feeder, they'll check the others as well, and cleaning up sugary spills helps keep the area from becoming an easy food source for wasps.
Water Supply
Birds always look for fresh water sources, and a bird bath is one of the easiest to add. Consider adding a water feature, such as a birdbath, fountain, or artificial pond, to your yard. The sound of trickling water often attracts more wasp eaters than still water. Birds look for water to drink and bathe, especially in the hot summer months. If you have a birdbath, keep the water level low. Add some pebbles or a branch so that birds can stand on it and drink water. Consider keeping the water sources in a shaded spot in your yard.
Foods That Attract Most Birds
Sunflower seeds attract birds of large varieties. Birdseed generally comes in mixtures. The best birdseed that attracts most birds is a mixture of sunflower seeds, peanuts, maize, or millets. Leaving some open ground below feeders can help northern mockingbirds forage for dropped insects and fruit. They often hunt on the ground or around open ground instead of staying only at feeders. A blue jay may also visit and raid wasp nests for larvae.
Some Alternate Ways To Get Rid Of Wasps
Trap Wasps
Use a glass wasp trap to catch the wasps when wasp nests are nearby, but it is not the real solution for long-term control. Fill the trap with any sweet liquid inside the trap, like sugar water, beer, juice, or anything else that is sweet and in liquid form. This method is non-toxic and effectively baits wasps, with the goal of reducing the local wasp population without using harsh chemicals.
Glass Wasp Traps
Glass Wasp Traps are safe to use and hang easily in any garden or outdoor living space. Add some soda or sugar water to the trap's inner reservoir. Once the wasp gets inside, it gets stuck. The glass wasp has a sturdy cork at the top that keeps the wasp inside. Glass Wasp Traps have a small wire hanger that makes it easy to hang anywhere in your yard. The legs of the glass wasp traps are designed in such a way that they can be placed even on a table.
Use Feeders Without Yellow Colour
Wasps get attracted to bright colours like yellow and white, so a hummingbird feeder can be a common trouble spot. Many bird feeders on the market have yellow wasp guards or decorations near the feeding holes, and the nectar in a hummingbird feeder can also attract yellow jackets and bald faced hornets. Therefore, using red feeders will help attract only birds, not wasps. Choose designs that block access to nectar while still allowing hummingbirds to feed.
Conclusion
Wasps can be a troublemaker and can even be dangerous, usually during late summer and early fall. However, attracting birds that are natural predators is one of the safest ways to kill fewer wasps directly while still lowering their numbers. You can get rid of Wasps naturally by attracting some wasp-eating birds, and some may even attack nests to reach larvae because a sting rarely stops persistent hunters. You just need to provide the birds with shelter, food sources, and water. Additionally, use wasp traps and proper feeders to trap the wasps efficiently. Following these easy methods will help you enjoy your outdoor space with ease and comfort, though magpies and some other birds may also visit fruit trees as well as insect-rich areas.
