Hello:

Thank you for your message. There is no simple answer to your question as different kinds of wasps are attracted to different foods at different times of the year. The answer varies with which type of wasp you are trying to attract.

The common wasp pests around homes and landscapes are the yellowjacket wasps and the paper wasps. Both of these social wasps have annual colonies that start from scratch every spring. They do not reuse an old nest from the previous year. The winter is spent as a fertilized female in hibernation. The mated queen starts a new colony in the spring and does all the labor by herself until her first daughters (offspring) appear to take over the work of building the nest, gathering food and caring for the larvae.

In springtime when the colony is growing the yellowjacket wasps are attracted to meat and other high-protein food sources. Traps for yellowjackets could be baited with pieces of fish or cat food. In summer the yellowjackets food preference changes to sweets, and sweet liquids are used in the traps.

The food preferences for paper wasps are less well-known. References I consulted suggested baiting traps with fermenting liquids.

In short, there may not be a single bait that works equally well for all species of wasps and trying different baits may be your best option.

See http://utahpests.usu.edu/htm/utah-pests-news/summer-2009/wasp-trap

Thanks.

Donald Lewis