Tartago® dry trap for Asian hornet, stainless steel

01 · HOW IT DIFFERS FROM A HARP

The attractant and the calendar

A harp is a passive trap: you set it between hives and it catches the wasp that was already coming to attack. It earns its keep mainly in early summer, when there is pressure on the entrances.

The trap adds an attractant reservoir, and that changes the calendar: it can work from February, when there is no pressure on the apiary yet but there are founding queens looking for somewhere to settle. Every queen caught in spring is a nest that never gets built.

02 · THE CALENDAR

And the summer mistake

Use changes with the season, and there is a moment when the attractant works against you:

In summer no attractant goes in. Calling wasps towards the apiary at peak pressure turns it into a battlefield: in that season the device works as a harp and nothing more.

03 · LIVE CAPTURE

What it allows and what it does not authorise

The one-way system keeps the wasp that enters from getting out again, and catches them alive. The direct advantage of that is selectivity: if a honeybee, a bumblebee or a native wasp goes in, you can release it — impossible in a bottle trap full of liquid.

Some people use live catches in more advanced control techniques. What holds for any device holds here: the trap authorises no treatment. What may be applied, and under what conditions, is set by the authorised product and by your region's control plan.

04 · BAITS AND ATTRACTANT

Two different things

The baits are included: small rough black balls that clip onto the wires and mimic bees in flight. They work visually, drawing the wasp towards the trap.

The attractant is something else and goes in the lower reservoir: any will do, commercial or home-made, of the kind you would use in a bottle trap. Being stainless steel, it cleans thoroughly between seasons.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is the trap; the electronics go separately: