How to Keep Wasps off the Table? Natural Tips & Tricks

Summer is the perfect time to spend time outdoors and enjoy your meal on the terrace or in the garden. You can even go on a picnic with friends. But green spaces are also home to hundreds of different insects. One of them is the wasp. It is very useful for pollinating plants, but it can also be violent if you provoke it. What to do in this case, when you have to share the same environment as the wasps? How do you protect yourself and your food? You’ll find the answers below, so you can enjoy a great summer experience without getting stung. Let’s see how to keep wasps off the table!

2022: Is There a Wasp Invasion?

It seems that this year we are seeing more wasps than ever before, but why? You may not be surprised to read that the reason is the global warming. Their natural life cycle begins in the fall, when the queen mates with a male. It spends the winter hidden in trees and holes in buildings until spring arrives. Then the queen wakes up and starts building a nest where she will lay her larvae and build her colony. Usually, a large part of the queens die during the winter, threatened by the cold. But now, when the temperatures are milder, most of them survive.

How to Keep Wasps off The Table?

It seems that we have to get used to these black and yellow insects, but no one feels comfortable eating with them. In this case, you can try to find their nest and destroy it or use the following tips to cohabit quietly with them or repel them naturally.

Stay Calm

Waving your arms makes wasps angry and that increases the chances that they will sting you. So you have to stay calm.

Take a Spray Bottle of Water

If you want to repel them, use a spray bottle of water instead. Wasps hide from the rain, which means they will escape to find shelter.

Avoid Wearing Bright Colors

Bright colors attract wasps, as well as bees. This is how they find the flowers they feed on. So if you want to eat in the garden, prefer neutral shades.

Cover Food

It’s the safest way to protect your food and keep wasps off the table. Remember to avoid plastic. Instead, use reusable silicone lids.

Don’t Kill the Wasp

Do not kill the wasps, because in addition to being cruel, dead or dying wasps emit pheromones that attract other wasps to the area.

Put A CD on The Table

The sun reflected in the CDs keeps the wasps away. If you can’t find CDs, use pieces of aluminum foil.

Use Natural Repellents

You often ask “What smell scares wasps away?” There are many scents to choose from. Among the most popular are essential oils of lavender, mint, cloves and lemongrass. You can either dilute them in water and spray the table or use them in an aroma lamp.

Burning natural incense sticks is another method that will scare away wasps.

Garlic and onion are other natural products whose smell will keep wasps away.

To keep wasps off the table and enjoy an outdoor meal without fear of getting stung, you can also burn your coffee grounds. It is a powerful natural insecticide that has many properties.

Keeping Wasps Away from the Table – Myth or Reality?

Here are some common beliefs that entomologists say are NOT true:

⇒ Wasps are only attracted to sweet foods and drinks: wasps eat more sweets in late summer as they prepare for winter. In early and mid-summer, they are more interested in meat to feed their small carnivores.

⇒ A jam trap attracts wasps away from your picnic: a beer trap is actually more effective, but it can also attract more wasps around you. So think about repelling them, not trapping them.

And one thing that is certain is that if you see one wasp, others will follow.