jgroxbury
1280497750
Posted 1346431860
Reply with quote #1
Has anyone ever had a problem with bees (yellow jacket variety) eating/damaging figs? I've never had a problem with them before, but as figs are ripening, small holes are being burrowed into the fig. I have seen the bees on the figs so I'm just wondering if their causing the damage or something else could be doing the damage but then the bees follow it up. The hole isn't deep, maybe an 1/8" to 1/4" deep, but birds usually go deeper than that (don't they). I have hummingbird feeders within 10 to 12 feet of my container trees but I've never seen them near the trees. Could they be the culprits? I have posted picture of one of the damaged figs. Any ideas? Just for info the fig is Sal's EL. Thanks for any help.
John
Attached Images P8311029.JPG (495.85 KB, 60 views)
AaronT
1332859238
Posted 1346432764
Reply with quote #2
Haven't seen it myself, but it makes sense. They really go after pears.
DesertDance
1247674606
Posted 1346433064
Reply with quote #3
A fig is a flower, inside. Bees love flowers! A fig is simply an edible flower! Other edible flowers I love are roses and nasturtiums.
cmdrzog
1202612892
Posted 1346433311
Reply with quote #4
yellow jackets will do that. Even more fun is picking a fig w/ a whiteface hornet on the other side.
hblta
1277578212
Posted 1346435016
Reply with quote #5
Came home yesterday to find just that on one of my trees, yellow jackets eating a fig.
Dieseler
1215735852
Posted 1346440056
Reply with quote #6
John yes yellow jackets attack figs iv'e see it years ago here in my yard and you can have many on 1 fig eating it to almost nothing.
DesertDance
1247674606
Posted 1346440313
Reply with quote #7
How can you stop this? Bird netting will not do the trick!
Womack
1328644960
Posted 1346440857
Reply with quote #8
You can make a simple trap to catch yellow jackets out of an empty 2 litre coke bottle. Just cut the top of the bottle off where it stops tapering. You will end up with a piece that looks like a funnel and and the bottom portion. Flip the funnel portion upside down and insert into the remaining bottom portion. Secure it with some duct tape. This makes a simple funnel trap that the yellow jackets can go in but not back out.
jgroxbury
1280497750
Posted 1346444360
Reply with quote #9
Martin, you are right on with the hummingbird feeder attracting the bees. Even though my feeders are the type that have screens on them, they still hover around trying to enter. As much as I enjoy watching the hummingbirds, the figs come first. I put too much time and effort into them to let them get eaten by anything besides me and my family. Maybe I can relocate them to a further distance away from the trees.
detomaso
1258290310
Posted 1346454056
Reply with quote #10
I have had many yellow jackets and hornets biting away at the ripe figs especially. Need to be carefull when picking the fruit, you would not want to get stung by this one. Angelo zone 7A NY
Attached Images hornet_on_fig_(1280x960).jpg (675.07 KB, 65 views)
CTFIGS
1345496570
Posted 1346454752
Reply with quote #11
that looks like one mean son of a mother Angelo!! Didn't know keeping figs was this dangerous!! lol, still not enough of a deterrent though!! thanks for the heads up.
BLB
1214341548
Posted 1346457050
Reply with quote #12
Sometimes they are pretty bad, the only way to beat them is to pick a little early. Last year with all of the figs souring with the record rains the wasps were pretty bad. I had a nest of white faced hornets in a Lilac tree right near my inground fig tree, I got rid of them with wasp spray at night
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403833720
Reply with quote #13
Last June, just before the figs were ready to ripen, we got a lot of rain and cooler weather. This caused the figs to swell so fast that they split. Then the honey bees attacked...as many as 3-6 on each fig. After getting stung twice..spraying soapy water on them..I gave up and called it a total loss. I ended up trimming as much off the tree as I could just to get rid of the bees and safety. I'm afraid we are having the same weather pattern and my tree is loaded. I do not want to lose this crop to bees again, or get stung. Any ideas? I'm thinking about using a sun-shade screen..(white) to cover the tree, since a bird net is useless against little honey bees. I'm not sure is the shade screen will totally block all the sunlight. Help!!!! I'm desparate! I tried the bee traps.. they totally ignored them and stuck with the figs. I don't blame them.. they are really sweet figs.
Rewton
1291943117
Posted 1403835031
Reply with quote #14
What about using organza bags to prevent bee/wasp damage (as well as bird damage)?
Aaron4USA
1375832059
Posted 1403836017
Reply with quote #15
Quote:
Originally Posted by DesertDance
hungryjack
1313447992
Posted 1403840060
Reply with quote #16
Yes, check the bees harvesting schedule and just pick the night before :rolleyes:
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403845419
Reply with quote #17
My figs are not as good if harvested before they are ripe. The bees seem to know that too. They strike just at the right moment. The birds around here also know when to strike. ( I check everyday for that first fig to ripen..I found one today..on the ground, half eaten) I like the organza idea. I can just glue or tape it to the bird net. Yes.. a lot of work but these figs are worth it. I have about 3-5 days to get them covered. Once the first few figs ripen.. That tree will go crazy. One day I picked 8 - 1 gallon bags, and it's crazy for about 4 weeks and slows down mid-Aug. I have lots of happy neighbors and relatives not to mention all the canning I do. I have no idea what kind of fig tree it is.. It's ancestor came from Sicily in the early 1900s. My best hope is the weather doesn't cause them to suddenly swell and split and that the bees have moved far away and forgot how to get back to my yard!. Thank you for the advice.
Aaron4USA
1375832059
Posted 1403845725
Reply with quote #18
Sounds like a really nice fig variety, any pics Rita? :)
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403846057
Reply with quote #19
Aaron4USA
1375832059
Posted 1403846441
Reply with quote #20
woohoo, we got a winer! Damn, that's got to be italian something something...LOL
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403846473
Reply with quote #21
here is last year attack.
Aaron4USA
1375832059
Posted 1403846816
Reply with quote #22
hey,,, do you blame them...really.
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403847024
Reply with quote #23
I sent off some pictures of the leaves and figs to somebody.. but they couldn't identify it. All I know is that it came from the "old" Poggioreale in Sicily, about 50 miles from Palermo. By "Old" I mean the town was destroyed by an earthquake in 68 and was rebuilt on another hill. I visited there twice but had no luck locating another fig tree like mine. It is very stubborn trying to root from cuttings. I just scrape some bark off a limb in late July, cover the area with dirt, tie a baggie around it and in 3 weeks, I got roots. Cut off the branch with roots and plant it in a pot. ...And then give them away to whoever wants one. This tree grows fast, really fast, and will produce many figs in the 3rd year.
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403847108
Reply with quote #24
I'm thinking it's some kind of honey. It does produce a drop in the eye. The leaves are a little different.
Aaron4USA
1375832059
Posted 1403847248
Reply with quote #25
Ask Jon, the curator of the Forum.. he is very knowledgable, so are few others...like Harvey C, George or Francisco...
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403847819
Reply with quote #26
Aha.. I found some pics of a Peter's Honey.. BINGO! those leaves DO look like mine! Now, If I could only dry some of them for making Italian Fig cookies..
Aaron4USA
1375832059
Posted 1403848372
Reply with quote #27
you are not italian at all are you, LOL
Grasa
1347083219
Posted 1403855535
Reply with quote #28
I always knew of wasps being great for the garden and for stinging people. I got curious after reading this trail and did my research. I still think the wasps are not attacking the fruits, but the little insects that destroy the fruits (fruit fly, gnats, moths, fruit worms, etc) http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/benefits-of-wasps-yellow-jackets-zw0z1303zkin.aspx#axzz35p88VTx2
greenfig
1359790036
Posted 1403856107
Reply with quote #29
Yeap, Grasa!
MGorski
1399823521
Posted 1403876784
Reply with quote #30
Bees, wasps, and hornets all seem to enjoy eating figs, and can create a dangerous situation for those allergic to stings. Around here at least, they are definatly eating figs. You have to make sure there are none on a fig when you pick them. Keeping the figs picked helps, they seem to be worse on figs that are very ripe. I think I will have to try some traps this year. We have yellow jackets that nest in the ground, usually discovered after going over them with a lawn mower. They are the most aggressive I have seen around here. One nest last year was removed by some animal, probably skunks, as we see them in the yard digging for food.
Chivas
1283819505
Posted 1403877836
Reply with quote #31
For me, luckily they would only stick to a couple figs at a time and there would be up to 10 on one fig so I left them to their figs and ate mine, not a significant loss for me, later in the season when the cold nights came in, the figs got less tasty on the tree they went after so I let them have their fill, some figs just dried on the tree and they would slowly pick at them. They seem to only go after 1 tree for me and left the rest alone.
Tonycm
1314411773
Posted 1403886892
Reply with quote #32
Last year I lost a lot of figs to yellow jackets. I used a trap to catch some and a shop vac with some soapy water in the canister. I used a skinny piece of pipe attached to the hose so that I only got the yellow jackets and not the fig. The figs that they started to eat were left on the tree as bait to keep them from starting on a new fig. Then when they began eating I'd suck em up in the vac and they would drown in the canister. Just make sure you have a wet and dry vac before you try this. It didn't eliminate all of them but it really cut down on their population.
loquat1
1312036896
Posted 1403890101
Reply with quote #33
Why are some of you referring to them as bees? Yellow Jackets are wasps, are they not? Guess if they're munching away at your prize fruit, you're not gonna be too bothered about their Linnean classification, right?
rcantor
1309799312
Posted 1403904777
Reply with quote #34
Yellow Jackets destroyed my grapes all the time. I never got any. I put organza bags on all of my figs and the YJs went from bag to bag and never found their way in. I'll shoot some video this year. When I had grapes I'd have hundreds of them and they even built a nest in the ground. With the organza bags I'd see 1 or 2. I'd rather bag than spray. For those of you with too many figs to individually bag consider frost or insect cloth around each tree or an enclosure like TucsonKen built. It cuts sunlight by about 30% but it's better than having swarms of YJ.
cis4elk
1347840383
Posted 1403906266
Reply with quote #35
These work good too. They also keep out fruit flys and imgagine they would work for sour beetles. No tying involved, just cover and wrap the end around itself.
Products Catalog Number: T167 Our price: $12.50
Ritasays2you
1403829026
Posted 1403908796
Reply with quote #36
ok.. let's just call them fig eating monsters for fun. I would love to have bagged them but I'm serious, My tree was covered by hundreds of them. There was a huge hive of them somewhere around here. We live near a golf course. I'm thinking of a smoke machine...lol
cis4elk
1347840383
Posted 1403909260
Reply with quote #37
Bee activity greatly decreases at night time. But, if you think they all fly back to where they came from you'll be in for a surprise. I do a great deal of gardening at night with my headlamp on, it is not uncommon to find bees and yellow jackets just hanging out on a leave waiting for the sun. At least they aren't flying around, I think if you put on a headlamp and wear leather gloves you could probably pick your figs a lot more comfortly.
