Insects Eating Figs and Other Fruit

   Figs are getting ripe and muscadines and oears are not far behind.  With their ripening come wasps, yellow jackets, bees, and other insects looking for a sweet meal.   There are not synthetic insecticides that can be sprayed to control these problems in figs.  You might can use an organic spray such as pyrethrum.  Malathion and carbaryl (Sevin) can be used in pears and muscadines but there is a 7 and 3 days waiting period respectively.

  You can purchase various traps or you can try the following idea.

   This was passed on to us by someone who has had success killing yellow jackets in and around the fig tree, and should work when the pears begin to ripen.  It was suggested that this also can be used with muscadines and grapes.

   The gentleman’s solution was to cut the neck off a 2 liter soda bottle and invert it into the neck of the bottle, stapling it around the edge where the two pieces of bottle meet. This puts the neck of the bottle down into the bottle.

   Put 1 teaspoon of honey inside at the bottom.  Add a pint of water and mix well.  Sit or hang the bottle near the fig or other fruiting tree.  Once the yellow jackets and wasps go into the bottle, they cannot get out, so this helps eliminate them.  Other suggestions were sweets like cola or syrup.  They seem to link the amber brown color   Once inside the bottle, the insect is trapped and cannot get out. Hang your bottles just as the fruit begins to ripen