Keeping Wasps Away: What Helps, What Is Myth?

The myth check: what home remedies really achieve

Cloves stuck into a halved lemon, smouldering coffee grounds on the balcony, copper coins next to the plate – tips like these have been passed down for generations. Realistically, they work briefly at best and only in one spot: the smell of cloves or smoke can irritate wasps for a few minutes, but as soon as the wind turns or the effect fades, the insects come back. Copper coins are not based on any demonstrable mechanism. As a stand-alone measure they are therefore useless; alongside other measures they are a minor building block at most.

The biggest trap of all: the sugar-water wasp trap

The advice to hang up a bottle of sugar water or syrup is particularly persistent. It is counterproductive: the sweet scent attracts wasps from the entire surrounding area – including ones that had no interest in the garden at all. Some of them drown in it in an agonising way, others survive and stay nearby. At the same time, these traps also kill bees, hoverflies and other beneficial insects. Anyone who wants to keep wasps away should do without sugar-water traps.

What actually works

It is more effective not to attract wasps in the first place: cover food and drinks outdoors, avoid open sweet drinks or put a lid on them, and pick up fallen fruit promptly. If you already have visitors, do not flap or blow at them in a panic – that acts like an attack signal and makes wasps far more aggressive. Sitting still or moving away slowly is safer. A decoy feeding station with overripe grapes or pieces of melon set up some distance from the seating area can deliberately draw wasps away from the table. Insect screens on windows and a fine water spray, which irritates wasps briefly without provoking them, round off the picture.

When a nest is behind it

If unusually large numbers of wasps gather in one place, it is worth asking why – there is more on this in our guide What attracts wasps. If the problem persists, there is often a nest nearby, and you should not remove it yourself. Our guide Preventing a wasp nest shows how to take precautions before a nest even forms. Wespenprofis.ch removes an existing nest professionally and safely (/wespennest-entfernen). You will find an overview of the species found in Switzerland at /arten – peaceful species such as the paper wasp or the European hornet can usually simply be tolerated.