New chemical attractants have been developed for many social wasps in the vulgaris species group of Vespula and fuscatus species group of Polistes. However, these chemicals are not attractive to other pest species of Polistes such as the introduced European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominulus). This and other Polistes are invading new geographic regions such as North and South America, New Zealand, Australia, and the Galapagos archipelago. Chemical attractants could be a viable trapping and baiting alternative to pesticide applications. The opportunity to discover, isolate, and identify chemical attractants from natural sources was done by observing feeding behavior of social wasps (queens, workers, and reproductives) at natural sugar sources such as flowers, fruits, tree wounds, sap flows, and insect honeydews.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Vespidae
Keywords: social wasps, feeding behavior
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