Thank you for taking part this year. Here’s your step-by-step plan for this year’s BWS…
Before you start: LOGIN HERE!
1. Register Traps For the current Session
This year, we are inviting you to trap wasps in 2 separate sessions again; one at the start of August and one in the usual August-September slot. As you add traps, make sure you select which session the trap is part of.
The reason to add a second sampling trapping session is that we are largely missing all of the Dolichovespula species, as their colony cycles end before the end of August. We’d like to get better distribution data for these species.
Once you are logged in, you can register one or more traps. Visit your account page to see what traps you have registered, and what session and status they are in. From here, you will also be able to add traps, update your password and change your email address.
If you want to put out traps in different positions, you need to register each trap separately.
2. Making Your Traps
- Cut the top third off a plastic drinks bottle (ideally a 1-litre bottle, but any size will work). Turn the cut part upside down and put it, hole downwards, into the bottom part of the bottle, to create a funnel.
- Attach a piece of string to your bottle by punching some holes through the side so that you can hang it up.
- Pour half a can(about 200ml) or beer (lager preferably) into the bottom of your bottle – the top of the inverted bottle shouldn’t touch the liquid. You can use 200ml orange juice if you prefer.
Here’s a quick YouTube Video that takes you through the steps needed.
3. Put Your Trap Out
You must put out your trap for 7 days (no more, no less), any time between the start and end dates for each session.
Session 1: Start your traps Sat 1st Aug – Sun 9th Aug.
Session 2: Start your traps Sat 29th Aug – Sun 6th Sep.
- Hang up your wasp traps about 1.5m from the ground in a tree or bush, or a fence post in your garden; be sure to position it as far away from playing or sitting areas as possible.
- Leave your trap out for 7 days.
4. Collect Your Insects
- After 7 days, take your trap down. Best to do this in the early morning or dusk, to be sure there will be no wasps around. Although the wasps in your trap should all be dead, there may be a couple that are still alive in the liquid. Be sure not to handle these directly: we advise you to wear rubber gloves (e.g. washing-up gloves).
- Drain off the fluid using a kitchen sieve. Rinse your insects under a tap and leave them to dry thoroughly on a piece of kitchen towel.
- Tip onto a dry piece of kitchen towel and tin foil
Tip your dry catch (wasps and all other insects) onto a sheet of aluminium or tin foil, lined with kitchen paper. - If you are not going to identify your wasps immediately, carefully wrap the tin foil around the insects to form a little parcel: don’t squash it down too much – squashed wasps are harder to identify! If you have more than one trap, please wrap the contents of each trap in separate packages of foil and put a label on the outside. Pop your tin foil package(s) in the freezer until you are ready to identify and post them.
Please read this wasp handling advice
5. Prep and Post!
For the 2026 final wasp push, we will be asking you to post your trap contents to us for identification. This way we can compare samples (genetically and morphologically) to those sampled at the start of the Big Wasp Survey 10 years ago!
Big Wasp Survey has always run on a shoe-string budget. Due to huge hikes by Royal Mail for freepost registration, we are sadly unable to provide a Freepost address this year.
Instead, we ask you to post them to the address below. Samples should be sent first class (to avoid them rotting in the post!) as a Large Letter (£3.30). If you’re able to cover the postage yourself, we would be extremely grateful. However, we certainly don’t want the cost of postage to be a barrier to taking part; if you would like us to reimburse you, simply email us, and we will arrange this for you.
Postal address:
Big Wasp Survey
c/o Prof Seirian Sumner
Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research,
Dept of Genetics,
Evolution and Environment,
University College London,
WC1E 6BT
6. Optional for 2026! Fill in Your Trap Details if you identify your wasps
We know how great you are at wasp identification now; so if you’d also like to identify your wasps before posting them, please go ahead and submit your ID records as usual on the website. Remember to keep what you identify and pop them back in the freezer as described above until you are ready to post them.
We want to know about everything that you catch, even if your trap includes insects other than wasps. Not catching any wasps or catching other insects at your location is very valuable data for this project.
- Visit your account page, where you will find a list of your traps. Click on one to see and edit the form, letting us know how many wasps and other insects you caught, and other trap details
- When you are editing a trap, there are 3 pages of data
Page 1 – trap identity and location
Page 2 – trap details, when you put it out and how you made it
Page 3 – the insects you caught
Remember to press ‘Update Trap’ when you are done!