Cheap and Simple Yellow Jacket trap
Careful: Despite the nuisance yellow jackets create, they do a lot of good as well. As predator insects they control many pests. You may find that eliminating yellow jackets increases the need for you to spray for pests in your garden and around your home. Use traps only when the yellow jacket situation is intolerable.
Step 1 Obtain a plastic bottle and cut a small hole in the shoulder, large enough for your finger, with a utility knife. Put an inch or two of water in the bottom, squirt a good squeeze of dish detergent into the water.
2. Take some jelly or some other preserves that is sweet, get it on your finger and smear it around the inside of the jar, near the hole. You can increase effectiveness by using a pleasant odor in the jelly, such as a drop of vanilla or peppermint.
Warning: Never use honey for this. It can spread bee disease; bees are vital as pollinators to your food supply.
3. Yellow jackets will climb in and begin feeding. Most of them are not bright enough to find their way back out via the hole, so they drop into the soapy water. Instantly they are trapped, and in a minute they are dead. You'll have to clean out the dead, and replenish the jelly now and then.
