We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

"Larry Stoter" wrote in message
...
We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.
Dunno how big it is, but can you fleece it?
--
Pete C

On 09/05/2013 21:30, Larry Stoter wrote:
We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

You just have to pick them just before they are ripe.

Pete C wrote:

"Larry Stoter" wrote in message
...
We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.
Dunno how big it is, but can you fleece it?

Just about and that's the only possible solution I'd come up with ...

Larry

David Hill wrote:

On 09/05/2013 21:30, Larry Stoter wrote:
We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

You just have to pick them just before they are ripe.

The wasps start on them well before that, sometimes when they are only
half grown .....

Larry

On Thu, 9 May 2013 21:30:29 +0100, (Larry Stoter) wrote:

We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

Spraying the fruit with a very dilute carbolic soap mix keeps wasps
away.

Steve

--
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

Larry Stoter wrote:
We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*?!! from
doing this.
Dunno how big it is, but can you fleece it?

Just about and that's the only possible solution I'd come up with ...

How about one of those 'fake' wasp nest thingies hung in the tree to scare
them off? THat's what Nick uses to keep the wasps away from his bees, and
it seems to work.

On 2013-05-10 09:41:43 +0100, Martin said:

On Fri, 10 May 2013 08:53:25 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

On Thu, 9 May 2013 21:30:29 +0100, (Larry Stoter) wrote:

We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

Spraying the fruit with a very dilute carbolic soap mix keeps wasps
away.

Can you still buy carbolic soap? The soap that I bought thinking it
was carbolic wasn't. It used chemicals to give it the smell.

Swish a bit of Coal Tar soap around in a bucket?
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On Fri, 10 May 2013 10:41:43 +0200, Martin wrote:

On Fri, 10 May 2013 08:53:25 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

On Thu, 9 May 2013 21:30:29 +0100, (Larry Stoter) wrote:

We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

Spraying the fruit with a very dilute carbolic soap mix keeps wasps
away.

Can you still buy carbolic soap? The soap that I bought thinking it
was carbolic wasn't. It used chemicals to give it the smell.

It's not very easy to get these days. Very, very dilute TCP works just
as well. Both are phenol based.

Steve

--
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

In article ,
lid says...

On Fri, 10 May 2013 10:47:43 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2013-05-10 09:41:43 +0100, Martin said:

On Fri, 10 May 2013 08:53:25 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

On Thu, 9 May 2013 21:30:29 +0100, (Larry Stoter) wrote:

We have a Concord (?) pear, which can produce very tasty, juicy fruit
and it is currently covered in blossom.

The last 3-4 years, as the fruit begins to ripen, wasps start eating the
fruit just at the base of the stem - fruit then rots and/or drops off.

Any suggestions for preventing the little black and yellow ^&%*£!! from
doing this.

Larry

Spraying the fruit with a very dilute carbolic soap mix keeps wasps
away.

Can you still buy carbolic soap? The soap that I bought thinking it
was carbolic wasn't. It used chemicals to give it the smell.

Swish a bit of Coal Tar soap around in a bucket?

The Wrights coal tar soap that I bought was only coal tar by name.
EU/H&S has killed the real thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright's_Coal_Tar_Soap
"The soap is now made in Turkey for the current owners of the brand,
Simple Health and Beauty Ltd based in Solihull in the UK and is called
Wright's Traditional Soap. As European Union directives on cosmetics
have banned the use of coal-tar in non-prescription products, the coal
tar derivatives have been removed from the formula, replacing them
with tea tree oil as main anti-bacterial ingredient. Despite this
major variance from the original recipe, the new soap has been made to
approximate the look and smell of the original product."

It says so on the wrapper.

Tar and epoxy tar antifouling for boats went the same way.

Coal tar shampoos are easily available in the UK, both OTC and
prescription.

Janet

On Fri, 10 May 2013 12:06:33 +0100, Janet wrote:

Tar and epoxy tar antifouling for boats went the same way.

Coal tar shampoos are easily available in the UK, both OTC and
prescription.

Was about to say, as I still use one! Original T-gel, not a prescription
product.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On Fri, 10 May 2013 23:24:10 +0200, Martin wrote:

Despite the EU ban on coal tar products?

I couldn't say, I've never heard of the ban. But I have bought it for
ever in France, and England as well (although not for years).



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

In article ,
Emery Davis wrote:
On Fri, 10 May 2013 23:24:10 +0200, Martin wrote:

Despite the EU ban on coal tar products?

I couldn't say, I've never heard of the ban. But I have bought it for
ever in France, and England as well (although not for years).

The ban predated the EU by a decade or more, despite the hysterical
claims of the Euroseptics. It was entirely a UK matter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Martin wrote:

Despite the EU ban on coal tar products?

I couldn't say, I've never heard of the ban. But I have bought it for
ever in France, and England as well (although not for years).

The ban predated the EU by a decade or more, despite the hysterical
claims of the Euroseptics. It was entirely a UK matter.

I am not a Euroseptic. EU bans are almost always for a good reason.
I hadn't realised that the EU ban was relatively recent.
Coal tar products, such as creosote, were banned in The Netherlands at
least 20 years ago.

I was referring specifically to Wright's soap which, if I recall,
stopped using real coal tar in the 1950s or 1960s, at which time
there was some sort of ban. But my memory of that is hazy.

A lot of such products from my childhood have been stopped and
I have no regrets - and not just on safety. Have you ever used
the original Gibbs SR? SR stands for Sodium Resorcinate, which
is a soap (and, yes, that is exactly what it tasted like).
Yellow block soap. (Real) TCP for cuts.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Sat, 11 May 2013 10:03:36 +0200, Martin wrote:

On Fri, 10 May 2013 23:43:31 +0100 (BST), wrote:


The ban predated the EU by a decade or more, despite the hysterical
claims of the Euroseptics. It was entirely a UK matter.

I am not a Euroseptic. EU bans are almost always for a good reason.
I hadn't realised that the EU ban was relatively recent.
Coal tar products, such as creosote, were banned in The Netherlands at
least 20 years ago.

Careful, some one's going to bring up banana curvature in a minute...

I didn't know creosote was banned, as chance would have it I was talking
with a neighbour farmer about the need to creosote my rail fence soon. I
wonder if farmers are still allowed to use it; there are tons of wood
fencing around here at the big stud farms.

Does anyone know what replaces creosote for treating wood fencing?

Sorry for the thread drift, wasps bother my pears too.

-E

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy