Brewer’s Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Enhances Attraction of Two Invasive Yellowjackets (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) to Dried Fruit and Fruit Powder

Abstract

The German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica F., and common yellowjacket, Vespula vulgaris L. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), are pests of significant economic, environmental, and medical importance in many countries. There is a need for the development and improvement of attractive baits that can be deployed in traps to capture and kill these wasps in areas where they are a problem. Yellowjackets are known to feed on fermenting fruit, but this resource is seldom considered as a bait due to its ephemeral nature and its potential attractiveness to nontarget species. We analyzed the headspace volatiles of dried fruit and fruit powder baits with and without Brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and we field tested these baits for their attractiveness to yellowjackets in Argentina. The addition of yeast to dried fruit and fruit powder changed the volatile compositions, increasing the number of alcohols and acids and decreasing the number of aldehydes. Dried fruit and fruit powder baits on their own were hardly attractive to yellowjackets, but the addition of yeast improved their attractiveness by 9- to 50-fold and surpassed the attractiveness of a commercial heptyl butyrate-based wasp lure. We suggest that further research be done to test additional varieties and species of yeasts. A dried fruit or fruit powder bait in combination with yeast could become a useful tool in the management of yellowjackets.

Inter‐kingdom signaling — symbiotic yeasts produce semiochemicals that attract their yellowjacket hosts

“…Comparing the compounds produced by H. uvarum and L. thermotolerans to those produced by brewer's yeast, S. cerevisiae , grown on freeze‐dried fruit powder in water (Babcock et al., ), reveals that the three yeast species share few volatiles. Isoamyl acetate, 2‐phenylethyl alcohol, and butyric acid are produced by all three yeasts, and isobutyric acid, 2‐methylbutanoic acid, and 3‐methylbutanoic acid are produced by L. thermotolerans and S. cerevisiae , but not H. uvarum .…”

“…Isoamyl acetate, 2‐phenylethyl alcohol, and butyric acid are produced by all three yeasts, and isobutyric acid, 2‐methylbutanoic acid, and 3‐methylbutanoic acid are produced by L. thermotolerans and S. cerevisiae , but not H. uvarum . Because S. cerevisiae is attractive to yellowjackets in Argentina (Babcock et al., ), the volatiles shared between multiple yeast species may play a role in yellowjacket attraction to yeasts in general. However, the same brewer's yeast bait that we tested in Argentina (Babcock et al., ) was only weakly attractive to V. alascensis and not attractive to western yellowjackets in British Columbia (T Babcock & JH Borden, unpubl.…”

“…Many lures (baits) have been developed for trapping yellowjackets (MacDonald et al., ; Landolt, ; Landolt et al., ; Day & Jeanne, ; El‐Sayed et al., ; Rust & Su, ; Babcock et al., ). However, these lures do not effectively attract all species of yellowjackets (Landolt et al., ; Day & Jeanne, ).…”

“…Response to microbes has also been demonstrated with yellowjackets. Both the German yellowjacket and the western yellowjacket, Vespula pensylvanica (Saussure), are attracted to volatiles produced by the epiphytic fungus Aureobasidium pullulans (de Bary) G. Arnaud (Davis et al., ), and German yellowjackets and common yellowjackets, Vespula vulgaris (L.), are attracted to brewer's yeast (Babcock et al., ).…”

“…A single nest can have thousands of nest mates, which may pose a serious hazard to people in the area (Akre et al, 1980;Edwards, 1980). Many lures (baits) have been developed for trapping yellowjackets (MacDonald et al, 1973;Landolt, 1998;Landolt et al, 2000;Day & Jeanne, 2001;El-Sayed et al, 2009;Rust & Su, 2012;Babcock et al, 2017). However, these lures do not effectively attract all species of yellowjackets (Landolt et al, 1999;Day & Jeanne, 2001).…”