Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have two of these traps, and one day I decided to do a little experiment -- I used the attractant cartridge in one, and some meat in the other. The difference was amazing... there must have been 50 in the meat-baited one after just an hour or so. Since then I've consistently caught at least 10 times as many in the meat trap than the one with the attractant (which has a fruity odor). I get a few here and there in the attractant trap, but the one with meat just rakes them in. So, it works great, but only if you bait it with meat. I will give the thing 4 stars since the trap itself works fantastically well -- but 1 star off because the attractant isn't all it's cracked up to be. (The instructions recommend using meat, but they imply that it's a little extra thing you can do, and that the attractant is the most important thing... this just isn't the case for me). I am in San Diego; perhaps results are different elsewhere. A couple side things for those interested: First, they seem to like raw meat better than cooked. I haven't experimented a lot with that, though. Second, it's the protein they like, not fat... so fat scraps won't do the trick unless there is plenty of protein too (I often use the tendons from chicken drumsticks; they love those things). Second, for those who truly want to go down the rathole. I looked up the lifecycle of the yellowjacket and learned some stuff that might be of interest to would-be trappers. While the adults eat carbohydrates for themselves, they feed the larvae with protein. (The larvae in turn secrete a sugary substance that the adults eat). So that's why they are always looking for protein/meat, and I suppose why the fruit-flavored attractant doesn't work as well. Supposedly, in the late fall when the larvae are all grown, the yellowjackets will gravitate more towards eating carb sources, so the attractant should in theory work better then. However, here we are in late November (again, in Southern CA, so maybe it's different) and the meat-baited trap is still catching far more than the attractant-baited one. Hope this helps someone.