Wasp Control for Apple Orchards
New Zealand's apple industry is centred on Hawke's Bay and Nelson, where warm summers and cool nights produce world-class fruit. Apples need bee pollination at flowering, and ripening fruit later in the season is a magnet for wasps.
From late summer through harvest, German and common wasps feed on sugar in ripe and split apples, damage fruit on the tree, and sting pickers working the rows — a real threat to both crop quality and worker safety.
The wasp problem
Why wasps are a problem for apple orchards
Wasps are drawn to the sugar in ripening apples. They chew into fruit on the tree, widening split marks and ruining apples that would otherwise be export grade. Damaged fruit then attracts more wasps, compounding the problem across a block.
At harvest (February–May), pickers working among the trees are regularly stung. Wasp stings cause pain and lost time, and for allergic workers they can be life-threatening — a serious health-and-safety issue on any orchard.
- Chew into ripening fruit and widen splits
- Downgrade export-grade apples to waste
- Sting pickers during the harvest window
- Build up around windfalls and damaged fruit
The solution
How GotchaPest helps apple growers
GotchaPest's reusable, bee-safe wasp trap intercepts wasps before they reach your ripening crop. Deploy traps along orchard edges and around the block in the weeks before harvest to pull wasps away from the trees and the picking crew.
Traps are chemical-free — no spray residues on fruit — and reusable, so the same traps protect your apple crop season after season at a fraction of the cost of single-use alternatives.
Reusable, Bee-Safe Wasp Trap
Fast, safe, and seriously effective — NZ-made wasp trap that protects pollinators.
Why growers choose GotchaPest
Built for NZ orchards
Bee-safe by design
Protects pollinators at flowering.
Less fruit damage
Intercepts wasps before they chew into apples.
Safer for pickers
Fewer wasps in the rows at harvest.
Chemical-free & reusable
No residues on fruit, no waste each year.
Protecting orchard workers
Apple harvest is hand work — pickers are shoulder-deep in the trees where wasps forage on split fruit. Getting traps out in the weeks before picking draws wasps away from the rows, so your crew faces far fewer stings and you keep harvest moving safely.
Protecting the bees that pollinate your crop
Apples still need bee pollination at flowering, so protecting the bees that work your orchard matters all season. GotchaPest wasp traps are tested bee-safe, letting you run wasp control right through flowering and harvest without harming pollinators.
Questions, answered
Practical guidance for apple growers.
Explore by crop
Wasp control for other NZ crops
Protect your apple crop this season
Reusable, bee-safe, NZ-made wasp traps that protect pollination, reduce fruit damage and keep your workers safe.