Wasp Control for Stone Fruit Orchards
New Zealand's stone fruit — cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots — is grown mainly in Hawke's Bay and Central Otago. These crops are bee-pollinated and ripen through the hottest, wasp-busiest part of the season.
Stone fruit is soft, sugary and easily split, making it a prime target for German and common wasps. The same wasps that damage your fruit also sting pickers during a short, high-pressure harvest window.
The wasp problem
Why wasps are a problem for stone fruit
Wasps feed on the sugar in ripe stone fruit and widen any split or bird-peck mark into a ruined piece. Cherries are especially vulnerable — a single wasp-feeding site can downgrade a whole cluster, and damaged fruit then attracts more wasps.
Stone fruit harvest is intense and short. Pickers working tight rows at peak wasp season are stung frequently, and in crops like cherries that are picked into small containers at head height, a wasp sting can also mean a lost harvest container and downtime.
- Feed on ripe, high-sugar fruit
- Widen splits and bird-pecks into waste
- Sting pickers during a short, busy harvest
- Concentrate around cull piles and windfalls
The solution
How GotchaPest helps stone fruit growers
GotchaPest's reusable, bee-safe wasp trap pulls wasps away from ripening stone fruit and the picking crew. Hang traps along block edges and near cull piles in the weeks before harvest to intercept wasps before they reach the crop.
The chemical-free, reusable design suits stone fruit's short, intense season — no spray close to harvest, and the same traps protect your crop year after year.
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 blossom.
Less fruit loss
Intercepts wasps before they feed on ripe fruit.
Safer pickers
Fewer wasps in the rows at harvest.
Chemical-free & reusable
No pre-harvest spray, no yearly waste.
Protecting orchard workers
Stone fruit harvest is fast and hands-on, often at head height where wasps also feed. Deploying traps along edges and around cull piles before harvest pulls wasps away from the picking face, cutting sting incidents and protecting both workers and picked fruit.
Protecting the bees that pollinate your crop
Stone fruit crops need bee pollination at blossom, so protecting the bees that set your crop is part of protecting your yield. GotchaPest wasp traps are bee-safe, so you can run wasp control right through flowering and into harvest without harming pollinators.
Questions, answered
Practical guidance for stone fruit growers.
Explore by crop
Wasp control for other NZ crops
Protect your stone fruit crop this season
Reusable, bee-safe, NZ-made wasp traps that protect pollination, reduce fruit damage and keep your workers safe.