Humans weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the warm, dry spring. Queen wasps coming out of hibernation were able to go forth and multiply in prodigious numbers and their progeny are now driving everyone crazy.
The record number of wasps can be blamed on the weather, says Will Husby, an entomologist who has joined the crusade against the wasp hordes.
When queen wasps come out of hibernation and start looking for new sites to establish colonies, cold, wet weather usually kills many of them off, he says. This year’s warm weather also gave her first broods a better chance of survival and now they are in search of water to feed and house the next generations. (Wasps will shave off bits of wood, mix it with water to make a paste which turns into the paper with which they make their nest.)
“The colonies are big, they’re hungry and they’re coming to us,” Husby says. “There’s no much water available so they go looking for water to take back to their larvae.”
He bought some traps from IRLY Building Centre and in the first weeks of summer was killing 100 wasps a day. (He puts fruit-based vinegar or apple juice in the traps as an incentive and keeps the traps topped up.)
He also tracked wasps to a nest in the woodpile next to his house and in the early morning coolness, before the wasps were active, he sprayed the hidey-hole’s entrance . No more wasps.
Wasps are our friends when it comes to pest control but their numbers this summer are turning them into the pest. “I appreciate what they do in nature but they’re really annoying this year,” says Husby, who’s been stung in the mouth after taking a sip of a drink, not realizing a wasp had got there first.
To eradicate the wasps you have to kill the queen but he urges caution when trying to get too close. (Five in the morning is the best time.) He also advises that people carefully read the instructions on bug sprays.
