What can I do about European Wasps
If you believe that you may have found a European Wasps nest or have sighted European Wasps it is important to firstly make sure noone gets stung. If you have located a nest do not attempt to eradicate it, leave that to an expert who is paid to get stung 😀. Make sure you know where to find the nest and then call Pestgo on 1800 111 616 to arrange for a visit.
If you see European Wasps visiting pet food bowls, the front bumper of your car or perhaps persistently trying to get at the meat on a bbq then you may indeed have a nest close by. There are commercially available lures and traps to reduce the numbers of wasps around the house and there are ways that pest controllers can remotely kill off the colony.
European Wasp Queens are being trapped in record numbers
Wollondilly Shire has been quite lucky with low numbers of European wasps being found or reported up to now.
We are continuing to find Queens and the occasional workers which means there are nests around which survived winter so will be “Super” nests this year with many more members than a new colony will create.
Some of these “super colonies can easily contain 10,000 plus members and the threat to humans nearby escalates greatly when numbers like this are reached. Once this colony survives and in fact thrives through Summer and Autumn it is then ready to spawn hundreds of new Queens which will then overwinter and start their own new colony in Spring.
European Wasps are not to be underestimated as they have the potential to cause death which has not yet been attributed to them in Australia but many close calls have been recorded as was the case with this story from Braidwood. It is not only the physical danger from European Wasps that needs to be considered but also the loss of amenity due to the large numbers of wasps in popular parks, camping grounds and near alfresco food businesses etc as in this article.
Numbers of wasps being reported in the Wollondilly and surrounds is steadily increasing with Pestgo treating more than a dozen nests in November/December 2023. From places like Bargo and Hill Top to The Oaks and Camden the wasps seem like they are now settling in.