What’s the point of wasps?? A question I am often asked when out carrying out wasp nest treatments at customer’s homes. Many believe they serve no purpose other than being evil insects, who’s sole purpose is to sting and hassle people throughout the summer.
Wasps are incredibly efficient at keeping down the insect population in the early months of the year. Whilst difficult to be accurate it is estimated that a single wasp nest will catch approx. 5 metric tons of insects in one season. As the workers feed the young grubs in the nest with insects, the grubs in return supply a droplet of sugar rich food as a reward. This will continue throughout the spring and early summer with the queen wasp laying up to one hundred eggs a day.
It is only when there are no more young to feed in the nest, that the wasps need to find their own supply of sugar and that is when the calls for help are heard. In the UK there are three main types of wasps referred to as social wasps who live as a colony. The Common wasp tends to build its nest under cover in a loft, shed or in the ground. The German wasp will choose a bush, hedge or tree often stinging those who are using a petrol hedge cutter whilst gardening. The Hornet is one of the most feared of the three due to its size, although in my experience they are no more aggressive than wasps generally and have only a few hundred residents per nest.
My work involves meeting lots of different people with different pest problems in different places. A memorable meeting was with a lady who had a Hornets nest in a shed. She had taken a can of wasp killer to the small nest at which point a hornet came straight at her. The lady fled out of the shed and fell off the side of a patio fracturing her ankle in the process. When I visited the next day she was laid up on the sofa in plaster, signed off work for six weeks and unable to drive feeling quite fed up. Although she was pleased to report she had not received one sting in the process!
Customers will try anything to deal with a wasp nest including petrol, ant powder or cricket bats and trainers to run away after the assault. It never fails to amaze me how industrious people can be. What people do not realise is that each nest has a look out wasp which knows the face of each resident. The look outs job is to stop invading wasps from other nests but also to call for attack when a threat is seen. When I look into the nests before a treatment it always amazes me how quick the alarm is raised and reinforcements are buzzing about ready to defend.
With Anaphylactic shock happening more and more, one sting could be the difference between life and death. An allergic reaction to the wasps venom causes too much histamines to be released causing a drop in blood pressure, wheezing and difficulty swallowing. Anyone who is affected should call for help immediately.
In a nut shell the wasps we deal with here in Lincolnshire are highly beneficial to pollination of flowers and fruit in the early season whilst searching for insects to feed their young. Without the wasps we would be overrun with caterpillars and greenfly decimating our plants. Don’t get stung this summer.