Summer is drawing near and the queen wasps are now beginning to come out of their hibernation stage and will soon be building their nests. Here are some facts about wasps:
1) Wasps are needed in our environment as they will eat flies, caterpillars and aphids which cause damage to the plant life in this country;
2) Wasps build fantastic structures for their nests. They will chew on strips of bark and use their saliva to form a paper like material to complete the nest;
3) The nests can grow quite large and by the end of the summer there can be anywhere between 5000 to 10000 wasps in one nest;
4) A colony will only last for one season and wasps will never use the same nest twice;
5) There are 9,000 different types of wasps in the country and only 9 will form social groups and nest;
6) Wasps stings can cause anaphylaxia. This is incredibly dangerous and can kill so it is not advised that any non professional people should not attempt to remove or disrupt any nests;
7) When a wasp feels threatened or is squashed by someone they will release a pheromone which will cause other wasps to defend so you will at risk of being stung;
8) The two most common wasps are vespula vulgaris (common wasps) and vespula germanica (German wasp).
