PEST NAME : COMMON WASP, GERMAN WASP (Vespula vulgaris L, Vespula germanica L)
SIZE, SHAPE AND COLOUR : 10 to 20mm. Narrow waist. Distinctive banding in bright yellow and black. 2 pairs of membranous wings.
BIOLOGY : Queen emerges from hibernation in mid-April. Constructs 10 to 20 chambers and lays eggs in each one. Sterile female workers hatch and by late summer the colony reaches 3,000 to 5,000 individuals. Males and young queens are produced in late summer and they mate with the young queens flying off to find an over winter hibernation site.
PREFERRED FOODS : Any sweet sticky high sugar foodstuff, jam, fruit juices and meat, carrion including dustbin waste material.
HABITAT : Common throughout UK. Favours bakeries, fruit processors, jam factories, drinks factories and confectioners. Skips and waste containers plus return trays and empty raw materials containers draw them to a premises.
Wasps of course can become a nuisance, particularly in late summer when they increasingly feed on fruit and other sweet materials. They show most aggression when disturbed around the nest site. Nests inside buildings and garden sheds or close to well used entrances and walk-ways may become especially troublesome. Eventually these nests may have to be destroyed because of the nuisance and risk they cause to people living or passing nearby. When wasps, particularly the larger species of hornets, are busy gathering woody material for nest-building, they sometimes chew and damage the timbers of fences and buildings and strip the bark of trees causing die-back of branches and young shoots. They can be discouraged from chewing the wood of fences and buildings by a fresh coat of paint or wood preservative, but damage to trees is more difficult to prevent and, again, often the only solution is to locate and destroy the nest.
However, unless you are experienced in dealing with wasps, never attempt to destroy a colony yourself. If you find a nest keep well away, there can be several thousand workers in a fully-formed colony and ALL OF THEM CAN STING! It is far more sensible and safer to call in Valley Pest Control, Devon.
To find out more about other types of Flying Insects see below: |
