22 August 2008

Wasps: help still needed

| Pesty
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Just a quick reminder that once again Dr Phillip Spradbery who runs the European wasp and insect identification hotline is in need of a live European wasp nest to continue his vital experimentation to find a means of controlling their spread in Australia.

Anyone finding one (rare this time of year) is urged to contact him on 6162 1914 for removal if suitable. If it’s not possible to remove it it will be destroyed for free until November.

Thank you all. we need to get on top of this problem! Last summer the Cotter was closed down because of them, this year it could be worse.

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In case Gungahlin Al ever reads this, I don’t have anything against him, he’s tremendous.
If I didn’t like him I wouldn’t talk to him, but he keeps encouraging Government to spend my taxes on his ridiculous “developing Gungahlin” hobby.

I pay taxes so I can grind -my- axes, not his. 😛

Also, don’t use homemade napalm unless you know what you’re doing, and do not punch a wasps nest.

Hero said :

I have checked all around the house for any obvious nest and haven’t found any evidence. I don’t think the nest is on my property. Anyone know how far they usually travel to get their food?

we get so many of them around here that it is impossible to eat outside in summer….
many years ago i worked at coles and found an angry european wasp in the fish case (well, angry after someone tried to beat it with a notebook, inadvisable, i hear) the pest guy was called (or whomever one calls to remove an e. wasp) and he reckoned they love fish (irrelevant but weird) and that they’ll travel a couple of k’s for food…which is really annoying because though we have a waspy problem there seems to be no nest near my house (rivett), so i can’t find the source!
I’d be really glad to know how to get rid of the little bastards.

Hero- Rivett was the worst affected suburb last season, along with the rest of weston and Kanbah.
I would say that the pest controller who told you they travel a couple of Ks is off the mark quite considerably, 1km would be tops, 50m more an average.

Wasps are attracted to movement, aggrevate them at your peril! They are also attracted to bright colours. One other thing, only the females sting…. You guess which is which!

We need a subheading of “Wasps” given how often we have to cross-link these threads…

http://the-riotact.com/?p=4744 Al advocates going in unarmed for the first time
http://the-riotact.com/?p=6555 Gungahlin Al uses the word “pussies” to describe people who won’t have a bareknuckle brawl with the wasps, and still none of us believed they set up nests on awnings
http://the-riotact.com/?p=6583 has picture of a nest on an awning from the ABC (if swallowed seek medical advice), and I refer to them as a bunch of communist pansies for urging people to go to pest controllers. One person goes so far as advocating punching the nest.
http://the-riotact.com/?p=7810 is where Pesty first shows up acting as a voice of reason.

no, i’m absolutely in favour or napalm….acquisition may be a stumbling block, however.
do you have any idea if those traps work?
they sell cute little venus fly trap styley wasp catchers at the nurseries, but they’re crap 🙂

Hero;

If you are a bongo playing hippie try this.

Or see comment number eight in the thread.

I have checked all around the house for any obvious nest and haven’t found any evidence. I don’t think the nest is on my property. Anyone know how far they usually travel to get their food?

we get so many of them around here that it is impossible to eat outside in summer….
many years ago i worked at coles and found an angry european wasp in the fish case (well, angry after someone tried to beat it with a notebook, inadvisable, i hear) the pest guy was called (or whomever one calls to remove an e. wasp) and he reckoned they love fish (irrelevant but weird) and that they’ll travel a couple of k’s for food…which is really annoying because though we have a waspy problem there seems to be no nest near my house (rivett), so i can’t find the source!
I’d be really glad to know how to get rid of the little bastards.

Apparently you also need to get close enough to notice whether they have three little dots on their faces. Good luck!

; )

They won’t be much interested in fruit at this time of the year, it’s when the queans are being raised at the end of the normal season (a very few nests suvive the winter)that they collect more fruit, for the most part its meat, insects, any protein they can get, even to the point of cannabalism! if supplies run out.

They took the little chunks of ham that I laid out for them but couldn’t spot where they flew apart from down the street. They didn’t touch the little chunks of apple at all.

They seem very clumsy too as compared to bees, bees seem to be more nimble at negotiating branches/leaves.

A cube about 1cm^3 (about the length of my little fingernail to a side) worked fine for me.

Big enough to see, but light enough for it to take off and fly with.

Ok Skidbladnir I’ll give it a go. 😛
I’m curious to see how big a chunk they can fly off with. I’ll make an assorted meat/fruit platter for them. lol

I’ll report back with my findings.

I’m surprised someone hasn’t developed some poison bait for European wasps. Something they take back to the nest that kills them all.

Normally I probably wouldn’t bother chasing down these buggers but with a pregnant wife who is allergic to bees she is very concerned.

Try the small chunk of apple\meat trick.

Its much easier to track a white cube of apple against a changing background than a yellow spotted thing.
(Which could be why they’re not white, I guess)

I seem to have European wasps hanging around my frontyard in Chisholm well at least I think they are wasps as they have yellow legs, are about the size of a bee and fly very fast. In particular they seem to be attracted to a low groundcover shrub and I had one sitting on my dog’s empty food bowl. They don’t seem to be around the backyard at all. I counted at least 20 sitting on the shrub collecting water/nectar.

I have checked all around the house for any obvious nest and haven’t found any evidence. I don’t think the nest is on my property. Anyone know how far they usually travel to get their food?

Piratemonkey8:11 pm 24 Aug 08

Can someone please define nest? Does the handful that are living in my garage roof count or does it have to be a whole colony of the evil b@$tards?

^ Neutron bomb

If you’re in doubt where to find the nests, use the small pieces of fruit & meat trick…
Leave a small bit out, wait for the wasp to pick it up, and then follow it back to its nest.

I still advocate taking off and nuking the site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.

Time to break out the napalm…

LOL!

Mælinar – *spoiler alert* I’ve seen S04E13 said :

So… this bloke who has a doctorate in these things doesn’t know where to find them ?

Something smells like a fabricated-doctorate-disputable-by-the-fact-you-are-actually-not-that-qualified.

How wrong you are! “This Bloke” is probably the most knowledgable person in the country on the subject, and would be highly ranked in the world. He’s probably forgotten more about wasps and insects in general than you know about being civil!

Mælinar - *spoiler alert* I've seen S04E1311:08 pm 22 Aug 08

So… this bloke who has a doctorate in these things doesn’t know where to find them ?

Something smells like a fabricated-doctorate-disputable-by-the-fact-you-are-actually-not-that-qualified.

600 Killer Wasps! I’m going to staple myself into some shadecloth!

Gosh I saw that headline and thought for once I was being valued for my ethnicity and Anglicanism!

I’ll just go back to quietly grumbling now, as is apparently customary.

Felix the Cat9:28 pm 22 Aug 08

Ari said :

I had a run-in with these bastard insects at Jindabyne.

As I found, it’s a real issue.

I commend this post to the house.

Yes! I too was at Jindabyne a few months ago and there were hundreds of the f’ers! They were in plague proportions, like flies. They seemed ok as in if you didn’t hassle them they didn’t sting you but it was quite disconcerting to have them around.

I had a run-in with these bastard insects at Jindabyne.

As I found, it’s a real issue.

I commend this post to the house.

The Cotter is always overflowing with WASPs, they seem to all turn up in four wheel drives with little WASPs.

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