According to JS Ouellette, a pest control technician, this hot, dry summer has been good for businesses, with 25 to 40 calls a day being received for wasp nest removal — about four times the typical number of calls.
“I just park and people come up and say, ‘Hey, are you dealing with wasps? I have some,’” Ouellette said. “It’s just crazy right now.”
He said the busier-than-usual season is due to the large numbers of aphids — the result of a wet spring and hot summer — on which the wasps feed.
Furthermore, wasps become more active as summer approaches.
“Towards the end of the season, when the queens start leaving the nest and they know they’re going to die, they become a little more vicious,” said Ouellette, who works for The Pest Control Guy.
CBC News spoke with Ouellette at his home in Calgary’s northwest Ranchlands neighbourhood, where the homeowner says his tenants have noticed a steady stream of wasps near their front steps.
“They moved in and the first call was, ‘There are wasps at our front door,’” said Darcy McGregor, the homeowner.
He added that when he lifted the concrete slab he did not see the nest but noticed the birds going underground.
“They’re hidden, and I know you can get in a lot of trouble if you don’t take care of them. So I called a repairman,” McGregor said.
Busier than usual?
Entomologist John Swann believes it is not because of an increase in wasp numbers, but rather because more people are enjoying the warmer weather and noticing the pests.
He says aphids are just one food source, but not enough to trigger a population boom.
He says a typical nest can house several hundred wasps, and larger ones can house several thousand.
This time of year, the flying pests are more noticeable because people are often outside enjoying food or drink. Swann says the wasps are also interested in food because they are trying to strengthen their colonies before the first big frost.
He calls them the raccoons of the insect world, willing to eat almost anything to survive.
“They are hungry because their colonies are so big and they have to feed all the young,” Swann said.
However, he notes, if this hot weather continues into October, the nests will continue to grow in size and then they could become a really big problem.
“So could we have a larger population this fall? I bet,” Swann said.
Alarm pheromone
How to avoid getting stung? First, try not to hit them.
Swann says that when wasps feel threatened, they release an alarm pheromone that not only attracts more wasps from the same nest, but also from other nests.
“You’ll basically be surrounded because they’ll think, ‘Oh, there’s a bear or some predator in our house,’ and then more than one species will want to sting you,” Swann said.
He says if he starts attacking you, it’s important to isolate yourself — either in your car or at home.
Swann says his dog and son were attacked in Castle Provincial Park last year. He believes his dog started chewing on a stick that was plugging a nest on the ground, which sparked the nasty attack.
This prolonged heatwave means wasps can breed faster and if this trend continues we could see new stinging species appearing in our province.
So he shouted at his son to run to the car with their dog, an Airedale terrier, which he noted had a double coat, which probably provided it with some protection.
“He had so many wasps trying to sting him that his beak was even bigger than normal, one or two stingers, I think, on the bottom, and one or two on his belly.”
Ouellette says it’s hard, but the best tactic is to try to stand still, and then, usually, no one will bother you.
He claims that despite the large number of calls, he has never had anyone bite him.
“I don’t like being stung,” Ouellette said with a smile.
