EUROPEAN WASP MULTIPLIES FAST: DAMAGE TO FRUIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22759, 4 October 1948, Page 6

EUROPEAN WASP MULTIPLIES FAST: DAMAGE TO FRUIT

Recent discoveries in the Gisborne district of individual specimens of the Vespa Germanica, or European wasp, lend special interest to a survey of the spread of this orchard and household pest recently made bv Mr. C. R. Paterson apiary instructor at Hamilton.

His headquarters was first to discover the presence in New Zealand of the European wasp, which is a much more vicious insect than the Australian variety which for many years has been known in this country. The Vespa Germanica was_ first identified in the Waikato in 1945. and it is believed to have been introduced by aircraft hailing from distant parts or in fruit cargoes from infested com. tries. Seven nests were reported and destroyed in 1945, 45 ,in the following year, and 450 and Bi 7 in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

A total of 3000 nests were located during the current year, one beekeeper reporting no fewer than 75 from his own locality. These discovered nests indicate the rapidity with which the pest is spreading in the Waikato, and the need for vigilance in areas which so far have not sutfered serious infestation. Food For the Wasps From September to January ttie wasp feeds on meat and deals with flies, caterpillars bees and other insects. After January the wasp turns its attentions to sweets, and usually begins to steal honey from bee-hives Iht-v also attack fruit on the trees and in shops, eating out apples and leaving the skins hanging on the stalks, seriously damaging grape harvests In and around houses they become a serious nuisance, and at meal-times haunt any table on which sweets or pickles are exposed Its painful sting is only one of its unpopular aspects but r 1 ■ of some consequence to householders. The wasp docs not lose its sting, as does the bee, but when enraged stings with a sewing-machine, effect. A boy who had a wasp inside his shirt was found to have a row of bites around his waist presenting the appearance of a zipfastener.

The problem of reducing their numbers is a serious one, as each nest may produce up to 40,000 and hatch out up to 800 queens The latter hibernate through the winter and reproduce, whereas the male and sterile female wasps die off in the winter; each queen is capable of establishing a new nest in the spring however. D.D.T. powder sprinkled in the entrances to nests is having a salutary effect in the Waikato, but for every nest so treated there are probably many which escape detection.