Wasps, the German Variety

You don’t expect wasp stings in the winter! My arm still itched a couple of weeks after it happened.

Queen German wasps hibernate, hidden my stacked firewood and it so happened as I carried an armload to the house, I woke one up and she injected me with her venom. Wasp stings don’t bother me too much, because the pain is temporary and the itch is just like a spider bite.

In the bush small spiders regularly fall down your neck, inside your shirt. They don’t normally bite, but when they’re constricted by tight clothing, they defend themselves.

Usually wasps nest on holes in the ground or in tree stumps, but at the onset of winter, the nest usually dies because it is too cold for workers to forage. Mind you they can withstand more cold then honey bees. Mated queens find somewhere warm to winter over and begin a new nest in the later spring.

They are an introduced pest here so whenever I see a queen, either looking for a place to hibernate or actually hibernating I will squish her.

During my forestry training we were cutting gridlines through indigenous bush, which required the line to be clean and clear – so a theodolite or compass could take a reading. Each day there was at least one rotting tree stump to be removed and always the stump housed a wasp nest.

The most effective method of killing a wasp nest is to poke a beer bottle filled with petrol into the exit hole and allow it to glug, glug into the nest. The fumes kill off the insects.

I was the exterminator, elected due to my small stature – no that’s tongue in cheek, I never liked wasps! The trick really is to kill them at night while they are all in the nest, but in the bush this was not an option. The wasps that were on the outside were confused and would die in a few days – they were unlikely to sting, and luckily I was not stung.

Hooks and I used to search out wasp nests because we were beekeepers and wasps rob beehives - as well they damage the environment. He had a little rock cyanide left over from killing wild beehives – I had better explain that: Devastating for our honey industry are the diseases foul brood and varroa mite and wild hives harbor those diseases so contaminate commercial hives.

So with this poisoned wasp nest, we were able to dig out whole, which was about the size of a soccer ball, made up of the papery substance. Well, I took it up to our local primary school to show the kids, but by the time I arrived back at the office, there was a message from the school that some of the wasps had revived.

Hooks and I had a little clean-up to do and the kids enjoyed a sunny afternoon outside!

There was a very strong nest in a plantation beside the bridge that crosses Grave’s Dam. Our hives were just two hundred metres away and we reckoned that the nest was in a sunny spot because it did not die out over winter – in fact two winters.

I hand-cut a line [track] to locate the nest – I had used the old trick of tying a short length of cotton to a worker [yes and it’s not easy], so I could track her, therefore I had a fair idea where the nest was.

While writing this an idea came to me – to tie cotton to a wasp, catch it in a jar, then put the jar in the fridge. The wasp will be immobile after a while providing the opportunity to super-glue the cotton to the abdomen. Release it where you caught it and when it warms up, follow it home.

The nest was in a rotten stump and there were several exits – they actually forced me away.

Hooks and I suited up in our bee gear – using tape to seal any possible gaps in the gear. We took out time because the wasps were going to be savage.

We each filled a five gallon knapsack fire pump with petrol and filled another two spares.

The wasps attacked us about ten metres from the nest – it felt like a hitting a yellow wall! Wasps can sting and sting unlike a bee that dies after stinging. Our suits were doing the job but we confessed later that we had the urge to run!

The pumps can be set as a wide spray or a jet, Hooks was jetting directly at the stump and I was misting to reduce the fliers.

Twenty gallons of petrol later, we had won the day and temporarily reduced the population – the battle continues.