Thread: Westland wasp warning

my understanding is that at breeding time the queen turns wasps into breeding males they come out and hover in the trees waiting to mate thats the buzzing one hears - we spent a lot of time and effort on wasps at Waikaremoana - we made up a wasp gun using plastic pipe - the idea was one undid a cap put in a good teaspoon of carbryl and walked quietly up to nest - sized up the entrance and flight path and then in one sure movement walked up and puffed in the carbryl - one can also do it with a length of plastic hose and a little funnel to load up the hose - hold the end kinked over walk up and puff - dont inhale as one silly trainee did at the lake - trip to doctor but was okay -coughed most of it out - one old fisherman at lake carried a little container of carbryl and just tossed in a teaspoon full- brave man - but if one is quick and a hasty retreat you can get away with it - now those are common wasps that we get in the bush and yes they can be bad - culling from camp creek bivy in the tehoe in summer they nearly drove us out - but german wasp nets can be huge with multiple chambers - one at kaitaia in a rata tree next to a marae was the size of a mini - they lowered one Regional Council staff member down below a R22 to deal with it - a bee suit and a 5mm wet suit and he was okay - dont try burning them out thats silly start a scrub fire - petrol yes but just plug a bottle with petrol in it into hole that will kill them