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A large common wasp nest was found in the Parry Kauri Park, in Warkworth, by Auckland Council staff while carrying out pest control work recently.
It was the size of a large single sofa chair and looked very much like an “overwintering” nest. For the safety of the public, it was removed by pest control people over the weekend using safety equipment.
Council’s senior ecological specialist Sarah Gibbs said it was good to get it before it grew further and populated half of southern Warkworth with common wasps next spring.
According to Guinness World Records, the largest wasp nest ever recorded was found not too far away from Warkworth, on a farm at Waimaukau in April 1963. It measured 3.7 metres long, was 1.75 metres across and around 5.5 metres round.
And according to the Department of Conservation, New Zealand has some of the highest densities of introduced common and German wasps in the world, because they have no natural predators here, winters are mild and there is plenty of food for them.
The introduced wasps live in large colonies, generally about the size of a soccer ball but, as at Parry Kauri Park, can become huge if they survive over winter. For reference, common wasp nests are brown while German wasp nests are grey.
The buzz on introduced wasps
• The German wasp was first found in NZ near Hamilton in 1945, while the common wasp has been here since 1978.
• The highest number of wasp nests recorded was 50 to 60 nests per hectare, the equivalent of finding 25 to 30 nests on a football field.
• Wasps have been voted as ‘most disliked wildlife’ (along with rats) because they can spoil outdoor fun such as picnics and sports.
• Wasps destroy or seriously damage eight to nine per cent of honeybee hives in New Zealand each year.
• The predation rate of wasps on some native invertebrates is so high that the probability of their populations surviving through the wasp season is virtually nil.
Source: www.tepahu.co.n
