Vegan cafe gets rid of its wasps... humanely

MANY of us wouldn’t think twice about swatting away a pesky wasp, even if it meant causing it injury.

But the owners of a vegan café were so anxious not to cause harm to the wasps which had invaded them, they called in a specialist ‘no harm’ pest controller.

Kevin Newell, of Humane Wildlife Solutions, says he managed to remove the wasps from outside the Bonobo workers’ cooperative cafe, in Aberdeen, without a single casualty.

Staff initially feared they had a nest in the garden after customers sitting outside were bothered by wasps.

However, Mr Newell traced the problem to a flower bed – then removed the affected area. He

‘An awful lot of them’

said: ‘I had to remove as much light as possible, because wasps will not fly in the dark, then limit my breathing to keep them calm.’

He added: ‘The most likely explanation for the wasps being attracted is that someone has spilt a sugary drink on to the flower bed, and that has drawn them in. There were an awful lot of wasps.’

Mr Newell, who established his business in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in 2012, claims it is the only pest control company in Europe that rids homes and businesses of intruders without harming them. Past clients have included the BBC and the organisers of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.