Why everyone’s talking about... Wasps

Fancy a picnic, even though the August Bank Holiday always seems blighted by wasps? This year is predicted to be worse than usual, thanks to a plague of a drunk German species. So what’s the, erm, buzz?

The German wasp is common in the UK, and warmer temperatures earlier this year helped swell populations to five times what they were in 2019.

In mid- summer, the wasps hunt insects to feed their larvae. In return, the larvae produce a sugary nectar that the adults sup on.

But at this time of year, once the young grow up, the adults are out of a job – and out of sugar hits.

So they hunt for the sweet stuff wherever they can, whether diving into your picnic spread or fruit which has fallen from trees and fermented – which gets them sozzled and more likely to lash out and sting someone.

Why do they attack us?

When they feel threatened. So, if one gets close, don’t flail about. A wasp in distress also emits a pheromone that summons even more drunk wasps for back-up.

Other tips: wear red, as they can’t see that colour, or buy a fake nest for your garden to fool the territorial insects into thinking that it has already been taken. Real nests are made by wasps chewing wood into papier mache. The stinging threat is real: they even attacked hardman actor Ross Kemp, making his lips swell up ‘like Mick Jagger’s’.

So do these vicious buggers have any good points?

They are pollinators, and brutally efficient at killing garden pests such as caterpillars to feed their young –slaying about 14,000 tons every year, more t han 1,000 London buses’ worth.

How many species are there?

More than 100,000. Amazingly, each of the world’s 1,000-plus species of fig tree has a specific wasp of its own.

They lure in pregnant females, who crawl into the fruit through a passage so tight they lose their wings and antenna, so can’t get out. Trapped, they give birth and eventually die, but their babies are small enough to fly out, taking fig pollen with them.

This means that figs contain a wasp corpse, although an enzyme in the fruit breaks down the body.

That’s not even the most gruesome wasp behaviour. Jewel wasps sting cockroaches in the brain with a toxin that hijacks the nervous system, making them into zombies they can control. The wasp snips off the cockroach’s antennae, then uses the stumps to steer it to its nest, where its larvae bore into it and eat it – while it’s still alive – from the inside out.

So, never complain about a wasp sting ever again!