Wasps are increasing around Nelson Lakes National Park and it’s just about time to hit them hard with their annual treat of protein bait.
Department of Conservation’s operation manager for the area, John Wotherspoon, says wasp numbers are building strongly in the lower altitude areas from Lake Rotoroa to Murchison and bait will be laid soon around main picnic areas and campsites to kill nests.
While that is aimed at protecting visitors from the insistent pest, the bait programme for biodiversity protection around Lake Rotoiti is timed for the end of January or February as wasp numbers build later at the higher altitude. Though wasps may have fared better through a warmer winter, he says a wetter spring has slowed the development of nests and now it is all about timing for laying bait to hammer the wasp population as the pest moves from a sugar diet of honeydew in the beech forest, to protein. “You can never eradicate them, but it’s pretty effective.Invariably, we’ll knock out over 80 per cent. It’s that 20 per cent that’s left though, and they also come from outside the area because the queens spread around.
“It used to be much worse around Lake Rotoiti. In the 90s, you could hardly eat a sandwich because they’d be on it before you could stick it in your mouth.”
