As Canberra warms up for summer, City Services is relaunching its wasp trapping program following a successful trial last year.
Announcing the trapping program, City Services said that during the 2021 trial program, 539 European wasp queens were captured – preventing an estimated 2.1 million European wasps from impacting the Canberra community, businesses, and the environment.
“Since the current European wasp trapping program commenced in October, 150 lure traps have been installed in various locations across Canberra,” the Directorate said.
“The targeting of queens in known hot spots directly prevents the establishment of additional nests which can contain as many as 4,000 worker wasps, and up to 1,000 queens at the end of the season,” it said.
“The product used to lure and trap wasps is a non-toxic, non-chemical product, which has a very low impact on the environment and native species.”
City Services said European wasp nests were often hidden, with the most common nesting sites found in wall cavities, holes in the ground, roof voids, retaining walls and in conifer trees.
It said that with another La Nina year upon us, there were likely to be more wall cavity nests than in previous years.
“You can protect your home by sealing cracks, crevices and holes around door and window frames to deter queens from establishing nests in wall cavities,” the Directorate said.
Further information on European wasps can be accessed at this PS News link.
