A question that, no doubt you’ll have seen on the news, in newspapers and just about everywhere on social media is “Where did all the wasps go this summer”? 

 

Its always interesting reading social media because everyone has an opinion and there’s a plethora of air chair experts out there, who will testify to the facts and it comes out that Mr Davis from Sidcup knows for an absolute fact that the use of solar panels is destroying all insect life because they reflect the suns energy back out to outer space, well, there were no solar panels in the 1970’s but plenty of insects so maybe he’s right? 

Nah. I really don’t think so, it would seem that the more mundane and less sexy answer to the question of where the wasps went this year is down to ….. rain. Cast you’re mind back to February and March, it was wet and cold, usually this is the time of year when sunlight starts to expand across the day and temperatures start to climb, both of which act as the wake-up alarm for insects that have overwintered in a cool dark space. 

 

These two months were exceptionally wet and as we moved into April which generally sees some much warmer weather, instead, we got rain, buckets of the stuff, it was bucketing down so much we received 55% more rainfall than typical. 

 

The Queen wasps that emerged hungry and in need of some warm weather instead came out to a world that was just cold, wet and miserable. As insectivores they need the energy to hunt down and overcome other insects and wasps love warm sunny weather, so much so, that they have dedicated skin cells that convert ultraviolet light into electrical energy; they’re got their own mini solar panels if you like. 

 

So that’s the answer to the question, its not down to climate change although that maybe a factor if our weather constantly declines but we’ll see this every four or five years, a wet cold spring causes a change to wildlife which reflects on us in the pest control business.  

 

A couple of years ago we had a wet spell in March which is the peak time for oak pollination; oaks use the wind to pollinate and with wet weather the pollen gets washed down onto the ground. The subsequent outcome was that there were few acorns, and I noticed that most of them had gall wasps inside, this meant that there was little harvest for the grey squirrel. The knock-on effect of this was that they only had one breeding season the following year where they normally have two, so bad weather really affects wildlife. 

 

This year we haven’t seen temperatures reach into the 30’s that much, in previous years we have seen long hot spells in the upper 20’s with the occasional intensely hot spell where the mercury has climbed above 30 degrees and stayed there. This pattern greatly influences wasp behaviour meaning that there’s more insect prey, more food for the Queen and consequently, more wasps. 

 

The lack of wasps is just down to a cold wet spring, it’s not uncommon and they will bounce back should conditions be right next year. Overall, it seems that our background temperatures are steadily climbing, what this means for the species is unclear and it is thought that without a true winter, there would be no need for the Queens to hibernate, so wasps could survive all year long and become a constant presence.  

 

That would make life interesting.