Self confessed wasp crusader and Mount Iron resident Mary-Lousie (M-L) Schroder is on a mission to eradicate the Upper Clutha of wasps and says the whole community can help.

M-L has taken it upon herself, in recent years, to track wasps and kill their nests.

“I think wasps are just terrible, they are predators,” M-L said.

“The problem we have is that there is nothing that eats them; there is nothing that keeps them down.”

M-L said one queen wasp can create a nest with 4,500 wasps and produce 1,000 queens.

“Only two percent of queens survive the winter, which you might think is not much, but if you have a nest which producers 4,500 wasps in a season, all out foraging, taking nectar from birds, taking nectar from reptiles etcetera, then you can imagine the damage they do to the environment,” she said.

Some simple maths highlights the extent of the problem: one nest produces 1,000 queens and 20 survive the winter to set up nests, which in turn produce 4,500 wasps and 1,000 queens per nest. 

Mary-Louise says the key is to be assertive when approaching the nest.

On those numbers one nest multiples 20 times in one year to produce 90,000 wasps and 20,000 queens.

Finding nests is quite easy, M-L said, as wasps fly in a straight line and can be tracked in the evening or morning light.

“You can spot them by seeing a continuous line of wasps travelling in a straight line,” she said.

“They only travel about 500 metres. The nest is usually quite close.

“They are always in a hole, probably about four centimetres in diameter. You can spot it as they get rid of the grass around the edge.”

M-L uses ‘No Wasp’ powder to kill the nest: “No dithering, walk forward, put the nozzle in the hole, give it three sprays and walk away.”

“You have to be assertive - and don’t get in the way of the flight path. Just watch how they are coming and going,” she said.

“If you find a nest just kill it yourself or get someone like me to come and kill it.”

This wasp season is not as bad as previous years, which M-L puts down to the public's effort to eradicate nests, as well as weather conditions. She said the cold winter will have killed off more queens than usual and the wet spring made it difficult for those left to establish nests.

“If we have a warm winter that is not good as nests can survive the winter,” she said. 

This Waitangi weekend M-L says she is going to head to John Creek at Lake Hāwea as there are a number of wasp nests there she is keen to destroy.

M-L is setting up a website under the banner of Wasp Wasters NZ and said she is happy to be contacted if anyone would like assistance with eradicating wasps. Her number is 027 542 1256.

Queenstown Lakes District Council will eradicate pests on council property. They can be contacted here.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App