Coffee grounds, copper object and plastic bottle trap, etc. At the table with friends, at the office, as at the beach bar, we share the best tips to ward off this insect that absolutely wants to share our grenadine: the wasp. And if we talk about it so much it’s because this year, for many, the wasps would be particularly numerous. In the Marne, the Guêpes-Apens company (which was awarded the medal for pun of the month) ensures that its activity has increased by 50% in the department. Even the English newspaper the Times assures that wasps proliferate from the Mediterranean to the Channel coasts, decreeing that 2022 was “the year of the wasp in France”.
But to 20 minutesbesides the fact that we don’t really like it when the English tell us what to call our year, we wondered if this invasion had really been observed by experts and not just by your uncle who is tired of not to be able to have a quiet barbecue.
Do quantified studies prove that there is a global invasion of wasps throughout France this summer?
No. Anyway not yet. And anyway, it would be quite complicated. “We can’t generalize since there are lots of very versatile wasp species,” explains 20 minutes the entomologist (that means specialist in the study of insects), Henri-Pierre Aberlenc. The author of the manual Insects of the World, has identified hundreds of families of wasps in France “in the classic sense of the term”. That is to say the black striped yellows, if we completely popularize the species of vespids where we can however distinguish the Vespa Crabo from the Vespula germanica.
Some will thus cope better with global warming than others. Everything will also depend on the region where you are. “Wasp populations, like any insect, fluctuate wildly from year to year. This fluctuation is occasional, local and cyclical”, insists Henri-Pierre Aberlenc, who says he has not observed any particularly this year. In fact, it is enough that it is hot or humid at the right time, in the right place for the population of a species to be important and another much less.
Why does it feel like there are more then?
In summer, our observation of the wasp population is often biased. First, because if you’re on vacation and it’s hot, you’re usually outside to eat and swim, for example. Two things that attract wasps. “Sources of meat or sweet food can concentrate a lot of wasps in the same place, as can the water points where they come to drink in these times of drought”, analyzes the entomologist.
Except that sharing your rib steak or swimming pool with these little buzzers rarely enchants people. Not because they are selfish, but because the wasp sting is scary. Yes, no one will ever complain about an invasion of pretty butterflies or little kittens. However, “only female wasps sting”, reminds the expert, “and only if you approach within two meters of their nest”. No risk of being stung at the table therefore, unless their house is just below.
Why should we rejoice that there are so many?
The wasp is an insect and “over the long term, on the scale of decades, beyond local events and annual fluctuations, there is a general decline in insects”, observes Henri-Pierre Aberlenc. The wasp, an omnivorous animal like us, “plays a useful role in regulating the populations of other insects and is prey for certain birds”. French wasps are an essential part of our biodiversity and the balance of nature.
Henri-Pierre Aberlenc recommends not systematically remove a wasp nest as soon as you spot one, but to first analyze whether it is in a place where you have to pass less than two meters away. If it’s dangerous, call a specialist. If not, then no risk. So, are you going to share your lemonade?