European wasp season begins in Tasmania but high numbers not unusual
European wasp season well and truly has Tasmanians abuzz.
The flying yellow and black stingers are out in force, causing locals to wonder if there are more than usual this year.
Simon Fearn from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery told Helen Shield on 936 ABC Hobart this year's numbers were not unusual.
"Every autumn everyone gets excited about wasps and says there are more wasps this year than any other year," he said.
"It's just that at this time of year the nest is reaching its largest size so people just start to notice the wasps more."
Mr Fearn said the usual cycle for the European wasps was that a queen would start to build a nest in August or September, the numbers build through the warmer months and then the nest died off through a wet winter.
A one-year wasp nest can have a couple of thousand residents, but if the nest does not die off over winter it can grow to house tens of thousands.
"When they start a second season in the spring with a fully formed nest and a fully formed consignment of workers ... these nests can rapidly expand into gigantic nests and contain many tens of thousands of wasps," Mr Fearn said.
He said it was not uncommon to find two-year nests in the drier areas of Tasmania, such as north-east coast.
The biggest European wasp nest ever found was dug up by Mr Fearn on a property at Karoola, north east of Launceston.
European wasps were accidently introduced to Tasmania in 1959 before being discovered on mainland Australia in 1977.
Mr Fearn said it was now impossible to rid Tasmania of the pests.
"They're here to stay, I guess," he said.
"We don't really know what sort of impacts they've had in Tasmania because there was no baseline data collected before they were here."
And while destroying one or two wasp nests would not have an overall effect on numbers across the state, it could have benefits for individuals.
Dealing with wasp nests can be dangerous
Pest controller Mike Rouhliadeff warned it could be very dangerous to try to destroy or remove a wasp nest.
"It's important that people understand that wasps can hurt," he said.
"There's not just a few wasps in a nest, there's thousands and when they get agitated they attack and it can be quite serious."
Mr Rouhliadeff said he often received calls for help from people who found a nest somewhere in their house.
"They've adapted themselves to living in our structures," he said.
"We find them under a lot of floors ... find them in cavity walls, find them in roofs."
Mr Rouhliadeff said while baiting and traps were safer and easier to do yourself, those methods were not often very effective in the long run.