![]() ![]() Unlike common or German wasps, paper wasps seek live prey so the usual baiting wasp control use by authorities don’t work. The Department of Conservation and most local and regional councils actively encourage wasp control. Yes, wasps can be beneficial, but here in NZ they are considered an invasive pest. We also regularly search for and remove nests from the house, fence line, and other prime nest-building location. Wasps are often hovering nearby waiting for their chance. I managed to (foolishly perhaps) annoy this wasp enough by shaking the mesh around him so that the caterpillar fell free, but many had already been taken.Ī rush order for a fine insect net add-on for my Popadome finally put a stop to their thieving (and to most of my failing cursing at wasps…sorry, neighbours!), but I still have to be extremely careful not to let any sneak inside when temporarily unzipping the covers for access. Arrgh! I just happened to be out to photograph a few things nearby when I caught this in action. Safe from raids… Or so we thought! We quickly realised that although the paper wasps were too large to fly through the mesh, the sneaky devils were still small enough to perch and carefully slip in and out with small caterpillars to bring home for feeding their evil little wasp babies. We immediately covered one area of our swan plants with the Popadome I’d received when I purchased our glasshouse. Our success at attracting monarchs to lay eggs was like opening an all-you-can eat caterpillar buffet for paper wasps, and these habitual devils are recidivist offenders that return to successful foraging areas, so the fight was on to protect our caterpillars. We have previously coexisted with them in the garden without an significant issues, but I’ve never seen anything quite like the prolific population of paper wasps here in the new neighbourhood. We have a number of wasps here in NZ that are problematic for the monarchs (read more at Monarch Butterfly Trust NZ). In our garden, the most visible threat comes from wasps.
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