Expect fewer wasps and hornets in BC this summer

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – At 9:24 p.m. Tuesday evening, summer will officially arrive in BC.

And aside from the weather heating up, there is some good news for anyone planning to spend a lot of time outside in the coming weeks and months.

“It’s good news for picnickers and barbecuers, and campers, you’ll probably see a few less wasps this summer,” says Mike Londry with Westside Pest Control.

The same goes for hornets and even some other insects.

“The overall number is definitely going to be less this summer. I don’t even think it’s a matter of maybe yes or maybe no. I’d be quite surprised if there wasn’t a lot less wasps this summer,” says Londry, who is removing fewer nests than at this time last year.

“We would normally have a lot more calls for wasps at this time of the year but especially with the wasps, that cold weather killed off a lot of the queens that were wintering.”

The extra-wet spring helped too he says.

Only a colony’s queen hibernates during the winter and if it doesn’t survive because of the weather, that’s the end of the agitating arthropods.

“Wasp colonies die off in the wintertime and it’s just the queen that survives and then essentially starts things from scratch again in the spring. They were hampered by the cold weather all winter and effected by the wet weather this spring,” says Londry.

So expect there to be fewer of the uninvited guests at your picnic.

“I don’t think it’s going to be anything like we actually had the last few summers. And the same thing is probably going to go for the ants as well. Now is the time of year when they’re swarming and it seems like there’s a lot of them. But I think there’s probably a few less than we had in years past,” says Londry.