“We have started getting complaints all across Auckland recently,” said Manikantan.
Bernadette Basagre/Stuff
Significant number of complaints have led to the Wasp Wipeout campaign to begin in Auckland. Rangitoto Island, Motutapu Island and Motuihe Island are wasp hotspots in the Auckland region, along with the Waitākere Ranges. Wasps are invasive pests that are endangering New Zealand’s biodiversity as they compete for native bird food and attack lizards. Manikantan said that wasps also attack “chicklets because they can’t fly and have liquid on them when they are born”.
Liz St George/Stuff
The first Wasp Wipeout campaign in Auckland begins in Motutapu Island.
“We saw it was this massive wasp nest swarming in wasps,” Edward said. They posted a picture of the nest on social media, where it was noticed by wasp exterminators Jan and Robert Fryer from FuturEcology.
Edward Trolove with the now dead wasp nest he discovered on a bank next to the Cable Bay Rd near Nelson. It took almost a week for the Fryers to completely kill the nest, before digging it out with Edward present on Wednesday morning. Due to its scale and complexity, Robert said it took five visits to reduce the number of wasps before they could even get close to it.
“Usually it’s a pretty simple task,” Robert said. Not so, this time. Instead of a quiet nest with a single entrance, the Fryers found a wheelie-bin-sized “monster”, with multiple points of entry and “thousands” of wasps filling the sky.
MARTIN DE RUYTER
Jan and Robert Fryer with their EmGuard bio-degradable plant guards. The pair have been involved in environmental work for many years. “It was probably as big as it gets. This takes the biscuit,” he said. By Robert s estimate, the nest had growing been there for 10 years, and if it had been disturbed by a mower, cyclist or walker it could have been “fatal”.
“Marble Hill is really, really bad,” she said. “Just a couple of days ago . some DOC staff had to haul out and stop work because of the number of wasps. The sheer number of wasps made that a high priority area.” Jones said this year’s effort had “inherited a wonderful list of volunteers . raring to go” for the 2021 Wasp Wipeout effort, and plenty of new people putting up their hands, but not many local to the Marble Hill area.
CVNZ/Stuff
Conservation Volunteers set up Vespex bait stations in Marble Hill late last year, ready for a poison drop in the next month or two.