European wasps (Danger at Mt Field)

[ashlee]

Hi. First post so I hope it is useful.

Rule of thumb where I live is if you see more than 1 wasp there is a nest within 100m.
Have fun..

OMG!!
Never heard anyone say that before, freaks me out!!

[tasadam]

Where do you buy the wasp dust from? I'd be tempted to go back & resolve the problem I commented on in this post.

[Son of a Beach]

There's a very active wasp nest right under the duck boards on the Arm River Track at the moment... about half way along Lake Ayre, I think it was.

PS. Come to think of it, I noted a waypoint just after passing it the first time...

IMG_0309.PNG (185.7 KiB) Viewed 3782 times

(what was i thinking... WEST not north)

[bauera]

Didn't notice the Arm River Track nest last week (14/4-16/4 - although StepbyStep passed the same way and may have done) but I did notice a very active mob of wasps at Frog Flats on Friday morning about 9am. Didn't hang around to check it too closely but mentioned it to the hut ranger at Pelion later in the day - to little visible interest. They must be right through the NP by now.

[rohjoe]

I can also confirm the wasp nest under the board walk on the Arm River track was very active on Friday 16th. The big pack was no hindrance to breaking into a run at that point!

[Nuts]

I though wasps were everywhere in Tas? Seen them here and there on the OT and other places at altitude, I saw some on the South Coast Track a couple of weeks ago but thought not much of it...

[Tas@Heart]

You get the dust at garden or hardware shops in the pest section

[Liamy77]

The Allergy Capital site and the ASCIA site probably answer your question Nic. Swelling, even large local swelling might be expected, but the more severe reactions are of concern.

"Individuals who have had a rash or large local swelling alone have a less than 1 in 10 chance of developing serious allergic reactions with further stings. Immunotherapy is not indicated." (ASCIA - http://www.allergy.org.au, March 2008).

"More severe allergic reactions can also occur, a condition known as anaphylaxis. Symptoms may include an all-over rash, swelling of tongue or throat, trouble breathing, gut cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting or even a drop in blood pressure." (Allergy Capital - http://www.allergycapital.com.au, March 2008).

"Stings from jumper ants, like those of bees and wasps, are very painful. Local swelling is very common. Large local swellings can also occur, lasting a few days at a time. The most serious reactions are known as generalised allergic reactions, of which the most severe is called anaphylaxis." (Allergy Capital - http://www.allergycapital.com.au, March 2008).

I think any one of the generalised symptoms would be a sufficient to go and talk to your doctor.

It would be sensible to talk to your GP even if you have severe localised swelling- bit hard to treat a later case of anaphylactic shock in a timely manner when you are isolated- if it is a severe SYSTEMIC reaction we are talking about minutes only. Besides although LOCALISED symptoms usually indicate that your not having a systemic immune reaction they can still decrease your functionality -especially depending on where you are stung (eg foot/ ankles throut/ face)... at the same time it is not particularly common- that said more folks die from bees than sharks
clear as mud huh?!
Boil it down to better safe than sorry
-i have seen and treated bee sting anaphylactic shock- you dont want to mess with it. and easily treated as mentioned previously with an epi-pen (dilates your airways so you can breathe)

[mikethepike]

I was the last person in my family to finally be stung by a Euro wasp so I then appreciated just what all the fuss was about! The wasp was becoming quite common in the Adelaide Hills a few years ago and I remember almost having to bring an outdoor barbie, with visitors coming over, indoors, because of the wasps. But my two lads and I put some meat on the ground and spent the next hour swatting them and pretty well got rid of the lot. We followed one flying off with a piece of meat and landing every few metres because of the weight it was carrying. This lead us to the nest and council came next day and put in poison. Council have had a strong wasp eradication policy and perhaps helped by the weather, we now rarely if ever see a wasp and this is to the great relief of the local fruit and grape growing industries. So with this background, that National Park 'Wasp Nest on Track' sign shown in tasadam's opening post would have really bugged me if I came across it because it begs the question "well what else are you doing about it?' and because the effort required to make and install the notice would have paid a hundred times over for someone to come and poison the nest. It's hardly rocket science and beyond their own staff.
A Tasmanian friend recently told me that one of the tourist caves (Hastings I think) was at some stage closed and a fruit grower on Tasman peninsular had to stop his 'pick your own' business because of the presence of the wasps. I can only hope Tassie's National Park and Council authorities get their act together on this because while some winters may lower wasp numbers, you can't be too sure how bad they could become in very favorable years. A German visitor wondered what all the fuss was about over these wasps when it didn't bother them too much at home but, as I pointed out, nor did rabbits, prickly pear or cane toads in their countries of origin but nature works differently in different places once we move things about.
I recently spent a month in beautiful Tassie and saw no wasps but we did see a bumblebee on the Moonlight Track and they do have a certain charm and are easy to like (I even bought a post card of one to send home) so hopefully they don't adversely effect local species. They'll never be as bad as us anyway!

[PeterJ]

....that National Park 'Wasp Nest on Track' sign shown in tasadam's opening post would have really bugged me if I came across it because it begs the question "well what else are you doing about it?' and because the effort required to make and install the notice would have paid a hundred times over for someone to come and poison the nest.

By the time the original post was made the wasp nest had already been destroyed at Mt Field. Nowadays these signs can be knocked up in a jiffy on the computer at the park office. I guess with the aggressiveness of this nest it was deemed urgent to warn visitors until the killing operation could get underway.

[wayno]

Unfortunately wasps are likely to become a bigger and bigger problem in wilderness areas, there are few/no natural predators and it is unlikely that Parks will be able to control them. The situation in areas of New Zealand is even worse. I did the Travers Sabine circuit 12 months back and everywhere in the beech forest there was a significant background humming noise. Took me a while to realise that is was being created by vast numbers of wasps. Everyone in our party was stung at some stage during the walk. The little blighters were rampant
bw

in nz they thrive in beech forest in warmer parts of nz. a mite drills into the bark and secretes a honeydew that the wasps can feed on. normally ther is so much honeydew the bark turns black from fungus that would normally grow on the honeydew. the wasps kill the bees as well.

i was swarmed once, some cows had stirred them up. the wasps were still worked up when i went through, only got stung once but had to brush several more off and ran to get away as there were more queueing up .... they stayed worked up for a while thre was a group at least an hour behind me that were hit as well.... of course wasps unlike bees dont die when they sting, they can keep stinging at will.