Britain is under attack from ‘drunk and irritable’ wasps who are going on ‘stinging rampages’ after drinking cider in pub gardens because they have run out of food
- Wasps are turning to fermented fruit and cider because their food has dried up
- Tiny doses of alcohol makes the insects ‘irritable’ and much more likely to sting
- The drunken insects could be drawn to nearby sweet foods, like jam sandwiches
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Britain is under attack from ‘lager lout’ wasps who are going on stinging rampages after getting drunk on fermented fruit and leftover pub-garden cider.
The pests are turning to the boozy treats because they can no longer feed on their conventional diet of flies and sugar-spit produced by the queen’s larvae.
This change in diet is the result of a genetic trait and occurs each year, however, the cold winter earlier this year allowed the species to build ‘absolutely massive nests’.
As a result, this year will see more wasps buzzing around pub beer gardens.
Tiny doses of alcohol are enough to make wasps ‘irritable’ and more likely to sting, experts have warned.
The drunken insects are more likely to be drawn to sweet foods, like jam sandwiches or cans of cola, where they pose a risk to people.
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Britain is under attack from ‘lager lout’ wasps who are going on stinging rampages after getting drunk on fermented fruit and pub-garden cider. The pests are turning to the boozy treats because they can no longer feed on their conventional diet (stock image)
According to experts from the Sussex Wildlife Trust, the reason wasps turn to the pursue booze and alcoholic decaying fruit at this time of year is a genetic trait in wasp forces.
A ‘tight’ band around their abdomen stops them from eating a conventional diet of flies in later life and they become hooked on sugar.
Making things worse, hive queens eventually stop laying larvae, which produce a sugar-spit that adult wasps rely on.
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As a result, wasps are sent into a frenzy at the height of summer, leaving swarms hunting for the sugars found in human food.
Decaying fruit and small sips of pub-garden cider contain enough booze to get wasps drunk – making them irritable and sting-happy.
Pest control expert Shane Jones revealed there is an elevated number of wasp nests this summer because the wasp season started six weeks early.
Decaying fruit and small sips of pub-garden cider contain enough booze to get wasps drunk – making them irritable and sting-happy (stock image)
Mr Jones, who runs Ridtek Pest Control based in Basingstoke, said: ‘They are really aggressive at this time of year.
‘And because of the cold winter, the wasp season started about six weeks earlier.
‘Wasps have built absolutely massive nests and, now that all the larvae have grown up and the queen has stopped laying eggs, the colonies have a workforce with nothing to do – and nothing to eat. So they go down to the pub, obviously.
‘Wasps can’t handle their booze, so they get tanked-up and fighty – like lager louts.’
Starving wasps will do anything to target jam sandwiches, fruit and pints of beer.
This means much more risk of a sting, with The Sussex Wildlife Trust placing blame on the ‘nuisance conditions of late summer’.
A spokesperson said: ‘In the spring, queen wasps wake from hibernation and start to build their nest, laying eggs and raising their first brood of daughters.
‘These worker wasps cannot produce fertilised eggs, so spend their time helping their mother to expand the nest and raise more young.
WHY DO WASPS STING AND WHY DO THEY HURT SO MUCH?
Wasp stings are common, especially during the warmer months when people are outside for longer periods of time.
They tend to occur in the later summer months when the social structure of the colony is breaking down.
At this time, the group mindset is changing from raising worker wasps to raising fertile queens, which will hibernate over the winter to start new colonies the following spring.
Once the wasp has laid eggs, she stops producing a specific hormone which keeps the colony organised.
This leads to the wasps becoming confused and disorientated and they tend to stray towards sweet smelling human foods, such as ice cream and jam.
This puts them in the firing line of scared and frenzied people which aggravate the animals with wafting hands and swatting magazines.
When the critters become angry and scared they are prone to stinging.
Wasp stings can be uncomfortable, but most people recover quickly and without complications.
It is designed as a self-defence mechanism but, unlike bees, wasps can sting multiple times.
The stingers remain in tact and are often primed with venom which enters the bloodstream.
Peptides and enzymes in the venom break down cell membranes, spilling cellular contents into the blood stream
This can happen to nerve cells and these are connected to the central nervous system.
This breach causes the injured cell to send signals back to the brain. We experience these signals in the form of pain.
There are chemicals in the wasp sting which slows the flow of blood, which elongates the period of pain.
‘A main jobs is searching for soft-bodied invertebrates to feed the developing larvae, bizarrely, adult wasps cannot digest the food they catch because their gut is so constricted by their thin “wasp waists”.
‘Instead the workers chew up the prey and feed it to the larvae – in return, the larvae produce a sugar-rich spit that the workers can drink.’
According to the wildlife charity, the colony will go on expanding throughout summer, until a queen decides to produce more males and queens.
The spokesperson added: ‘After these ‘reproductives’ have left the nest, the old queen stops laying and the workers no longer have access to larvae.
‘Instead, they live on the sugar produced by rotting fruit, which can be a problem as fermenting fruit contains alcohol, so wasps can become intoxicated and rather irritating.
‘They are also attracted to the abundance of sweet foods that humans provide – to a starving wasp, a jam sandwich or a can of cola is just too tempting to avoid.’
Dee Ward-Thompson, technical manager at the British Pest Control Association said: ‘Heat and humidity can impact upon wasp numbers, but so can a number of other factors.
‘Maybe the most influential factor on wasp numbers is when people do not dispose of their waste properly, especially food with a high sugar content, such as fruit.
‘We always advise waste to be securely bagged and held within a clean container, away from where young children might play.’
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