Take the Sting Out of Wasp Season

September 28, 2012

City offers tips to minimize yellow-jacket encounters

With the fall season upon us, wasps descend on patios, parks, and alleys across the city, but Edmontonians can take a few precautions to make them buzz off.

“Wasps are more aggressive than usual during fall, they are hungry, tired and food is tighter,” says Mike Jenkins, Biological Sciences Technician for the City of Edmonton.

Edmontonians are advised to clear their yards of any fallen fruit because decomposing apples, berries and tomatoes are like a wasp welcome wagon. Garbage cans are also a major beacon for yellow jackets, luring the patio pests to backyards and driveways, and often resulting in stings to waste collectors.

“Wasps will seize any opportunity for easy food, so the trick is to protect your garbage by keeping it enclosed and the surrounding area clean,” says Jenkins. “In the fall, other measures to scare wasps away don’t work. The only solution is to prevent exposure of garbage and other yummy wasp food such as discarded pressed grapes, which many Edmontonians use to make wine and jam.”

The City recommends a few simple measures to help minimize the number of collectors being stung while picking up Edmontonians’ garbage. These tips will also reduce wasps in yards and prevent conflicts when residents take out the garbage.

Tips to keep wasps away

• Ensure that garbage bags are tied up and cans have lids
• Keep waste storage area clean
• Bag empty wine crates, as wasps are attracted to sugar and alcohol
• Remove wasps’ nests from garbage areas as soon as discovered
• Use wasp traps to distract them from the garbage area
• Pick up all apples from lawns
• If you have a compost pile, make sure to turn it regularly and always cover fresh waste such as apples and vegetables in dry leaves or soil
• Place a fake wasp nest in your garbage area during the spring and summer as they are territorial (during the fall when wasps are more aggressive fake nests do not work)

 

For more information:

Andrea Soler

Corporate Communications

Title	Communications Officer
Telephone	780-496-5635

Mike Jenkins

Pest Management

Title	Biological Sciences Technician
Telephone	780-496-6395