A woman allergic to wasps can now come and go from her property without fear of being stung after a 3-foot (90cm) wasp nest was removed from neighbouring vacant land.
Rotorua Lakes Council asked pest service technician Chris Brunel to remove the nest from the property.
Lynne Coutts lived next door and shared her story of being plagued by the wasps - which at times “smothered” her bird feeder - and her struggle in getting it sorted out.
The vacant, overgrown land was ideal for wasps.
Brunel visited the Ngongotahā property on Wednesday after Local Democracy Reporting first reported the story.
He found the nest underground.
When he found it he thought: “That’s a big nest. It’s nasty.”
A German wasp nest, he said it was built “right into” the tree roots and scrub.
“It’s not easy to see but if you have a protection suit on and all the PPE gear you can stick your head down there and have a good look.”
The nest accommodated the queen as well as thousands of worker wasps.
“We can deal to that quite simply by inserting a probe in the nest, and filling it up with insecticide and we kill it.
“All hell breaks loose for about 10 minutes then usually it’s all over.”
Sometimes a second dose was needed - “but it’s rare”.
In the next six to eight weeks the cold would kill off most of the wasps, with the queens finding somewhere to hibernate, such as the bark of a tree.
“Then the whole process starts again next year.”
He came back later in the day to administer the insecticide.
Brunel said if the nest was left it would have “become massive”.
Rotorua Lakes Council sport, recreation and environment manager Rob Pitkethley said wasps had been less of an issue across its reserves this season.
“Following removal of the bins and wasp control undertaken in spring at Tikitapu (Blue Lake), we’ve noted a significant reduction there.”
The bins were removed about a year ago from the reserve after wasps were attracted to them.
“We removed a nest at the lakefront but have had no reports from the public about any issues with wasps on our reserves.”
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
'It’s been nearly a year and I still feel uncomfortable. I want to forget about it all.'