Wasp killer plans second assault

By BRIDGET CARTER

A large yellow circle around the tree that held up Pawarenga's giant-sized wasp nest is proof that Mike Knight's dangerous airborne assault on the nest was effective.

But he plans to return to the town, southwest of Kaitaia, this week to try to wipe out all wasps troubling the community by destroying smaller satellite nests nearby.

Last week, dangling on a rope 30m below a helicopter and wrapped in protective clothing, the Northland pest controller poured the liquid insecticide carbaryl on the nest - bigger than a medium-sized car - on top of a 25m puriri tree.

Mr Knight said the ground around the tree was now "just a yellow carpet" of dead wasps.

Most were dead by Friday, but some were still around, coming from nearly six satellite nests nearby. Those nests, much smaller, could be destroyed from the ground, he said.

The Pawarenga Community Trust and Resource Centre projects co-ordinator, Avril Sanderson, who worked right next to the main nest, said returning to her office on Friday had been "absolutely blissful".

Dead wasps had been raining down around the tree continuously.

Pesticide Board registrar John Reeve said carbaryl, a carbamate pesticide used for many years, killed wasps by disrupting the nervous system.

The nest and Mr Knight's efforts to destroy it caught the attention of the international media, including the BBC and CNN, last week.

Mr Knight said he could not believe how much attention his eradication efforts with helicopter pilot Kingsley Thompson had attracted. "To be quite honest, it was not a big job."