Wasps are a significant pest in New Zealand. Photo / 123RF
Honey company Comvita has joined efforts to cull the numbers of wasps across the country.
Introduced German and common wasps are a damaging pest, invading beehives and eating insects - reducing the amount of food for native birds.
A Department of Conservation programme, Wasp Wipeout, raises funds for bait stations used to control populations.
Comvita head of industry affairs Tony Wright said increasing numbers of wasps led the company to get involved.
"Across our industry, we lose about 10 per cent of our hives for various reasons, and wasps account for about 10 per cent of those losses.
"They're a nuisance because they are a competitor for what the bees are doing and they like to get into the hive and steal all of the good work that the bees have done.
"They take the honey but they also take bee larvae and feed it to their own larvae."
"We need hard winters to knock the populations back, but the last couple of winters have been milder so more adult wasps are surviving through them.
"The Wasp Wipeout campaign has been going for a few years now but has been mostly focused on the South Island so we wanted to get involved and have a focus on Hawke's Bay, as it's one of our main beekeeping regions."
Wright said Comvita would install 1100 bait stations in the region to manage wasp populations.
"It will be hard to measure success, but with no natural predators here it's important efforts to control wasp populations continue."
- RNZ
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