The Questions Most Melbourners Ask About Wasps
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Wasp FAQ

With their formidable looks, swarming nests and painful stings, wasps evoke a lot of fear. But they are actually fairly harmless, as long as you leave them alone.

Here are some of the questions we get asked:


Q. How do we treat wasps?

Protech Pest Control has trained exterminators who can handle a nest. We use a mix of physical methods (removing nests, baiting and trapping) as well as chemical sprays that kill them while being non-toxic to your children and pets.

Q. How long does it take for them to die once treated?

When exposed to treatment die within a few minutes. The colony may take a few hours to die off, as they will try to escape. It is recommended that you stay out of their way for a day to two till a Protech technician can certify complete extermination.

Q. Do I have to do anything prior or after the treatment?

We recommend that you stay far away. Protech exterminators wear adequate safety gear and masks, and are safe from stings. After treatment, we recommend that you don't visit the place till the exterminator has given the all clear.

Q. What do they eat?

It depends on the species. Large-sized ones, like hornets, prey on insects and other small creatures. Smaller-sized (like European wasps) will eat dead insects as well as sugary stuff, so you can see them raiding jam jars. They also like wet pet food as it is protein-rich.

Q. How do you treat a sting?

A sting causes a lot of pain and swelling due to the toxin. Placing an ice pack to numb the pain and taking an anti-histamine are the first moves. You mush rush the bite victim to a doctor immediately, especially if there are multiple stings.

Q. How long do they live?

Solitary wasps and the queens of social species live for many years, hibernating in winter and emerging every summer to set up a nest. The category of workers live only for a season, being born in spring and dying by the time winter sets in.

Q. How long can a single one live without food?

Workers will not last long without food, at most for a day or two. On the other hand, queens can last the winter without food.

Q. What is their life cycle?

They undergo a life-cycle common to most insects. They start out as eggs, that hatch in about ten days. Eggs of solitary ones are laid in late summer and only hatch in spring.

When the eggs hatch, the next stage is the larva. A solitary larva often has its food source provided to it, so you won't see it crawling about. A social larva is taken care of by its nest mates. The larvae go through three moults till they grow to full size, when they pupate. The pupa is the inert phase in which the larva is transformed into an adult.

Solitary adult immediately mate, lay their eggs in a suitable place and die. Social adults either becomes new workers in their nest, or new queens (late summer), that look for mates.

Q. Why are queen wasps bigger than workers?

Queen wasps have to lay a lot of eggs throughout their lives, so they tend to have larger abdomens. Queen-destined wasps are also fed different foods in their larva-hood that makes them bigger.

Q. How many kinds of wasps are there?

Majorly they can be divided into 4 categories:

  1. Parasitic wasps: that lay their eggs inside other insects. Their larvae eat the host inside out.
  2. Fig wasps: that lay their eggs inside the fruits of figs. The animal spends its entire life within the fig, and only the mature female emerges to find another fig to lay eggs in.
  3. Solitary wasps: These make nests of mud (mud-wasps) or on plant leaves (gall-wasps). Each nest has an egg and a paralysed prey for the larva to feed on.
  4. Social wasps: these include paper wasps and hornets. They live in colonies of 300 (paper wasps) to 25000 individuals (hornets).

Q. Where do wasps go in winter?

Most of them die, after laying eggs that will survive the winter. Only queen wasps go into hibernation into the ground, emerging in the spring.

Give us a Call
If you have a question we haven't answered, please call Protech Pest Control and we'll be happy to answer it as best as we can.

Call us from anywhere in Melbourne on 1300 780 980


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