Cooler evenings means more aggressive wasps, city says

The City of Regina says late summer months means wasps are becoming more aggressive, and they're on the hunt for sugary foods.

Russell Eirich, the senior program manager with forestry, pest control and horticulture for the city, said at this time of year, wasps struggle to find adequate food for their colonies.

"Now they're looking for all that super sugary sweet food and again;we're enjoying our summers, so they're coming after the stuff that we like," Eirich said. "We're really at the beginning of the cycle with wasps in terms of them being bothersome to us."

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He said the best method to try tocontrol wasps is to eliminate the nest, but if you can't find the nest, the best thing to do is to set up funnel traps.

"Try to attract the wasps away from where you're going to enjoy your deck," Eirich said. "So say the corner of your yard, you can set up a bit of a trap where you can put some sweet juices in ...they'll fly into it but they can't escape."

Eirich said the City of Regina will remove any waspnests found on city property, but homeowners are responsible for eliminating nests found in their yards.

"We've treated three nests so far that have come through service requests." Eirich said.

Update on mosquito numbers

Eirich said they have trapped 108 mosquitoes per trap, which is above the average of 87 per trap but significantly lower than last week's count of 350 per trap.

"We're expecting counts to start to pressure up and increase, probably by the end of next week." Eirich said.

"The cooler the evening the less bothersome they'll be." Eirich said.