Wasp plague 2022: Killing the animals is still forbidden

2022-07-28T10:15:51.998Z

Wasp plague 2022: Killing the animals is still forbidden Created: 07/28/2022, 12:00 p.m By: Ines Alms This year it is particularly bad with the wasps, the hot summer increases their population. However, anyone who kills the animals is liable to prosecution. At least it feels like the wasp plague has already reached us this year. Wasps are particularly active in July and August and in search of

Wasp plague 2022: Killing the animals is still forbidden

Created: 07/28/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Ines Alms

This year it is particularly bad with the wasps, the hot summer increases their population.

However, anyone who kills the animals is liable to prosecution.

At least it feels like the wasp plague has already reached us this year.

Wasps are particularly active in July and August and in search of food conflicts with the human cake table quickly arise.

But no matter how annoying the wasps are, you shouldn't kill them.

Wasp plague 2022: Killing the animals is still forbidden

Especially in hot summers, the wasps get the upper hand at the garden table.

©Panthermedia/Imago

Will there really be more wasps than usual in 2022?

Jessica Tokarek, District Advisor for Horticulture and Landscape Maintenance at the Würzburg District Office, confirms this in part: “In fact, we could have a wasp plague this summer.

Compared to previous years, the wasps are already very active two weeks earlier.”

This is due to a mild winter and a hitherto hot and dry summer.

The wasps were able to reproduce splendidly and are now competing for food.

Above all, when the animals catch less natural prey, they also come closer to humans, because "they love meat, especially ham, and sweets," says Tokarek.

Anyone who uses a fly swatter to get rid of the wasps in such situations is, however, liable to prosecution.

According to the Federal Nature Conservation Act, you may neither injure nor kill the animals without a good reason – for example, if you are allergic.

In the German catalog of fines, penalties of up to 65,000 euros are threatened.

The removal of wasp nests is also not simply allowed, here a specialist must be consulted.

Wasps are protected, as are bees and hornets.

And that's a good thing, because although they are a nuisance to us, they are useful in our garden.

They are a natural hygiene police because they eat the larvae of beetles, flies and carrion - without wasps we would have many more mosquitoes.

Like bees, they also pollinate fruit and vegetable blossoms.

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According to the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU), in order to get rid of the wasps, you should try distractive feeding by offering overripe grapes several meters away from the sociable garden table.

Wasps should not be blown away, however, as this makes the animals aggressive.

Of course you can also try other simple home remedies, and a coffee powder incense box should of course also ward off wasps.

Or you decorate the garden with plants that drive away the wasps.