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Refilled feeder today.six wasps INSIDE it...buggers pushed in past the button and can't get out again. They were all wet n sticky so I felt sorry for them and made sure tap water was good and hot to rinse them off....checked the tuna and nope haven't taken it away.
I just hunted 4 days in Westland and miraculously didn't get stung.
But the numbers wasps were unbelievable.
Hunting the last morning I got out real early in the dark to pin point a roaring red stag.
Lay down to snooze while the light came up so I could see in the bush.
So 30 minutes just laying there and listening.
Absolutely silent ( except for the odd roar from a stag on a ridge 100m away ) to start with.
Then slowly a faint buzz which just kept getting louder and louder until its a full on humming.
Where I was is very dry, the Grey is the lowest and clearest I've ever seen it.
So the wasp nest survival rate will be 100%
I hope they are boom and bust and they run out of food and it's a wet summer next year to knock them back.
And the farms over there need some rain badly.
Shame about the wasps, but s till always nice to hear and see a lot of deer, shoot a few with vintage rifles and meet another keen forum member.
my understanding is that at breeding time the queen turns wasps into breeding males they come out and hover in the trees waiting to mate thats the buzzing one hears - we spent a lot of time and effort on wasps at Waikaremoana - we made up a wasp gun using plastic pipe - the idea was one undid a cap put in a good teaspoon of carbryl and walked quietly up to nest - sized up the entrance and flight path and then in one sure movement walked up and puffed in the carbryl - one can also do it with a length of plastic hose and a little funnel to load up the hose - hold the end kinked over walk up and puff - dont inhale as one silly trainee did at the lake - trip to doctor but was okay -coughed most of it out - one old fisherman at lake carried a little container of carbryl and just tossed in a teaspoon full- brave man - but if one is quick and a hasty retreat you can get away with it - now those are common wasps that we get in the bush and yes they can be bad - culling from camp creek bivy in the tehoe in summer they nearly drove us out - but german wasp nets can be huge with multiple chambers - one at kaitaia in a rata tree next to a marae was the size of a mini - they lowered one Regional Council staff member down below a R22 to deal with it - a bee suit and a 5mm wet suit and he was okay - dont try burning them out thats silly start a scrub fire - petrol yes but just plug a bottle with petrol in it into hole that will kill them