If you've been stung
Wash the sting with soap and cold water, then hold an ice pack on it for 15 minutes, as Health NZ advises. Call 111 for swelling around the lips and eyes, wheezing or a tight throat. For first aid advice at any hour, the National Poisons Centre is on 0800 764 766.
How do you pick a paper wasp?
Watch it fly. Bay of Plenty Regional Council says paper wasps have legs that dangle beneath their bodies in flight, which you won't see on a German wasp. They're also smaller than German and common wasps, with a slimmer build and a narrow waist.
The nest gives it away too. DOC says both paper wasps build small nests of regurgitated woody material, about the size of a pear. It's an open comb of six-sided cells, shaped like an upside down cone, and you can usually see it hanging in plain view.
Asian or Australian paper wasp?
| Asian paper wasp | Australian paper wasp | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 13 to 25 mm | 10 to 15 mm |
| Body | Yellow and black, with tan legs | Reddish-brown |
| Where found | North Island and the top of the South Island | The north of the North Island |
Where will you find the nest?
Under eaves and branches, mostly. Bay of Plenty Regional Council says paper wasps prefer gardens, the areas around farms, and scrub and shrubland. Waikato Regional Council says the Asian paper wasp arrived in the late 1970s and was widespread through the upper North Island by 1995.
Check pergolas, fences and letterboxes before you start hedge trimming. Most stings from a paper wasp come from someone reaching into a nest they hadn't noticed.
Should you leave it alone?
A nest high in a tree at the back of the section may not bother anyone. DOC says paper wasps aren't as much of a problem as German and common wasps, and the regional council calls them less aggressive.
They do have costs. The council says they prey on insects, chew weatherboards and are known to harm monarch butterfly populations. A nest beside a door, a clothesline or a play area is the one we'd deal with.
Who deals with it, and how?
On your own land it falls to you. In the Bay of Plenty, the regional council says managing paper wasps is the landowner's or occupier's responsibility, and it recommends professional pest controllers. It also notes nests are treated at dusk, when most of the wasps are back home. Don't try it yourself with a ladder and a can.
What you can sensibly do
You can
- Look under eaves and along fences in spring and summer.
- Keep people away from a nest near a door or path.
- Take a photo from a distance.
- Warn anyone trimming hedges or cleaning gutters.
Leave to a pest business
- Treating the nest, especially up high.
- Checking for more nests nearby.
- Advising on nests near windows or doors.
What we'd weigh up
Think about where the nest sits, not how scary it looks. Up a tree and out of the way, we'd probably leave it. By the back door, or anywhere kids play, we'd have it treated. If anyone in the house has reacted badly to a sting before, that decides it.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
