AUSTIN (KXAN) — Some viewers had told KXAN that they’ve encountered more wasps this summer than in years prior. We asked area Entomologist Wizzie Brown, from Texas A&M Agrilife, about this summer’s wasp count and which bugs surprised her most this summer.
KXAN Chief Meteorologist Nick Bannin: We’ve heard anecdotally from some of our viewers that they’ve seen an increase in the number of wasps this summer compared to other years. What are you seeing?
Wizzie Brown, Entomologist, Texas A&M Agrilife: I’m not really seeing an increase, but I’m also somebody who regularly goes out and looks for insects. My ‘increase’ might be a little bit different than everybody else’s, but I haven’t been getting a lot of calls or emails on wasp problems either. So, I guess it depends on the person and where they’re located and what they’re doing.
Bannin: What exactly makes a wasp thrive and grow and grow in their numbers during a summer versus other times when their numbers don’t grow as much?
Brown: It’s all going to be tied to environmental conditions. So, when we have good conditions where there is a food resource for them, then they’re going to be able to thrive and, so essentially, they’re going to need the same things as us. They need food, water and a place to live. So the adults are going to be feeding on nectar, but then they’re going to collect insects that they feed to their offspring, and so they’re going to need both of those things available to really build that colony up and thrive.
Bannin: Now, wasps aren’t necessarily the enemy, they’re all part of the Earth’s ecosystem here, but what do you recommend people do to keep their own wasp interaction to a minimum, so that they don’t get stung, or their kids or their animals get stung, right?
Brown: Well, they are beneficial as pollinators and predators, so if they’re at flowers, you can watch them. I wouldn’t recommend trying to grab them or anything, but they’re tending to be more docile as long as they’re away from their nest. When you are in their nest space, that’s kind of like you invading their home and they’re going to defend that. So, if you can stay away from those types of areas, then you should be fine. If you have Paper Wasps in an area where it’s by the door or by a mailbox or someplace where somebody can get stung, then you would need to take care of that, either yourself or by hiring a pest management professional.
Bannin: Now, is there such thing as a wasp season here in Central Texas, and is there a time that we would expect to see their numbers decreasing?
Brown: It depends on what type of wasps you’re talking about. If you talk about the great big ones, the Cicada Killers, those are typically here July and August, when we have our cicadas. But we can have paper wasps year round here in Texas, depending on the temperatures. If we have warm, mild winters, they can be here year round. But some wasps are going to be seasonal, and we see them building their population up through spring and summer, and then it starts to die back off in the fall and through the winter time.
Bannin: So you haven’t seen a huge increase in wasps this summer. What has struck you about this summer, as far as maybe other bugs go?
Brown: Grasshoppers. I’ve been getting a lot of grasshopper calls. Grasshoppers eat everything. They eat plants. so it’s not like they’re really problematic for us, like worrying about them stinging us, but they can demolish plants in your landscape, and so that can be problematic with them. You would really need to target the smaller stages. Usually, people don’t call me until they’re adults, and it’s really difficult to control them then, because they can fly away from whatever you try to do to them.
Bannin: And what about this year is making for such an increase in grasshoppers?
Brown: I just think we had a lot of rain, and so the vegetation has been really flush, and so it’s provided a great food source for them and so they’re just out there taking advantage.