Wasp Identification Chart Australia
Yahaira Petrov
Wasp nest treatment and removal is amongst the more dangerous activities a pest manager undertakes. Although there are a number of common elements to wasp treatments no matter the species, there are certainly some specific considerations for some of the wasp species, especially for European wasps. Here we provide some tips on wasp nest identification, nest treatment and removal.
Only a few species of Australian paper wasp cause issues around buildings. Identification is fairly straightforward as even without seeing a wasp, the nests have distinctive shapes that should allow accurate identification, especially when the location in Australia is considered.
Polistes chinensis, the Asian paper wasp, is an invasive species, which is found in NSW and in the North Island of New Zealand and the top of the South Island. It is noteworthy in that it is often confused with the European wasp due to its black and yellow colouration. However, they have yellow antennae (European wasps have black antennae), and their nests and nest locations are similar to the Australian paper wasp.
However, as the nest increases in size, a shroud is built over the nest for protection and to maintain nest temperatures (Figure 5). However, there are also some notable differences in their nests. German wasp nests tend to be grey and are made from the fibres from sound wood whilst common wasp nests tend to be brown as they use fibres from dead or rotting wood. Typically, German wasps will produce slightly larger nests than common wasps and are more likely to overwinter, producing multi-season nests and extremely large colonies. However, identification is somewhat academic, as the treatment is the same.
Distribution of the two species within Australia is unclear. One or both species are present in NSW, generally not much further north than the Hunter Valley, throughout Victoria and Tasmania, and some areas of South Australia, particularly around Adelaide. Although the European wasp has been detected in Western Australia it is still listed as an exotic pest and is subject to an ongoing Government surveillance and treatment program to prevent it becoming established.
In New Zealand both the German and common wasps are well established. The prevalence of each species depends on the food available in each area. For example, common wasps, which are particularly efficient at collecting honeydew, dominate the beach forests in New Zealand where large amounts of honeydew are produced by scale insects.
Australian paper wasp nests (and Asian paper wasp nests) can be easily treated with a direct spray treatment, either with normal spray equipment or a specialist wasp aerosol. Applying a treatment whilst standing on a ladder is not a safe practice. Use suitable equipment or a product that can be sprayed/applied from the recommended distance. Once the nest has been destroyed, it should be knocked down and removed.
European wasps and the paper bag nests of Ropalidia romandi should be treated using similar techniques and with a similar high regard for personal safety. For aboveground nests, the paper shroud around the colony prevents liquid insecticides being directly applied to the nest inside. Spraying liquid through the entrance hole is possible but requires a good deal of accuracy. With nests often being of a significant size, ensuring complete coverage of the combs for a quick kill is a challenge. Blowing powder through the nest entrance also requires accuracy but the powder is more completely circulated through the nest. The use of flexible conduit can allow the powder to be blown into the nest from a distance. For European wasp nests underground, insecticide dust should be blown through the nest entrance to fill the void.
Wasp traps have limited use, in that they will kill foragers but will not kill the nest. Wasp baits are an ideal option for European wasp nests, especially if the nest cannot be reached or located (e.g. on a neighbouring property). Foraging wasps will take the bait back to the nest, providing colony control.
Sphex corporosus (left) and Sphex flammeus (right). Photos by Thorleif Drfel, Museum fr Naturkunde, CC-BY 4.0.
After being mostly neglected for more than a hundred years, a group of digger wasps from Australia has been given a major overhaul in terms of species descriptions and identification methods. This approach has led to an almost 50% rise in the number of recognized species of these wasps on the continent. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
More than a century has passed since the last revision of this group in the Down Under. Using pinned, dried individuals from museum collections all over the world, Drfel and Ohl inspected more than 900 specimens and recorded the morphological characters that they deemed most useful for species differentiation.
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Wasp sting fatalities have rarely been reported in Australia. We useddata from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and State coronialauthorities to investigate deaths from wasp stings in Australia from1979 through 1998. Seven cases were identified, all involving men inrural settings. Five of the seven victims had prior histories of waspor bee venom allergy, or both, but none carried injectable adrenalin.All patients with a history of systemic Hymenoptera sting allergyshould undergo assessment for immunotherapy and carry adrenalin.
Despite the importance of fatalities from Hymenoptera stingsinternationally, little has been published on the circumstances andincidence of such deaths in Australia. For example, an analysis ofAustralian bee sting fatalities during 1960-1981 was unable toobtain adequate clinical information about most of the fatalitiesduring that period, and coronial records were examined for only one ofthe 27 fatalities identified in that study.2 Despite the increasingabundance of the introduced and aggressive European wasp (V.germanica),6 and consequent concernsabout the increasing health risks posed by this vespid,3 even lessinformation is available about fatalities from wasp stings inAustralia than for those from bee stings. Indeed, only two minimallydocumented reports of fatal wasp stings exist in the Australianmedical literature. In 1913, Cleland noted "oedema of the larynx andsubsequent death occurred from a man being stung by a wasp. He had beendrinking out of the spout of a waterbag in which the wasp washiding".7 Lee also made reference to afatal wasp sting in a 47-year-old man in southern Queensland in1957.8
Analysis of fatalities can provide important information on thedeterminants of severe morbidity, which may be useful in injuryprevention. Thus, we investigated, in detail, wasp sting relatedfatalities that occurred in Australia over the past two decades. Thisperiod was coincident with the arrival and dispersal of V.germanica on the Australian mainland.6 In the absence of nationalcoronial data for this period, we used State-based coronialinformation systems. In particular, we aimed to identify thecontribution of allergy versus venom toxicity (envenomation), andthe likely contribution of V. germanica to the mortalityburden.
The seven fatalities identified during the 20-year periodcorrespond to a mean annual incidence rate of 0.02 deaths per millionpopulation per year. The deceased were all men living in northern NewSouth Wales, or in Queensland (from the southeast to the far northcoast). They were aged between 39 and 73 years (mean age, 54 years).Five of the seven deaths occurred during December and February, andthe remaining two deaths occurred in April and May. In no year was theremore than one death from wasp sting. All stings occurred in rural areasand four of the deceased were described as farmers in the coronialreports. The details of each case are summarised in Box 1.
In Europe4,10 and the UnitedStates,11 relative proportions ofdeaths from wasp and bee stings are different from those in Australia.In Sweden, these proportions are 90% for wasps and 10% forbees;4 corresponding figures forDenmark are 63% for wasps and 37% for bees,10 while, in the US, wasp andbee sting fatalities occur with approximately equalfrequency.11 By contrast, our findingof a wasp sting fatality rate of 0.02 per million population per year isonly a quarter of the reported Australian bee sting fatality rate of0.086 per million population per year.2 This may reflect therelatively recent arrival in Australia of the Europeanwasp6compared with the European honey bee.
Although our study was precipitated by concern about the healthimpact of European wasps, and we looked at a period that coincided withtheir arrival and spread on the mainland, we identified no fatalitiesattributable to this wasp. All of the wasp-sting deaths occurredoutside the known range of V. germanica.6 This may changeas increasing numbers of people become sensitised to its venom.Further research is required to ascertain whether the arrival ofV. germanica has altered sting-related morbidity patternsin Australia.
As in previous studies,2,4,10 in the deaths weexamined we found that the reponsible wasp was rarely formallyidentified. Nonetheless, it seems likely that at least one case wasattributable to a Polistes species. This is consistent withreports of severe allergic reactions to stings by Polistesand Ropalidia species in Queensland.12 Moreover, given thedistribution of the various vespid wasps,9 it seems likely that allseven fatalities were caused by Polistes andRopalidia species. This adds impetus to the call for purifiedRopalidia venom to become available forimmunotherapy,12 as, currently, onlyimported Polistes and Vespula venoms are available.
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