It seems there's never good news without bad news to go with it.
This summer may have been a bumper one weatherwise, but there have been some downsides: there have been up to nine times as many wasps as last year, at least in the western city of Turku, a University of Turku study suggests.
The high prevalence of annoying wasps can be contributed largely to the warm spring and summer. Last year the spring in particular was chilly.
Researchers set up their wasp traps around the same time as last year in the same places on the banks of the Aurajoki river.
“Owing to the warm weather the prey insects of wasps exist in abundance this year”, explains Adjunct Professor Jouni Sorvari from the University of Turku, Department of Biology. Sorvari points out, however, that this summer’s high incidence of wasps is not exactly unheard of.
“In the summer of 2008 the figure was nearly equally high.”
Mostly the set traps captured regular wasps. They are found in the entire country.
The second most prevalent variety was the so-called German wasp (Vespula germanica). It is also known in North America as the yellowjacket.
This species is a newcomer. Its first nesting in continental Finland was observed in Turku in 2005.
So far the German wasp has only spread to the southern parts of the country.
