Manchester & Trafford Pest Control

As kids we were warned not to poke at wasps nests by our elders (and sometimes betters), writes John Barrington-Carver.

Having been stung a couple of times myself without so much as having even looked at the dratted insect I have always heeded this sage advice.

It’s a pity therefore that the EU has ignored the current angry stirrings emanating from aviation’s international hive of industry. This followed Brussels’ earlier unilateral decision to include all international airlines using EU airspace in its existing EU Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), thereby exacting an estimated €1.4 billion annual tribute to the EU’s coffers.

The scheme, implemented from 1 January, levies a charge on flights in EU airspace based on carbon emissions. An initial consequence when the scheme was originally announced was that the US challenged the legality of the ETS at the European Court of Justice.

Subsequently, the Chinese threatened to cancel their Airbus orders thus endangering thousands of jobs.

It’s perhaps not surprising, since the case was heard in the EU Court of Justice, that the US lost the case last month. Bolstered by the Court decision, the EU continues to blithely ignore these and other objections to the ETS.

Consequences for consumers are that yet another tax will be passed on to them by airlines which operate on wafer-thin margins.

However, “poking a nest” by unilaterally trying to impose legislation and taxes on other sovereign states will certainly have further consequences. More opposition is growing as 43 countries have already publicly objected to the EU plans.

Both China and India have already instructed their airlines not to comply and similar legislation is moving through the US Congress. Reportedly further legal challenges are in the pipeline. China has claimed that the plan could cost Chinese airlines €95m in extra annual costs. British Airways faces a bill of nearly €50m, the highest of any airline.

Unsurprisingly, the International Airline Association (IATA) representing 93 per cent of the world’s airlines has labelled the EU “Tax Bandits”.

It’s not that the aviation industry objects to being in an emissions trading scheme – far from it! The air transport industry has made global commitments to improve fuel efficiency by 1.5 per cent annually to 2020, to cap net emissions from 2020 and to cut net emissions in half by 2050 (compared to 2005 levels). IATA has also championed an international initiative by the United Nations’ ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) which already has 120 or more countries agreeing to it and which would put all airlines on a level international playing field as regards emissions trading.

If the EU are committed to including aviation in some form of carbon trading scheme they should support a global initiative that is ratified internationally rather than go it alone thus endangering EU jobs, international relations and unilaterally extracting fees from international airlines to top up EU coffers. Brussels bureaucrats comfortably isolated from the consequences of poking this particular nest should have a regard for the potential for harm this legislation could do to their individual EU members’ economies if the rest of the world should retaliate as looks very possible.

(Image: alleswasfliegt)

IAN ALLEN

A former Landcare Research scientist is developing a wasp-specific poison that could be sold commercially to help control wasp numbers.

Richard Toft, of Nelson, has spent the past 15 years trying to develop the bait, and believes it could be on the market as early as next summer. “We want to develop a product that is readily available for people to purchase, especially in areas with a high amount of wasps like the Marlborough Sounds,” Mr Toft said. “We are not that far away.”

The density of wasps in the Marlborough Sounds gained national attention with the death of Morris Stretch, 62, on Saturday, after he was attacked by thousands of wasps at Kenepuru.

Mr Toft said the top half of the South Island has the highest density of wasps anywhere in the world, attracted by the honeydew in beech forests.

The bait had to be attractive to wasps yet unattractive to bees. It also had to be entirely protein-based because that’s what wasps share around the nest, and it needed the correct level of toxicity.

“It has to be strong enough so it is lethal in tiny doses when spread around but not too fast-acting that it kills the wasp before returning to the nest.”

Mr Toft set up his own company, Entecol, in 2009.

The company is also testing the use of pathogens, or diseases, in wasp control. “In this case, fungal diseases which are specific to insects,” he said.

“We are trying to deliver this as bait so the wasp takes it back to the nest and spreads the disease. This is a very environmentally friendly approach.

“We are also looking at trapping queens in spring before they have a chance to establish a nest but that is some way off.”

Conservation Department biodiversity threat programme manager Phillip Clerke said at the moment the only way of controlling wasps in the Marlborough Sounds was by destroying individual nests once they were found.

“The biggest problem we have is that there is no insecticide for killing wasps,” he said. “But to control wasps on a larger scale you need to bait, so the pesticide is taken back to the nest. Otherwise you have to find every wasp nest, which is quite problematic.”

Wasp numbers peaked from mid-February to mid-March, Mr Toft said.

A Landcare Research website says there are on average 12 wasp nests per hectare in a beech forest that has honeydew, which equates to about 10,000 workers per hectare. In some areas the number of nests has been as high as 50 to 60 nests per hectare, the equivalent of 25 to 30 nests in an area the size of a football field.

“We estimate that in beech forest with honeydew, the biomass of social wasps (about 1100 g/ha/yr) is greater than that of all the native birds plus stoats and rodents put together,” the site says.

“All those wasps eat huge numbers of native insects and consume large quantities of sugary honeydew. By eating so much, wasps upset the natural food chain of the forest.”

Wasps are either social (living in colonies) or solitary. The latter don’t build nests. Worker wasps are infertile females.

– The Marlborough Express