Beautiful areas of New Zealand like Nelson Lakes National Park are under threat from the vespula wasp.

Wasps are the bane of our summers. Last year, a successful trial programme was launched in the Nelson region to fight back. Called Wasp Wipeout, it combined crowd funding, volunteers and DIY to make a dent in the wasp population. Now Stuff is widening the battlefield and taking the fight nation-wide. SKARA BOHNY reports.

We could be heading for a "perfect storm".

It's been a hot, dry start to summer and that has given wasps the ideal conditions for a population boom.

MARION VAN DIJK/STUFF Wasps even have the cheek to try to share our drinks over summer. They may not drink much, but if you accidentally swallow them it could cause some serious problems.

Wasps cause problems on multiple levels, from being annoying at picnics to causing serious ecological harm for native plants and animals.

Wasps eat the majority of honeydew produced in beech forests, starving out native birds that rely on it. They also eat native insects, another source of food for birds and the heavy-lifters in the ecological system. There are even reports of wasps eating fledglings fresh out of the egg.

READ MORE: Special feature: Time to wipe out wasps

Department of Conservation (DOC) ecology science advisor Eric Edwards said last year's wasp population was "actually pretty quiet, compared with what we're going to see this year".

The wasp population can be kept at bay with concentrated effort, as shown by last year's Wasp Wipeout campaign. Led by Fairfax – in partnership with DOC and the Tasman Environmental Trust – community groups, business sponsors and many others, raised more than $55,000 towards eradicating German and common wasps.

Bait stations were put out over 390 kilometres of tracks, slashing the wasp populations by up to 98 per cent over more than 10,000 hectares.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Nelson Lakes DOC senior biodiversity ranger Nik Joice has wasps in his sights.

This summer the Wasp Wipeout campaign is spreading into Marlborough, Canterbury, and the Coromandel. Wasp control is already carried out by local community groups in those areas, but the campaign aims to raise more funding to help bait much larger areas.

People can also register their interest in the project, or take the DIY approach by doing their own wasp control operation in their community, street, or backyard. Many popular recreation areas, such as Craigieburn, the Marlborough Sounds and northern Coromandel have a background hum of wasps in summer.

DOC Nelson Lakes senior biodiversity ranger Nik Joice said last year was a "low wasp year", thanks to the poor spring, but this year people on his team were already getting stung.

SUPPLIED A wasp topped an AA survey as the worst in-car companion.

"Research and modelling in the 90s showed that in a low-wasp year, there's less competition and it produces better-quality queens. The following year, you'll end up with a high-wasp year, because the better queens are more likely to survive hibernation and so on."

Joice said this year was looking like a "perfect storm".

The low wasp numbers last year produced healthy queens, and the hot, dry spring gave them ideal conditions.

JOANNA GRIFFITHS/STUFF A wasp nest measuring 2.75 cubic metres was removed from a property in Invercargill last summer by Geoff Scott.

"We're starting to notice wasps around in the forest, I'm predicting it's going to be a bad year," he said. Usually wasps aren't really noticeable until mid-January.

He said the Wasp Wipeout project was a win-win-win.

"You get people involved in conservation, and getting out and about, and hopefully enjoying themselves while they get out there. And at the same time they're protecting our native biodiversity," he said.

MARION VAN DIJK/STUFF A wasp takes to the bait in a trap at Mosquito Bay at the start of the wasp control at Abel Tasman, partly funded by last summer's Wasp Wipeout campaign.

"It's amazing what [Vespex bait] can achieve, in terms of creating nice, safe picnic areas where you don't have to check every bite of your sandwich to see if there's a wasp on it."

Nelson regional editor Victoria Guild said the response to the first Wasp Wipeout campaign was incredible. "We raised $55,000 in less than two months from across New Zealand and had hundreds sign up to be volunteers or to get more information for their own wipeout programme.

"As well as the documented DOC and mountainbiking areas, many farmers and forestry workers carried out their own wasp control programmes. All of that combined to knock back the population significantly, but wasps are tough critters and bounce back easily so we need to keep the pressure on."

Guild said scientists were also developing new methods of wasp control which could be used in the more difficult to access areas of national parks where baiting wasn't able to be done.

"A combined effort between the community, conservation groups, DOC and good science will see the wasps reach a more naturally controlled population, if not eradicating them completely. We'd love complete eradication, but the last 5 per cent is always the hardest," she said.

This year the campaign has received a $40,000 grant from the DOC community conservation fund, which puts it in good stead for the start of a tough summer season, and gives the programme a base for future summer wipeout efforts. The grant is to be used over three years.

STUFF The hot, dry spring means this summer will be buzzing with wasps.

The Wasp Wipeout campaign aims to raise $50,000 in each of the targeted areas, but also encourages people to do their own wasp control.

Guild says the drone of wasps should not be the summer soundtrack of the future.

"We want to hear the birdsong, not the sound of an invasive pest species whose biomass outnumbers any other pest in the country combined."

As well as spreading into new areas, the wipeout target is widening to include paper wasps.

Paper wasps are more common in urban areas, and eat live prey. This makes them impossible to bait, but there are commercial sprays available at hardware stores which can be used to control them.

Asian paper wasps are the number one culprit for stings resulting in doctors' visits in Auckland. In some ways paper wasps are a gardener's friend: they eat garden pests like aphids and caterpillars. Unfortunately, they also eat monarch caterpillars and native insects, and if their nest is disturbed they deal out nasty stings.

❑ Stuff will be doing several stories over the next two months on the impact of vespula wasps on our environment, people and economy. We will also be exploring paper wasps and how best to tackle them.