If you've ever been stung by a wasp, Conservation Volunteers needs you.

Conservation Volunteers New Zealand (CVNZ) has joined the Wasp Wipeout campaign to eradicate wasps from the worst affected areas in Canterbury and the West Coast.

Conservation Volunteers New Zealand programme manager Dave Sharp said the organisation wanted to join the project because it aligned perfectly with its objectives to encourage environmentally-involved communities and to conserve special places with high community and conservation value.

He was calling for people to help in the fight against wasps over summer.

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HAMISH McNEILLY/STUFF Conservation Volunteers New Zealand programme manager Dave Sharp.

​CVNZ was working with Department of Conservation (DOC) staff in Westport and Greymouth who had put together a wish list.

CVNZ had compiled a list of priority sites including Craigeburn in Arthur's Pass, reserves in Banks Peninsula, the Westport end of the Heaphy Track, the Oparara Arches, Fenian Lyall River tracks, Charming Creek walkway and the Old Ghost Road.

Volunteers would also be targeting areas around Springs Junction where wasps were eating insects which threatened native long-tailed bats needed for survival.

The work will complement what the Tasman Environmental Trust are doing in the top of the south for the Wasp Wipeout campaign.

Most of the areas were within "front country", but people needed to be walking fit and have previously been stung, Sharp said.

"We don't want people to get stung but if they do we don't want anyone who has an allergy or who doesn't know if they have an allergy because that's too dangerous," he said.

"We need people to put out bait but we also need people to do the sampling process. So what that involves is putting out cat food in small trays and counting how many wasps are on the trays after an hour. We need to know when the wasps have changed to a protein diet," he said.

Wasps generally change from sugar-based carbohydrate diet to protein after about three days of dry, hot weather in January or early February.

SUPPLIED Conservation Volunteers New Zealand have joined the Wasp Wipeout campaign to target wasps in the worst affected areas of the West Coast and Canterbury this summer.

When there are enough wasps on protein the volunteers can put out the bait and remove it after about a week.

The wasps carry the poison back to their nests and it eliminates the colony.

There were many variables in the project so volunteers needed to be flexible and available within short notice.

"The thing about wasps is just because they were a big problem in one area last year doesn't mean they will be there again this year. It's a shifting priority process. If wasps aren't in the priority sites they might be somewhere else.

"With Conservation Volunteers, we recruit and organise volunteers for about 50 conservation projects a month. We generally can schedule those but with wasps all we can say is we will need groups of volunteers some time during the summer, generally the hottest part of summer, and we don't know exactly where," he said.

STUFF Why wasps are bad

Volunteers could be needed from January through to early March.

Sharp said a wet spring could mean wasps would be on protein later in the season.

Conservation Volunteers was also fundraising for the project to supply volunteers with bait stations and bait.

BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF Vespex Wasp bait is distributed to bait stations around St Arnaud, and Lake Rotoiti.

Wasp Wipeout is a community-led conservation project aimed at significantly reducing German and common wasp populations in the worst affected areas of New Zealand this summer. You can find out and contribute to the project here

Anyone wanting to volunteer for Canterbury or West Coast wasp control can contact Dave Sharp at dsharp@cvnz.org.nz For people wanting to volunteer in the Tasman, Nelson or Marlborough Sounds areas, please register your interest here