Drowning wasps in beer in the name of science may seem a socially acceptable way to exterminate a seasonal pest. But a citizen science survey “harnessing the public’s dislike of wasps” has been criticised for its “hateful language” and for unnecessarily killing rare insects.

The Big Wasp Survey is encouraging 2,000 volunteers to build homemade bottle traps before posting the dead wasps to entomologists to produce a clearer picture of the much-maligned insect’s decline.

But the project, which is supported by the Royal Entomological Society, has been stung by criticism from other conservationists.

“It’s hard to form good intentions with hateful language,” said Matt Shardlow, chief executive of Buglife, of the Big Wasp Survey. “We’re uncomfortable with their underlying message – that it’s fine to kill wasps if we don’t like them.”

According to Shardlow, the survey’s “indiscriminate” traps will kill other potentially rare insects and beetles and “the ends do not justify the means” in terms of the data this survey will produce. Shardlow said its citizen science data will not be as valuable as that acquired by a new insect survey established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as part of its national pollinator monitoring programme – supported by both Buglife and the National Farmers’ Union.

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This survey will also kill insects but will do so “in a very careful way”, according to Shardlow, as traps at representative sample sites across the country ensure the minimum number of insects are killed. In contrast, he said, the Big Wasp Survey’s data will predominantly come from people’s gardens and will not provide such useful scientific data.

Shardlow also said the survey could not guarantee that only old worker wasps are killed, and queens – the source of next year’s colonies – could potentially be trapped, hitting wasp populations.

But the scientists behind the Big Wasp Survey, Dr Seirian Sumner of University College London, and Prof Adam Hart of the University of Gloucestershire, have defended the project and said its design minimises the likelihood of queens or other insects being killed.

“We’ve thought very carefully about this. We are experts in wasp ecology and life history, unlike Buglife,” said Sumner. “These traps are the standard method to monitor wasp populations around the world. Sometimes you get flies in them, sometimes you get the accidental falling of an insect in them but there’s no way a beetle or bee would be attracted to them.”

According to Sumner, the survey is running from 26 August to 10 September to minimise the risk of catching new queens and reproductive males which both emerge later in September. At most, the number of wasps collected – 10,000 – will be less than reside in a single wasp colony.

Buglife has not called for the survey to be cancelled but Shardlow said: “We wished the researchers had investigated first how they could assist and support the already existing national monitoring scheme.”



Sumner said the Big Wasp Survey was “much more fine-scaled” than Defra’s national monitoring plan, which will catch all kinds of insects. “Our aims are to quantify wasp species abundance, distribution and diversity across the UK which we currently don’t have anything other than very patchy data for,” she said. She said the data gathered would have numerous other scientific uses and could reveal urban-rural wasp distribution and whether regional differences in wasp colour can be attributed to environmental contamination.

Where the warring entomologists agree is on the importance of the 9,000 different species of wasp.



“I’m probably the biggest wasp-lover in the world, I’m the last person to want to instil hatred of wasps,” said Sumner. “This is about raising public awareness of these much-maligned insects. They are the gangsters of the natural world, the top predators without which we would be inundated with aphids. They pollinate, they disperse seeds. They are on a par with bees with the ecosystem services they provide.”

Shardlow added: “Wasp populations are tiny compared to what they were in the 1970s and 80s. We should cherish what we’ve got left. They are an important indicator of the health of our environment. Getting to grips with their numbers is very important.”