'A lot more calls': Pest removal company says more complaints about wasps this year

With the final weeks of summer comes those yellow and black flying, stinging pest, the wasp and the yellow jacket, and if you think this year is worse than others, you may not be alone.

Sitting on a patio or enjoying a picnic at this time of year means you may have an unwanted guest joining you.

“The change in weather, the change in feeding patterns, they do get worse this time of year,” says Robert Caron, Ottawa area manager with pest removal company Orkin.

“They change their feeding habits. They go from sugars all summer long—feeding on our gardens, all the nice flowers—and, once the flowers start to fade away, they change their pattern to protein. They like to feed on burgers, on stuff we like to eat as well.”

Caron says this season has resulted in more calls to remove the pests.

“Yeah, we are getting a lot more calls than what we usually do,” says Caron.

Wasps are also making a buzz in the ByWard Market.

“Every time you eat outside, there’s a wasp,” says one customer while having lunch at the ByWard Café.

Across the street at the Aulde Dubliner & Pour House upstairs patio, Bryce Anderson, a visitor from Edmonton says, “We’ve been sitting here for about twenty minutes and we’ve been swarmed pretty good.”

Manager Colton Crawford says he’s never seen it like this before.

“They’re quite the nuisance,” he says.

Crawford has worked at the restaurant for six years, and this season is, “Infinitely worse; we can’t believe it. We do set out the traps here, and the other day there was like fifty in the traps after a few hours.”

“We’ve had like dozens of them as I’m working,” says Celeste Scheel, working at the ByWard Café, “trying to fly into my face, going after any food; we’ve had to put our coffee syrups in the fridge to try and stop them from coming.”

Caron says to eliminate and keep food sources and to keep them away and, while he says there are some products you can buy, you should call a professional pest removal company if you’re allergic, the nest is out of reach—such as up high or in the ground—or if you’re uncomfortable doing it yourself.