WASP X

28/07/2026

🐝 Where Have All the Wasps… and Their Chemical Warfare Gone?

One question I’ve been asked almost every day this summer is…

“Where have all the wasps gone?” Obviously I still get asked “What use are wasps, do they serve any purpose?” but that’s normal!

Believe it or not… I’m asking exactly the same question about where they’ve gone!

After treating well over 10,000 wasp nests during the last 20+ years, this has been one of the quietest seasons I can remember. Our call-outs are around 50% down on what we’d normally expect. Other pest controllers in the area have said the same.

It’s not just common wasps either. We normally see a fair number of Median Wasps, but their numbers are really down, we’ve only treated a handfull and their nest sizes have been smaller then normal.

🌦️ So… where have they all gone?

I don’t pretend to know the answer, but after watching wasps for more than two decades, I do have a theory.

People assume a hot summer means lots of wasps.

From my experience, I think the weather between March and May is often far more important than the weather in July/August.

A queen starts her colony completely alone.

She has to build the nest…
Lay the eggs…
Collect wood fibres…
Hunt insects…
Fetch water…
Defend the nest…
And somehow keep her tiny nursery at the right temperature.

All without a single worker to help.

This year we had a late frost that damaged vineyards and fruit crops across Kent.

Could that have knocked back many young colonies?

Then came the exceptional May Bank Holiday heatwave.

Could tiny nests, with just a queen and perhaps no workers yet, have overheated?

I honestly don’t know.

But once a colony has hundreds or even thousands of workers collecting water, fanning the nest and insulating the brood with its expanding paper envelope, it becomes a far more resilient wasp factory.

Nature rarely has one simple answer… and that’s what makes it so fascinating.

☠️ Nature’s Chemical Warfare

People think a wasp sting is simply “poison.”

It isn’t.

It’s a carefully evolved chemical cocktail, cleverly concocted over millions of years. Rather than simply poisoning you, it hijacks your body’s own defence mechanisms, amplifying pain, inflammation and the immune response.

The venom ingredients include:

🧪 Histamine – helps trigger redness and swelling.

🧪 Serotonin – activates pain receptors, making sure you remember the encounter! 😡

🧪 Hyaluronidase – the “spreading factor” that helps the venom move through your tissues.

🧪 Phospholipase – damages cell membranes and adds to the inflammation.

All of these compounds work together, creating a remarkably effective defensive weapon.

For an insect weighing less then a gram, that’s some pretty advanced chemical warfare!

❤️ Before We Declare War on Wasps…

Yes, they can ruin a barbecue…

Yes, they can sting…

And yes, they occasionally send me running faster than I’d like to admit! 😂

But they’re also one of nature’s best pest controllers.

A single colony catches thousands of flies, caterpillars, aphids and other insects during the summer, helping to keep many garden pests under control.

I spend my working life removing nests that pose a danger to people, but that doesn’t stop me admiring just how extraordinary these insects really are. Their behaviour is quite remarkable and that would have to be another post to even touch the surface.

After more than 20 years treating wasps, I still don’t pretend to know all the answers. Nature has a habit of proving us wrong. But that’s one of the reasons I still find these insects so fascinating.

So I’m curious…

Have you noticed fewer wasps around this year, have your nests been less active then normal or are they all hiding somewhere I haven’t looked yet?