If you find wasps swarming your summer picnic, offer up some of it to them.

That’s the advice of University College London Professor of Behavioural Ecology Seirian Sumner, who was speaking to The Moncrieff Show about how to treat wasps this summer.

“Most people listening will be thinking of a wasp as that pesky picnic bothering yellowjackets,” she said.

“Those wasps are social wasps, and they live in big colonies and sometimes they get a bit bothersome, and people have to get rid of their nest.

“The wasps that you see at the moment will probably look quite big because they’re foundresses and they're doing all the foraging themselves.

“They've laid the eggs and they’re feeding their brood; they're building a nest, they're doing everything themselves, they are a single mom.”

Pesky wasps

Professor Sumner said it is not until the end of the summer that wasps become “bothersome.”

“They are essentially somewhat furloughed from the colony at the end of the summer,” she said.

“It generally hits around the bank holiday time at the end of August, early September when there are less larvae to feed so there's less hunting demands on the wasps.

“That's the time when they start to become a little bit more bothersome, they’ll visit us at our picnics, and they'll go for our sugary drinks.”

Wasps and flies eating rotten strawberries in garden (Arterra Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo)

How to react

Professor Sumner advised listeners to “not behave like a badger” if they come in contact with a wasp.

“Badgers are their main predators and when a badger is digging at a wasp nest, it's flailing its arms,” she said.

“What do we do when a wasp comes to our picnic? We throw our arms around shouting at it, so we are effectively mimicking its predator.

The professor recommended sitting still and keeping your mouth closed if a wasp approaches you outside.

“See where they want to go, and when they have found a bit of ham, a little bit of jam, just give them a little bit, give them a wasp offering,” she said.

“You can even share your sandwich with a wasp quite happily.

“You can bring along proper bait like some smelly fish … put it 20 metres away from you and the wasps will all go there, and they should leave you alone.”

A family having a picnic as wasps approach (Photo by RioPatuca / Alamy Stock Photo)

Smells

Professor Sumner said depending on what you have in your picnic, you may find yourself the object of a wasp’s affection.

“If you're lucky enough to be having barbecues in the next couple of weeks, you will notice that if a wasp visits, it's primarily interested in your proteins,” she said.

“So, your sausage or ham sandwich … because they're feeding the brood they need protein.

“Then towards the end of the colony cycle, that’s when they've got less demand for protein, that's when they start going for sugar.

“That’s the time when you get them bothering you for your lemonade and your beers.”