Many people have noticed a marked increase in wasps in Southern Alberta, including the Foothills, this summer.
According to Tony O'Neill, supervisor at Absolute Pest Control, this is one of their busiest years when it comes to wasps.
"This season is probably the busiest in the last five years," says O'Neill. "Being August now, they're naturally a nuisance, anyways, for foraging around and you just see more of that simply because there's more nests this time of year, this season."
O'Neill said they started getting calls about wasps back in July, but they have already received about 70 per cent more calls about wasps this year than last year.
The reason that there have been more wasps this year, according to O'Neill is tied to the hot weather and the increased aphid population.
"It's just a hot summer and this year, you got aphids, which is a food source for the wasps. They have an abundance, so obviously that increases the activity," O'Neill said.
He adds that the weather in the wintertime also plays into how many wasps there are in the province.
Any queen wasp that survives the winter will build a nest in the springtime and lay eggs.
O'Neill says that there is no rhyme or reason as to where the queen will build a nest.
"It's literally everywhere."
Over the years, O'Neill says that he found them in places like the back of someone's truck and in someone's mattress.
He says that Absolute Pest Control has received more calls about wasps in Okotoks than in other places they service.
On top of that, O'Neill says that at this time of year, the wasp nests are at capacity, causing the wasps to be more aggressive than they were a month and a half ago, so he is advising people to be careful around the nest.
If someone has a nest underground, or in a spot where it can't be seen properly, O'Neill advises people to call a pest control company to avoid getting stung.
Luckily, though, once the weather cools off in the autumn, so too will the wasps.