Diet, Demographics Behind Late-Summer Wasp Outbreak on Prairies

Audric Moses has seen a few late-summer wasp outbreaks around his Edmonton home over the past seven years, but nothing like what he saw last week. “My wife said, ‘Hey, come on out here. You need to see this,'” he said. “There were apples in the tree that were completely covered in wasps, inside and outside of the apples. They were just eating their way into the centre, leaving a hollow skin of an apple behind. “The population of wasps just seems to have exploded in the last week.” Late summer is often wasp time on the Prairies, as the little stingers go through their natural cycle. But this season seems a bit more yellow-and-black than normal....