They are the killjoys of our summers, real invaders that spoil an immeasurable number of lunches, barbecues and summer picnics: wasps.
They seem tireless. And if there are many tricks to get rid of them, sometimes the inevitable happens all the same, so aggressive are they, and you get bitten.
The wasp sting can be particularly painful, cause severe allergic reactions, which can even be fatal. “The number of deaths per year in France is estimated at around twenty due to the stings of Hymenoptera such as bees or wasps. The vast majority of these are allergic accidents”, reports Gérard Duvallert, medical entomologist, on Medisite.
When they roam around us, we must therefore be careful with these yellow and black beasts. But some behaviors put you at risk without you even realizing it.
In our slideshow, discover these 8 things you absolutely must not do if you want to avoid being stung by a wasp.
This year, the invasion of these hymenoptera is such that professionals speak of a “wasp summer”. The fault of the rather mild winter that France experienced. “while most usually die of cold and lack of food during hibernation, many wasps have been spared this year (including queens)”, specifies Marie France.
Wasps would also be particularly aggressive towards the end of summer, once the youngest specimens have left the nest to build their own colony. Slate explains that at this point, “the sisters no longer have to defend the colony or hunt to feed the younger ones. They just defend themselves and eat what they want – that’s why August and September are the months when the wasps sting the most”.
