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Asian wasp sighted in ovar

Written by  yvette vieira ft quentin rome

Quercus and Cáster Friends Association launches warning to the population.

Quercus and Friend Cáster Association report that recently was discovered by a popular an Asian wasp nest in the center of Ovar. This nest was at the top of a cedar in a vacant house located next to the Half Moon Hotel and was destroyed by the city of Ovar last Monday October 10th.
Over 2016 it was destroyed 20 nests, according to information provided by the municipality, considering important public scrutiny to this problem given the possible consequences for public safety and certain repercussions on the environment, honey production and agricultural production.

The vespa velutina is a large insect. The head is black with orange and yellow face. The body is dark brown or black velvety, delimited by a thin yellow band and with a single yellowish-orange abdominal segment, which makes it difficult to confuse with any other species. The wings are dark brown and the legs with yellow edges. Their size varies according to the food, the place and the temperature, but is a major species of wasps.
The queen can be up to 3.5 cm. The nests, made of chewed cellulose fibers have a round shape or per with an opening similar to a side exit and can reach one meter in height and about 50-80 cm in diameter, and are usually built in trees with heights greater than 5 meters. Each nest can hold about 2,000 wasps.

It is an invasive species and is a risk from different points of view, including for beekeeping, the effect on the bee population is a direct effect due to losses produced by direct predation by vespa velutina, and indirectly by decreasing activities of bees, which translates into a weakening and eventual death of the hive. This has two direct consequences on the one hand, a lower production of honey and related products, and second, a reduction of plant pollination given the importance of honeybees this important biological function;
For agricultural production mainly by the indirect effect by decreasing the pollination activity of bees. In addition, fruit production can be affected when these species are sources of carbohydrates in the diet of the insects at certain times of its life cycle;
For the safety of citizens, although not being more aggressive to humans than the native wasp, reacts quite aggressively to threats to their nest; facing a threat or vibration 5 meters, it produces a group response that can chase the source of threat for about 500 meters. In addition, the large size that can Action Plan for Vespa velutina Surveillance and Control in Portugal Release January 20, 2015 Page 5 of 38 to reach the nests and sometimes their location in urban or peri-urban areas, can result in higher risk to citizens;
And the environment is a non-native species, natural predator of bees and other insects, which can eventually lead to medium-term significant impacts on biodiversity, particularly the native species of wasps and populations of other insects. The side effects of the decline of the native insect fauna, there may be a lower-pollinated species of natural or cultivated vegetation.

People should be attentive not only to the occurrence of nests and also must worry about their destruction. For convenience or ignorance, are often destroyed to crabro wasp nests, traditional species of this region, which competes with the Asian wasp hindering its spread. This cannot happen. The liability to destroy wasp nests exclusively belongs to the Municipality of Ovar and Civil Protection. Persons or entities not accredited for this purpose should be reported to the hotline Enviroment (808 200 520).

http://amigosdocaster.org/
http://www.sosvespa.pt/web

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