The 7.5 kilo nest, located 10 meters high in a pine tree in Alhaurín de la Torre. This mass full of thousands of larvae has the dubious honor of being the first Asian wasp nest detected in Andalusia. A species that, it is worth remembering has killed three people in Galicia in the last two weeks.
“We caught it on time,” explained Alvaro Garciafrom the pest control company Lucanus. “If we had left it a few more days, hundreds of fertile queens would have emerged, and that would be unstoppable.”
And yet, the relief of having stopped the expansion of the velutina throughout the most populated community in Spain has been followed by something else: the anxiety generated by knowing that we have found them by pure chance.
What if by chance? The discovery It was due to Eduardo Sáezthe biologist who owns the farm where the nest was found. Sáez is not an expert on wasps, but upon seeing him he realized that it was not normal and raised the alarm.
Given this, it seems inevitable to ask not only what would have happened if they had not “caught it in time”; but if it really has been like that. Is there not one but dozens of Asian wasp nests maturing in Andalusia without anyone noticing?
What is the vespa velutina? The Vespa velutina nigrithoraxnative to Southeast Asia, is an invasive species that arrived in Europe in 2004. It is not difficult to identify itbut it is not something trivial either: it is larger than the common wasp (up to 3.5 cm), it is darker and has an almost completely black abdomen.
After expanding from Cantabria, the Basque Country and Galicia throughout the north of the peninsula, it is growing at a rate of 80 kilometers per year. In addition, and if that were not enough, it feeds on fruit, bees and other pollinating animals.
To this, of course, we must add that this type of wasps are especially aggressive.
Didier Descouens
And in response to that, Alhaurín has taken a desperate measure. The municipality of Malaga, recognizing that it is unable to trace its entire area to ensure that the velutina is not growing elsewhere, has requested citizen collaboration: Dozens of neighbors and volunteers have supported the call and are combing the Pinos de Alhaurín area.
This obviously entails security risks (due to improper approach to the nests) and false positives (putting other species at risk). However, the situation is very complicated.
We must not forget that Málaga has been fighting against Vespa orientalisadding the velutina would be a disaster for provincial beekeeping (and for another half dozen sectors).
Why this urgency? Because, as its impact has shown in the north of the peninsula and endorses technical literatureOnce it enters an ecosystem, eradicating it is almost impossible.
And the city councils do not have enough of their own equipment to deal with this type of threats. Above all, in a context in which both climate change and anarchic urbanization have made it incredibly easy.
A problem that goes beyond beekeeping. And, as I said, in less than two weeks and in the middle of autumn, three men have lost their lives in Galicia due to stings from velutina wasps. It is true that these are deaths related to “severe allergic reactions”, but that does not make the situation any more reassuring.
We must not forget that Galicia has been fighting this insect for 15 years with massive trapping and nest removal programs. Without any success. In fact, according to the Xuntawe are experiencing an “extraordinary increase” due to “enormous adaptability” and asks for “caution, especially in the case of allergic people.”
Image | Francis ITHURBURU
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