January and February are when invasive wasp populations boom, damaging the native eco-system. New Zealand has some of the highest densities of German and common wasps in the world which present a huge threat to native ecology wrecking havoc on the food chain of native insects and birds.
Professor Jacqueline Beggs is an expert in invasive wasp species. She joins Kathryn to talk about the work being done to control wasps, including toxic baits, emerging technologies like "gene drives" and investigating why some offshore islands have more non-native wasps than others.
