By Rachel Tiffen
The funeral has taken place of a 62-year-old man who died after a wasp attack last weekend.
The swarm attacked Morris Stretch at the family property in Kenepuru Sound while he was out collecting firewood with his nephew Craig Wilson.
There was a lot of love and comfort from whanau for Mr Wilson who tried but could not save his uncle.
“Ss I took the first step into the bush, that's when I stepped into a wasps' nest,” My Wilson said today. “I took another two steps and he called out ‘wasps’ nest, run!’”
“I turned around, he was covered by wasps and I was covered by quite a few wasps.”
When his uncle slipped and fell into a culvert, Mr Wilson pushed him out before they ran in different directions.
“I found him on the road. I brushed a few wasps off him and tried for a good five minutes to give him CPR and the same time I dialled 111.”
The wasps' venom is believed to have triggered a heart attack.
Mr Wilson spoke to 3 News in an attempt to educate others.
“Just have a look at your surroundings and watch where you step,” he says. “I hold no grudge against wasps; I didn't take a look at my surroundings. I stepped in to their home and they took offence to it.”
There are millions of them in the Marlborough Sounds and they are easily agitated.
Today the Department of Conservation destroyed a reasonably small nest at a hut in Nydia Bay. In cool air they are safe to blast.
DoC’s Maurice Brown says they tend to follow a flight path so if you see a stream of wasps coming and going from a particular area “it is a pretty sure sign there is a nest”.
It is sticky, sweet honeydew on beech trees that are all over the Sounds and Nelson Lakes, which draw wasps en masse. The dew is wasp super-food but insect expert Richard Toft is developing a bait in special stations to control them.
“New Zealand’s really the hot-spot for wasp problems so a lot of the work is done here,” he says.
Unfortunately it is all too late for a loved father and grandfather.
3 News