At The Beer Can on a scorching September Monday afternoon, manager Brenden Gali opens a customer’s drink — but covers the top with a small plastic cup.
“For the wasps,” he explains to patron Jesse Marques, who nods.
It’s one of several ways the outdoor patio space has tried to battle what feels like a particularly high number of wasps in Winnipeg over the past couple of weeks.
JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
The Beer Can uses traps and other preventative measures to keep wasps at bay.
“This feels pretty bad, from what we’ve seen here,” Gali said Monday. “We’ve had a staff member who was stung three times in one day, that’s never really fun.”
The Beer Can uses traps and other preventative measures to keep wasps at bay — keeping sugary drinks and cocktail ingredients tucked away and making sure spills are cleaned quickly, for example. On this Monday afternoon, they appeared to be working: while some wasps tried to get into bottles at the front counter, tables remained blissfully wasp-free.
Marques described the Winnipeg wasp situation in recent days as “terrible.”
“Every golf course in Winnipeg is packed with wasps, there’s no drinking beer without protection,” he said, gesturing to the cup-covered can.
While wasps might seem especially bad this summer, some experts say it’s not the worst it’s been in recent years.
Lincoln Poulin of Poulin’s Pest Control has the numbers to prove it: so far this year, the business received about 780 wasp-related calls in July and August.
In 2023, they got 1,046 during the same two months.
Calls for September have been steady so far, but on average compared to previous years.
“Once you get past the September long weekend, this is all average for what we normally see,” Poulin said.
A City of Winnipeg spokesperson also called the season “average” for wasps.
Nicolino’s Restaurant owner Nick Zifarelli agrees, saying wasps were so prolific last year, it hurt his bottom line.
“Our patio season’s 90 days, that’s really all it is, June, July and August — and last year, August was a complete write-off for us,” he said. “This year, in comparison, I don’t believe we’ve been as impacted.”
It all depends on the weather, Poulin said. In 2022, the late start to summer meant fewer wasps, but the significant rain then subsequent sunny weather in spring 2023 produced more of the pests, he said.
“The more the spring is nice will affect how many wasps survive the over-winter process, and it’ll be a busier year,” he said.
JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
While wasps might seem especially bad this summer, some experts say it’s not the worst it’s been in recent years.
Poulin said they will typically get more calls in September than July.
“When we get into this time of year we’re fighting daylight to enjoy summer on patios as much as we can, the wasps know it’s going to be a shorter day, so their feeding habits have gone more to carbohydrates and sugars,” he said.
Poulin recommended placing disposable wasp traps far from seating areas and discouraged letting garbage or dirty dishes sit.
He also strongly discouraged taking drastic measures to get rid of a wasp’s nest: among this summer’s callers to Poulin’s was a man who, frustrated with a two-day wait to get a pest control professional to his property, took a blow torch to a wasp’s nest and burned down part of his fence.
“Treating wasp’s nests is not as easy as some people think…,” he said. “Leave it to the professionals.”
Meanwhile, patrons soaking up the last bit of summer at The Beer Can Monday said they’ll happily tolerate a few bad buzzers.
“Our summers are short enough,” Marques said.
Gali said customers at The Beer Can — which is set to close for the season this weekend with a DJ party for all — haven’t been deterred.
“Being a purely outdoor patio comes with a lot of benefits, as well as disadvantages. Just being 100 per cent outdoors, it’s always going be weather dependent,” he said.
“You have to submit to your environment.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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