summer in Edmonton means soaking in time on the patio if you can get away from some pesky companions wasps there we go I thought we'd be free but not super free you can never be free with these wasps they have a tendency of getting in whenever they want to anytime you're on a patio anywhere it feels like they're kind of invading your space um they've been really uh ferocious uh with their with their presence this summer The irritating insects have been Buzz around this restaurant so much staff deliberately Do not sit people outside unless they really want to yeah it's been quite crazy this year so they're using burnt coffee grinds and zappers to try and fend off the pests and their painful stings we have had a lot of people coming in you know asking for I kids crying and all that stuff it's hard to say whether the number of wasps is on the rise because their population is not tracked one expert says but there could be a reason if feels worse in parts of the Prairies now wasps like it hot and dry it's really just kind of that time of the year you know it's near the end of the season so they've had all summer to grow their colonies and multiply and so now yeah there will be more of them out than there were earlier in the season so about 12 in down now we finally reached the actual Nest they've dug in that far wasps serve a purpose they eat pests like caterpillars and aphids and they pollinate as well but it may be useless trying to keep them away prevention is almost nil you can't really prevent them if they're going to find a way to get in they're going to find a way to get in they are very industrious creatures and they'll build where they want to build experts say you can use traps homemade or store bought or you can set aside a sacrificial food offering away from where you're sitting and they recommend dealing with them right away saying a wasp nest can double in size in just a couple weeks Julia Wong CBC News Edmonton