It’s soon going to be my fourth year in Germany — which means I’ve been through 4 summers. Every summer, I have my fair share of annoyance with the wasps that have been flying around annoying all beings possible like they own the f***ing place. Some people have worse luck. I’ve seen so many posts in facebook mentioning they have swallowed the wasps by mistake. The stories go on and on and on…
First of all, a “wasp” is not a bee. Bees could only sting once (and die) but wasps could sting many many times.
This year I’ve noticed people talking about this “fine for killing wasps” thingy. At first I thought it was a joke. How could it be illegal killing some bugs that annoy the hell out of you and might even put you in danger (imagine an extreme scenario that you were vividly trying to avoid a wasp and ran into a car, etc)? However, after seeing a few of such posts on facebook, I’ve decided to put my investigation hat on and went straight to google.
First, I found this article “Can you really be fined €50,000 for killing a wasp in Germany?” that everyone seemed to refer to:
People who kill a wasp could technically be forced to pay between €5,000 and €50,000 for violating the act… Animal lawyer Andreas Ackenheil said the threat posed by wasps is widely misunderstood… Out of around 10,000 species, only two are actually dangerous to humans, and they normally don’t come into contact with populated areas, he explained… Killing insects has far-reaching consequences for nature, he said, as he explained that wasps contribute to maintaining the ecological balance by killing mosquitoes, fruit flies and other pests, and playing an important role in pollinating flowers…
Ok… So it’s somehow true (not the part about wasps “normally don’t come into contact with populated areas” though. I trapped 3 wasps with empty glasses at an open air bar yesterday). But the article was not that informative. I dug a little deeper and found another article saying “… the prohibition of wasp-murder is a federal law in Germany, the fines vary from state to state within the country. This law was enacted in order to deter people from killing insects that are important for maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.” I also found some more articles such as this one that says the fine is rare, and this one that lists way to try to survive wasp attacks and some tips to contact local authority if you see a nest.
Right… I’m almost convinced it’s true. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s Germany after all.
But then, I found this article “Fact check: No — Killing a single wasp does not result in 50,000 euros fine”. The article is in German, but it basically says that the fine is for the general “specially protected” species and wasp is one of them since they are not harmful and they help to clean the environment. Fines vary and it has not been imposed a lot, and usually only is imposed when you get rid of the whole nest or something like that, not a single wasp. And surely noone has ever been fined that much yet. It is just the ceiling value, which is probably to scare people.
There you go. Mystery solved. Now don’t get panic when you accidentally killed a wasp and someone shouts at you and tells you to be ready to pay 50,000 euros for such an evil action. Yes, that happened to some people here in Berlin.
