BRITAIN COULD be hit by a wasp plague because changing farming methods mean that numbers are on the rise.

The Daily Mail reports that the government‘s drive to encourage environmentally friendly farming has resulted in an explosion of insect numbers.

Michael Archer, a former lecturer from York St John‘s University, has analysed data which suggests wasp numbers have increased to levels last seen in 1980.

It is though that food sources for wasps have been boosted because farmers are increasingly joining agri-environmental schemes and leaving field margins uncultivated.

“It may be that these government schemes are starting to have an effect,” Dr Archer told the paper.

Changes in farming methods are also thought to be boosting bumblebee numbers.