Wasp nest

[Sportsman]

This has been a good summer for wasps. We have a nest wasp in the wall with the bu&&ers getting into the wall around a badly installed window frame. It is the window into the office that I share with my wife and this morning she got stung so the order has gone out "DO SOMETHING"

I have sprayed quantities of wasp killer into the holes but it doesn't seem to do much, probably because the actual nest could be some distance from the entrance.

I have tried blocking holes with duct tape but there are too many inaccessible potential ways in. Does anyone know if they are likely to pack up and leave in the winter or will they continue using the nest next year?

 

We also have a hornets nest (European hornet or Frelon) in an old bird nesting box in the garden, but compared to wasps they are docile and no trouble. They will dissappear around November and won't return to the nest site so I am happy to leave them alone.

[chesters1]

Wasps do return occasionally but great fun can be had with expanding foam and a long tube at night

We get one nest every year ,its right behind the chimney so impossible to get to myself ,the rest i use my chesteriser on and they're no more

Edited August 12, 2015 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

The colony will die at the end of the season, but they do like to build new nests on the remains of dead ones.

[barry luxton]

fill the hole with high modulus silicone, job done.

[Ken L]

Mix ordinary garden insecticide with a little jam and put it in a saucer near the nest. Keep an eye on it to make sure the local honey bees don't find it and if they do, move it and put a cover over it. They'll take it back to the nest as shared food and it's job done.

 

Leave the hornets alone - they're the good guys.

[Chris Plumb]

Leave the hornets alone - they're the good guys.

That's interesting - why? We get a few hornets every year in our greenhouse - always very impressive looking insects....

 

 

C.

[Steve Walker]

Wasps are also the good guys while they are usefully employed catching other insects to feed to the larvae. They only become a proper nuisance once the queen stops laying and they are unemployed and hungry.

[chesters1]

That's interesting - why? We get a few hornets every year in our greenhouse - always very impressive looking insects....

 

 

C.

They're very laid back a bit like bees and will only sting as a last resort ,theres a nest somewhere about here theres often one or two patrolling the garden most days.

I spotted some new critter a few weeks ago but it had gone before i could grab the camera ,hornet sized but wasp coloured with a fluffy thorax ,similar to the ones i saw in france but i am sure they didnt have the strange fluffy bit

[Ken L]

That's interesting - why? We get a few hornets every year in our greenhouse - always very impressive looking insects....

 

 

C.

 

They eat insects and anything else that can be classed as meat, they don't pester you around food or drinks and our native European hornets (The reason Dave identified the species) are very unlikely to sting you unless you seriously annoy them.

Both common European communal wasp species only tick the first box. They are great for hunting garden pests but their utility is outweighed by their nuisance.

 

I spent a summer as a kid fishing a peg on a lake that had a hornets nest about 5m behind me in the stump of an old tree. I was pretty much sat in the flight path and despite being allergic to wasp venom, I never felt threatened once.

 

I have only ever been stung by a hornet once and that was because I lay back onto it and crushed it. Fortunately. I was a bit numbed to the pain at the time as a result of smoking an interesting pipe offered by a very gaunt gentleman who was known as "Dr O".

[kirisute]

brother had a nasty hornet encounter last week!

shovelling straw for the pheasant pens and the buggers had nested in between the bails....

he was stung 10 times across his body and once on the tongue when one landed on his face and bit his lip...

face blew up like a balloon and we very nearly had an emergency hospital run on our hands!

facial swelling went down really quickly luckily...but it was a close call!