We have a couple of wasps nests at home.

One has been there from early this year and is in through an air brick in the corner of the house. A constant stream of small wasps that seem to go about their business without harming anybody.

We have also found a big hanging wasps nest in a cherry tree by both the front door and the drive, it is a bit smaller than a football. My daughter got stung twice at the weekend ( yes she did find the nest). This nest is a much bigger wasp and it needs to be removed as it is too close to lots of things. It would make cutting the lawn completely impossible under a very low tree and would also stop the kids playing under their favourite tree.

My decision is about the air brick nest that is currently not causing us a problem, I don’t want to kill them but equally I don’t want to have to pay another £30 in a few weeks if something is likely to change as they get near to the end of there season.

Are they likely to come back to the air brick nest next year?

Kill them. Kill them all.

Wasps yes I’d get rid and the air brick nest is likely to grow. I say this as wasps are bothersome (eg when eating / drinking in the garden) unlike bees and much more likely to sting you / the kids.

I found the best way to deter after removal is a daily visit to the area to destroy the beginnings of the new nest that invariably gets built as soon as they return to find it gone. (IME, obviously)

In my case I eventually had to thwack the bugger with a wooden meter stick because it didn’t seem to understand that building a nest in my shed wasn’t a good idea. Knocked it clean out so I carried it over to a high-ish tree stump and covered with leaves to help with overnight warmth/protection etc. The first thing I did when I awoke was to check on the wasp and she was fine – had vomited up a load of wood pulp/wasp spit type stuff that they use to build their nest and she was gone, never to return.

As an aside I watched her go to and from a pile of pallets and the nest and there was a definite route she followed. Once I’d removed the nest it confused her and she continually retraced her “steps” to try and figure out where she’d gone wrong, eventually resigning herself to the fact the all was lost and she’d have to start again.

A real shame as it was a beautiful thing to watch her building but really not welcome, especially when they get drunk on the rotting apples.

I recorded one bout of nest building – bloody amazing!

Personally I’d kill them with fire, hate the stripy little sh!ts. The missus is badly allergic too so they don’t often last long when they try and setup their airbrick squatters rights.

They can be destructive if they can get into structural timber so you might not want them around.

They’re supposed to be aphid predators so if you don’t want greenfly then, wasps may be useful.

I have been lead to beleive that the nests are abandonned at the end of the season and they don’t come back, not had this confirmed by an expert so it’s a fact that can be easily repeated on internet forums.

I find it interesting that all the advice is from a personal annoyance point of view.

We have a nest ~10feet high in a cavity in the exterior garage wall. They don’t annoy us and the kids like watching them so I was wondering what benefit wasps bring. I can’t really find much info, except that they eat lots of flies and caterpillars.

I think wasps need to hire the branding agency that bees use and get some positive spin out there.

Wasps never reuse a nest as they all die except the Queen who creates a new nest every year. Forget paying £30 – do it yourself with Nippon powder after dark or on a rainy day. They’re great predators on other garden pests – neighbours had a nest last year and we had no problems with green/black fly.

I was wondering what benefit wasps bring

They do a lot of pollination, so quite useful really….

Yep, we get the pollinaters we deserve, once Monsanto are done with all the bees it’s just us and the wasps! 8)

They do a lot of pollination, so quite useful really….

Correct – if I remember correctly, the redder flowers have evolved for wasp pollination. Normal wasps (what I see referred to as yellowjackets a lot) are very aggressive, though. Hornets on the other hand are beautiful to look at and you really have to provoke them before they go for it.

Now, horseflies and ticks on the other hand – I don’t condone the harming of animals, but I could happily do a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ on those things. They have no intrinsic value at all as pure parasites and disease vectors. Awful things – but a predictable by-product of evolution nonetheless.

Idealy for nests in bad location you want to kill the wasps but leave the nest as that puts off the next wasp to come along. There are sprays and powders for doing this and its really easy.

But if the wasps aren’t bothering you and not causing damage best to leave them.

One has been there from early this year and is in through an air brick in the corner of the house.

I’d be a bit careful with that. Got called to a house because a circuit breaker for the downstairs lighting kept tripping. Within a few minutes of us arriving we heard a POP and the breaker tripped.

We eventually tracked the popping noise down to under the floorboards in a first floor bedroom. The Lady of the house then pointed out that there was a wasp nest there. They had entered through the air brick. She had the exterminator there the day before and he had squirted the air brick. We decided not to lift the floor boards as it took a few days for the wasps to die off.

When we did lift the boards we found that the wasps had come in through the air brick, passed through a hole in one of the joists, and set up shop there. The hole in the joist was where the lighting cable was passing through and the wasps had chewed through it to increase the size of hole.

Every time we heard a “POP” sound was a wasp crawling over the exposed cores of the cable and exploding. There were bits of them everywhere.

It could have caused quite a serious fire.

We have a load of lavender in the front garden, covered in bees and the occasional lost wasp; the bees really don’t care if you’re weeding or pruning and bashing the bushes around, they just buzz around a different bush for a bit, but the wasps go mental and start chasing you around. The evil buggers don’t need the bees’ PR, they need their life coach and anger management training.

Perennial DIY wasps nest destruction thread 🙂

Proper LOL at “The evil buggers don’t need the bees’ PR, they need their life coach and anger management training.”

We had a long thread on this a while back did we not?

Dunno but I hate wasps as much as I hate lying estate agents. Had a sting a couple of weeks ago when I found a nest in my neighbour’s garden. Reading up on the web about destroying nests I see that it says: “Before tackling a wasps’ nest, take time to check that your escape route is clear”!!

If it’s really disruptive then I’d get rid, but they don’t re-inhabit nests so if you can leave it til the end of the year the problem goes away anyway.

thanks for the thread. we’ve had a weird noise in our roof for a few weeks that I couldn’t identify but it turns out to be a wasps nest. Give that it is on the roof, under the tiles and this is peak season I ain’t touching it. Does’t look at though it’s a problem though

Placing some fake nests in the garden will prevent wasps setting up home

Had one near the front door two years back, getting into the space between the brickwork. Not many wasps but constant. We just left them. As people said, they don’t return to the nest so when the cold weather came that was the end of it.

Funny this thread came up. We were clearing out new allotment last night and I pulled back some dead foliage to find a wasps nest in the ground. Cue quick exit!! Just bought some powder so am going back tonight to throw it (hopefully) down the nest. Can’t get much work done now until the bastards are dead. Hopefully this powder will do the job.

I’ve had to get rid of two within the space of 3 weeks! First was in the tiles on the front of the house. As it’s a timber framed house, I imagined them gnoshing on some joists. 2nd one was in the garden right next to an area where my son plays. Thankfully it was only me that got stung as I stumbled across it when gardening. Bastards.

Best to kill the nests. Whilst wasps don’t return to the old nest once the colony has died the emerging queens at the end of the season won’t fly very far to over winter and will end up building more nests next year close to where they are now.

Most wasp colonies have reached their peak at this time of year so they stop being vaguely useful as pollinating insects and pest controllers and just start being a monumental pain in the neck.

I watched a dragonfly catch, kill and eat a wasp this afternoon. It looked like it was having fun. Just away now to research breeding them at home so i can unleash a squadron of them on the local wasps.

Op what you need is a giant jam sandwich!

Put out a giant jam sandwich on a local farmers field. (you may need to enlist the help of all the local villagers to make and cook the bread) Once the wasps arrive and start feasting drop the other slice of bread on top and get a load of seagulls to take the lot away. bobs your uncle.

Working at as large house last week wasps nest next to the dry pellet wood store, no problem we werent working within 15 foot of it, lovely to see them flying in and out, when we started cutting fresh pine timber they got aroused and started flying around, with little problem.

thats until the customer mentioned the door on the wood store didnt shut, walked over to it within 3 foot of nest entry, started undoing the door with makita screwdiver, noise seemed to upset them, spent the next few minutes, dad dancing round garden trying to swat them away, only got stung once on the eye lid, and it did hurt, sadly mrs wasp lost her life in the process as she was hit by a piece of 3 x 2 timber as she flew off.

Lovely intigent creatures, like ants and bees, just sometimes they set up home in the wrong place.

Kill the bastids before they kill us.

There I was puffing wasp nest powder up a ladder into a wasp nest in the eaves of our 2 storey house gleefully watching them struggle and fall to the ground and die.

One militant bugger hit back with a sting to the back of my head. Oh that smarted a bit I thought took some antihistamines and painkillers. The next 30mins were really not fun, hives appeared all over my body my breathing became difficult and lips started to swell.

Called 111 for advise, what a waste of time that was! As the answers she was getting didn’t fit into her flow chart an difference of opinion ensued about blotchy skin/hives 🙄 anyhow was told a nurse would call me back within 3hrs.

As my breathing was getting worse we took the decision to head up to hospital and I took straight away in A&E. They gave me a dose of steroids and monitored me for another 4hrs.

Bruneep » gleefully watching them struggle and fall to the ground and die.

And you think Alpin has issues…

Use the powder.
I squirted the powder in to the path that goes into the nest and they
were coming out covered in white powder and crash landing, an hour later
not one left.

You could always use the Viz recommendation of a 50/50 Mix of Jam and Prozac* so they are less aggressive 😆

* May not actually work on wasps I have no idea!

We had a small next in the garden shed a few years ago….can of GT 85 and a lighter dealt with it! They were pretty cross and it took a few return visits to get rid of the ones who made it out (they were quite cross).

Bloody hate the things.

I’m an advocate of leaving if not causing bother. The problem is this is a great idea till they manage to find way through from the roof into the house. Next thing you’re going to bed one night, and realise you have a hundred new lodgers in your bedroom.

Sorry for the hijack, but has anyone any experience of dealing with (or deterring) Hornets? I’ve seen three in the last few months all near my house and are getting a bit worried I may happen across and upset the nest one day. The things are huge.

Fun fact. Hornets can sting and bite at the same time.

bueller – Member

Sorry for the hijack, but has anyone any experience of dealing with (or deterring) Hornets?

Japanese honey bees