How to destroy a wasp nest in my loft

I’ve got a fairly large wasp nest at the edge of my loft. Hard to say just how big, but it’s about a foot in diameter and goes down an unknown depth to my gutter (they get in via a crack between the wall and the soffits).

Having investigated the council seem to want to charge £60 quid to get rid of it and the cheapest online place wants 40 quid. This seems a bit excessive, so I’m wondering how to destroy it myself. The options as I see it seem to be:

1) Go into the loft. Stab at it with a big stick quickly. Withdraw from loft at pace and pull lid back.
2) Same as the first option but rather than use a stick, just chuck half a brick on it.
3) Cover myself up and pour boiling water on it and accept I’ll get a bit stung
4) Get some squirty stuff? If so is there a good type?

What happens when the nest is largely destroyed (by say me lobbing a brick on it)? Will the wasps give up and die, or will they try and fix it?

I’m sure some people will suggest I don’t destroy it, but fundamentally, it’s by my bedroom window so they keep flying in and secondly they are really noisy (the nest is directly above my bed and you can hear them scraping all night).

Option 1.

Cover myself up and pour boiling water on it and accept I’ll get a bit stung and probably covered in boiling water

I’m not sure I like any of your options. Half-destroying the next will still leave you with a lot of pissed off wasps in your roofspace.

Please make sure you video whatever you do and post it up here though.

I know £40 is a lot to many folk, but I know what I’d do.

Option 1 seems like the most fun. Can you wear a GoPro?

Option 5) Pay a man to do it

Get the professionals to do it.

Bodie’s gone now (RIP) and Doyle is getting on but there really isn’t any way I’d tackle a wasp’s nest.

You’ve found somebody willing to go into a loft and carry out a hadardous task that needs PPE and smoke, which you dont have, for £40? and you think that’s too expensive?

+1 for whichever one you choose, videoing it

We had one in the loft a few years ago. Wore my motorbike gear inc helmet, dislodged it & carefully carried it downstairs through the house and put it at the back of the garden

No problem

They’re just wasps not like they’re werewolves or dragons or something

Option 4 – aerosol and a lighter (with fire brigade on speed dial) Very effective in outbuildings given how flammable they are, but I’d not use it in a roofspace!

Wasps will return to the site typically. I’ve heard of fake nests that apparently they are not keen to colonise close to, but suspect that your nest is too big for this.

Gauntlets/coveralls and a mask and a big blanket is another option before bashing the crap out of it so they are contained…

Are you going to video the job? 😀

Edit – damn a lot of video requests while I was typing!

Yes ,please get a friend to film you remove it.

All your options sound worth filming 🙂

I did 2 from sheds this weekend. Much easier as I could leg it across the garden repeatedly after each stage. I wore a hoodie and wooly hat for protection. Worked ok, except angry wasps got stuck in the hat a few times.

Anyway I did powder first, then knocked the things into a firepit.

They’re just wasps not like they’re werewolves or dragons or something

😆

I used 4 wasp killing smoke bombs. I placed a heater in the loft and warmed it to get (most of) them out of the nest and cooked off two of the smoke bombs. I then attached one of the remaining bombs to a stick, lit it and shoved it into the nest, retreated and lit the final bomb and closed the loft hatch.

The dead nest was removed with an old pillowcase.

Firstly you need to buy some of this – http://www.robertdyas.co.uk/nippon-ant-killer-powder-150g?istCompanyId=bf3344d9-83f5-4abd-b69a-da131f7567d1&istItemId=xliwpxawt&istBid=tzxt&gclid=CNn87ZCZt8YCFSUOwwodR4IBmQ

Find the entrance to the nest. On a cool day early morning or late evening is better. You can tip these bottles up and squeeze them which sprays the powder. Get as much in and around the entrance as you can. The wasps will then carry the powder into the nest. After a couple of days you should see them dying off.

Once they have died off if the nest isn’t causing you a problem then leave it as wasps will never try to use an old nest.

Was there not a guy on here who attempted this with a pair of running shorts on?

Ended badly if I recall.

Before killing them, spend some time at a distance observing their movements. You need to work out how they are coming in to the loft space because the first thing you want to do after destroying the nest is to bloke that hole up…..

Angry wasps a very good at getting inside your clothing and stinging you. It is best to tackle such jobs naked to make sure that doesn’t happen.

They’re just wasps not like they’re werewolves or dragons or something

Wasps are the worst of those, I think you’ll find. Cos they are REAL!

damn you wharfedale … How is a man sprinkling some powder YBF material ?

You and your sensible, cheap, easy ideas are completely uncalled for.

What we really want are more outlandish, potentially harmful and ultimately unsuccessful options….

Didn’t some one on here try the well established fail safe technique of removing the nest onto a pillow while wearing just running shorts and then falling down the loft step ladder into the awaiting recycling bin?

you’ll want to ensure you can make a quick getaway. rollerskates would be the footwear of choice

Rollerskates attached to a fire extinguisher propulsion system.

You honestly think poking a wasps nest with a stick is a better option than paying someone 40 quid to get rid of it?

good luck.

+1 for whichever one you choose, videoing it

+ another. 😀

I used to have nests in my old flat every year. Only once did I tackle them myself was when they were chewing through the plasterboard above my bed. I resorted to making a tiny piercing in what was left of the plasterboard and used nasty insect killing spray through a WD40 red tube thing. As they were between the insulation and the plaster it worked a treat.

Got the pros out for every other nest though – £40 well spent.

Cos they are REAL!

Dragon’s aren’t real????? Oh FFS..this dragon egg I bought off some blonde who claimed to be “mother of dragons” is a fake then?

We had a wasps nest in our thatch earlier this year.

Local guy wanted £30. Came round at 7.30, dealt with it. he said they shouldn’t come back but if they do to give him a call & he will come back & sort it for nothing.

For the sake of £40, is it really worth not faffing about?

I’m sure you can buy a smoke pellet that you can put in your loft …and it will kill everything that moves!!
Around a tenner

I am genuinely amazed no-one has suggested the favourite STW method……..

Whatever you try, you’re going to need an emergency union jack

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/my-daughter-has-coated-cat-with-sudocrem-what-to-do/page/3

I got rid of a (small) one in the garage the other day; a can of fly and wasp killer spray from asda turned out to be surprisingly effective. I just squirted it from afar then got slowly closer; any that emerged didn’t get far.

The wife wanted to get a man in; it’s fairly cheap, but far less fun.

Hornet/wasp nest pinata

You need to apply a protective layer of honey to your bare flesh and then shout psalms at them while hitting the nest with the tube from some clingfilm/foil or similar. Take some atropine and adrenaline with you though, just in case.

Or start a rumour amongst them that the nest’s on the path of HS2.

My dad had a wasp nest in his loft a few years ago. The advice he got was to leave it, they die off over winter and the nest won’t be re enhabited so you can either leave it or remove it in the winter or just after. He did this and sure enough when he returned to the best after winter it was empty and uninhabited.

My dad had a wasp nest in his loft a few years ago. The advice he got was to leave it, they die off over winter and the nest won’t be re enhabited so you can either leave it or remove it in the winter or just after. He did this and sure enough when he returned to the best after winter it was empty and uninhabited.

Not always – the queen hibernates but doesn’t always die over the winter. If the queen survives they tend to come back and make another one nearby – that’s certainly my experience.

I had a bloke in from the council to kill the inhabitants of mine in the loft. I’m pretty sure it was free. He reckoned it was better to leave the nest in situ – maybe it serves as a warning to future wasps, like hanging moles on the barbed wire or something. Anyway, I removed it a couple of years later when fresh loft insulation went in.

Ooh, Ooh, Ooh. I know…Hoof it in the slats.

You know, roof, slats, you know? No?

1) Go into the loft. Stab at it with a big stick quickly. Withdraw from loft at pace and pull lid back.
2) Same as the first option but rather than use a stick, just chuck half a brick on it.
3) Cover myself up and pour boiling water on it and accept I’ll get a bit stung
4) Get some squirty stuff? If so is there a good type?

1, 2 or 3 will definitely, definitely, definitely destroy the nest. We’d like to see it on video too, please.

or, try 4 with some

I believe the approved method involves a velvet cusion and alot of confidence in your abilities.

A gentleman on here called tinners can advise