I got stung by a hornet once (not in UK), my whole arm swelled up for a couple of days from fingers to shoulder. Got the council to deal with that nest! But wasps and bees are easy enough, just be sensible, do it in the evening, give them a good killing with spray/powder/whatever works in the situation and don’t try any fancy stuff like carrying them out on cushions (WTF?)

I would always deal with a nest in the roof, you don’t really want them finding a a way into the living space…though I might wait until winter if there was no urgency. Had to kill both bee and wasp nests to get some roof painting done recently though.

Saw a few hornets in France, they’re proper badass. Well over an inch long, fast, and sound like a 16 year old on a scooter. I may have said a naughty word the first time one buzzed past my face.

I have to get rid of quite a few nests at work, you should try dusting one from 15m up in a cherry picker, there’s no where to run to and those machines move in slow motion when you want to go quick, at least that’s how it feels 😀 .

I have one in the secure bike shed. Decided to leave it in situ and have connected a loop of black 2mm wire around the top if it that’s connected to the collection of bike looks that’s secures the bikes.

I figure that as only I should be unlocking and moving the bikes and I know about it I will be fine. However if someone unauthorised should attempt to move the bikes, then…

Sorry, I know Tinners is Poster Du Jour on this thread, but,

you should try dusting one from 15m up in a cherry picker, there’s no where to run to and those machines move in slow motion when you want to go quick, at least that’s how it feels

… proper gave me the giggles. My brain played out a five minute situation comedy set piece in about three seconds. I had Del Boy in the basket with a can of RAID and a sieve over his face, Rodney in the cab yanking “RUN AWAAAAY” levers (*tdrrrrrrrrrr* *basket moves at snail’s pace away from a cloud of wasps* “you plonker!”), Uncle Albert on the ground with a soft cushion in one hand and a baseball mitt in the other.

Have you done the deed yet OP?

Have you done the deed yet OP?

D day tomorrow evening! Watch out for angry swarms of wasps in the South Lakes….

Got can of Digrain stuff, so powerful the can is supposed to have some recoil when you fire it! Knowing my luck though it’ll hit the nest and knock it onto the workbench where it will roll towards me and explode in a buzzing waspy mass.

Quite looking forward to it now 🙂

Done it several times.

Best done at night with contents of can fired through entrance to nest.

They tend to come out a bit dopey but as to speed of wasps on exit I am afraid I have made it a practice not to hang around with a speed gun but instead to make a strategic retreat returning later to put remains of nest in bin. Not been stung yet

surroundedbyhills – Member
Last year my somewhat dim neighbour came over to see me and said “I’ve got African bees in my hedge” We live in Central Scotland. anyway i said I’d go have a look and over we go. As I gingerly peer into the hedge to get a better look at what they are, she comes along side and boots the hedge, “See they are african bees!”

This had me in tears, what a ridiculously funny thing to do! Hahahah!

We had one underground near the chicken hut in the garden. Chickens never seemed bothered but one of the dogs sat near the entrance hole and tried to catch the angry feckers as they buzzed around her. The pup then got stung about 5 times, so we retreated indoors. Queue massive argument with missus, over how she wanted to kill it and I said leave it it ain’t doing much harm. In the end I said I’d sort it and put a handful of peanuts byt the entrance. Checked in morning and the badgers had sorted it out. Then queue second argument over inviting badgers in to garden with hens…

brokenbanjo – Member

Then queue second argument over inviting badgers in to garden with hens..

So you left out some raw meat, and the wolves took care of the badgers?

I wish! More an incredulous look and asking whether she honestly thought they weren’t there anyway. Glad I got out of that relationship, would sooner be with a wasp.

So you fed her to the badgers?

I have done 2 nests one in the eves so about 15 foot of the ground if that high don’t be a prat like me and climb a ladder to do it . Get someone in for something like that. other was above garage but massive. On both occasions they do come out remarkably quick . Keep well covered and best done after sunset . They do seem quiieter then. Will take a few attempts but the raid wasp nest killer is good from wilko.

Kids super soaker gun filled with washing up liquid. Fire the washing up liquid at the nest.

Wasps v’s meeee….. Sounds like a sky sports pay per view!

There was a video where a guy grabbed a wasp nest and ran past a metal bin full of lighter fluid.

Can’t find the link.

I have one in the secure bike shed. Decided to leave it in situ and have connected a loop of black 2mm wire around the top if it that’s connected to the collection of bike looks that’s secures the bikes.

Likes. But no good without webcam.

OP, the interweb awaits. Has the job been completed?
😐

I’m in the South Lakes, and did get mildly harrassed by a wasp last night. I can’t confirm if it was a newly-homeless wasp, but it did seem quite grumpy.

I hope there’s a video to come with the story. 😐

As I treated a wasps nest from safe distance of 8 meters this afternoon it got me thinking whether the OP has tackled his own nest problem yet. Or is he in hospital, on a drip and covered in wasp stings?

Well sorry to let you all down, I’m not posting this from my hospital bed with a head like the elephant man.

All quite boring really, went in Fri eve after a couple of beers, cleared my exit route of lawnmower and pointy tools which made them a bit grumpy so let them calm down while I had a third, then peeked in and they were all back in their little waspy beds.

Having had 3 beers and deciding I was invincible I couldn’t be bothered to start muffling myself up, and it was far too warm so dressed in highly protective shorts and t shirt I blasted them with my death in a can for the required 15 seconds, which does seem like ages when you’re expecting lots of wasps to come out. The buzzing got a bit louder and a few popped out at the end so I legged it and shut the shed door then went to tell the wife I was a proper man now I’d killed a wasps nest so would she like some loving from the hunky insect exterminator. Sadly my offer was turned down as she was too busy watching big brother and apparently I stank of fly spray.

Saturday morning I went in and poked it off the shed roof with a spade and chopped it open to see what’s inside. Luckily I chopped it with the even longer handled hoe as I can tell you, inside, we’re a lot of pretty pissed off wasps so I legged it back into the kitchen and left the grumpy things to fly off to pastures new. Maybe next time I’ll give it another spray before chopping it open. Pretty interesting inside though, loads of little compartments full of wasps in various stages of development.

I missed your post yesterday.
Beer, shorts and tee-shirt. Well done that man. 8)

Just read this as I am searching for a solution to an issue here.

I’ve recently taken on headship of an international school in Thailand, out in the countryside.

Along with the usual issues of snakes, foot long centipedes and stray dogs, I have discovered a large hornets nest at the top of our water tower.

Nest is around 25m+ up. There is no getting to it with a lift, highest local lift I can find is 15m.

We could leave it, but as I am a boarding school, and have fussy parents, if a bird attacks it, all hell will break loose.

I’m told this is the hornet that is it is

From a quick google.

Highly poisonous and can be fatal to kids. “I was stung by two, and it was literally as if I had received an electric shock and was thrown across the ground. 12 hours later, my arm was twice the size it should be and had to be lifted onto the steering wheel”

Options are being explored and these are, and will need to be carried out at night time:

1. Hire lift with cage, extend as far as possible, then use a long bamboo pole for the remaining 12m or so with flaming rag

Having looked at this, it is not a bad idea, as long as the bamboo pole doesn’t tip over the truck with the basket.

2. Leave it. Very tempting, but also aware of the issues if it goes wrong. I have a lock down procedure in place for the school, but I hadn’t considered using it for a hornet attack.

3. Set a large bin on fire and hope the smoke drifts up 25m and annoys them to move home.

3. Set a large bin on fire, shoot with catapult and watch angry hornets fly into the bin. Legend has it that a large nest can extinguish the flames.

4. Super soaker with insecticide, not sure if they go that far vs gravity.

If we come to a solution I will let you all know, will try and get a photo of it, although I am careful not to let parents see me staring up at it during working hours.

5. Get the professionals who no doubt scale the water tower every now and again to clean it out to come along and do some rope work so they can access it easily and deal with it ‘face to face’.

We looked into that.

Water tower has never been scaled to be cleaned or painted. Been there for 20 years. It’s just there for water pressure from the days when the supply wasn’t great in these parts.

The tower itself is about the width of a largeish tree. We considered the luberjack method of climbing up it, with the ropes around the outside, and got in the local tree guy, who does climb trees said no way far too smooth and he will just end up falling down.

We’re in Thailand, the safety thing here isn’t that high up on the agenda.

The other issue I noticed today, is that it is very near the powerline, so access is going to have to be from the other side on our neighbours land.

This is where it as the top of

That is is close up – about the size of a very large jackfruit

Get one of those helicopter drone things.

flaming arrow?

Flaming arrows were seriously considered but no one we know is that good a shot.

I knew when I moved from Mongolia to here I would find some new challenges but this one may have me beat

Ideal solution

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPR_oF8nKuo[/video]

I thought my helicopter idea was quite good 🙁 tie a flaming thing to it. Put a camera on too as would want to record the results.

I have your teaching schedule for the next week:
history – siege engines
CDT – building a trebuchet
PE – use of trebuchet followed by a cross-country run

Or mudshark’s idea…

I for one, await the results with interest quirrel

Only a few people know about it just now, and I hope it stays that way.

A discussion tonight was on mosquito foggers, and whether we could use one in a pipe.

If we use a basket, then 6″ x4m to 4″x4 2″x4 pipe should get us close enough to stick the fogger in the 6″ end.

It may on the other hand just make a direct route from the nest to us.

What the frank is a “jackfruit”?

What the frank is a “jackfruit”?

It’s a fruit, about the size of that hornets nest. A bit like a durian.

A jackfruit is one of these – grow to around 5kg or more for a big one

Good rule of thumb is to not park your car under a jack fruit tree

Random one from Google

Have just thought that maybe ice cubes of insecticide sling shotted at it might work, as long as they penetrate the nest

<vege tree hugging mode> Assume you can’t just leave them?
<forumite contributor mode> What do they eat? Can you lace some jam / schollchildren / whatever with hornet poison?

That is what we are doing just now while we explore options, leaving them, not covering kids in jam.

The issue comes if something goes wrong, and they swarm, be it a bird strike, weather related, gardener decides to shoot at them.

From my understanding they prefer living high up, don’t come down if they can help it, but when they do in a rage, they will attack until dead.

Why can it not just be in a tree like any normal nest. Then I can just give the gardeners a bottle of whisky and set them off getting them.

It’s going to cost me several bottles this, and some money changing hands somewhere along the line.