Dealing with a wasps nest - not really bee related

[oliver90owner]

If they only have a single main entrance, I would cover the area with some plastic sheet leaving a small entrance. Once they are using that entrance, I would dose around the entry with foam wasp killer on a regular basis. Covering the entrance with loose material to retain foam would help. They will carry the insecticide into the nest. One needs more than one layer of protective clothing to guard against attacking wasps. A bee suit over thick jumpers/trousers is the order of the day. They don’t just sting once!

At this time of the year they are changing over to sugar feeding, so a sugary wasp trap, or three, could be very effective. Sugar-feeding wasps are no longer that useful as a pest remover from the garden.

If they are suger-feeding, they will likely only return to the nest later in the day?

RAB

 

[North End Bees]

Wasps are important pollinators, so if not causing a nuisance I'd let them be, if a nuisance I'd destroy them.

Could wait until evening when they are all in, smother the entrance and build a sizeable fire on top.

Do hope you don't apply the same retribution to nuisance neighbours

 

[Amari]

Very many .... Hang a Waspbane about 25-30 feet from where you are going to be eating and the problem is solved ... they much prefer the attractant in there to anything I've ever cooked ! Having said that we were eating in the garden yesterday and not a single wasp came near ... not been a bad year for them this year.

Yes, amazingly few wasps this year - so far. Yesterday, after extracting in the kitchen, I took some items of kit out onto the patio prior to cleaning them. Lunch was due so I covered them with a large sheet. An hour later I returned and found one item, which I'd failed to cover, absolutely thick with bees frantically licking off the honey. But not a wasp to be seen!
Last year was my worst wasp year for decades. Happily all my colonies seem to be much stronger this year than last, so better able to resist attack should it come.

 

[Sutty]

Do hope you don't apply the same retribution to nuisance neighbours

Maybe if I could get away with it!

 

[pargyle]

Are they actually worth the dosh ? I drilled holes in 2l bottle,added a can of lager mixed with sugar and caught hundreds of them !

It's not the ones you catch you have to worry about ... it's the ones that escape and go back to tell their mates where the source of food is that you need to be concerned about. You really need a high efficiency trap that prevents the wasps from leaving once they are in there and the waspbane (I've found) is the best of the lot ... not cheap .. but it works. I had a problem with wasps attacking two nucs in my apiary a few years ago and following the waspbane instructions with the waspbane trap solved the problem in no time. I'm sure cheaper or even home made traps are available ... but ... I know what worked for me.

Same thing with the fly problem when you keep hens - I've used the Red Top fly trap with complete success ... decided to be a cheapskate once year and bought the look-alike. Only did it once ! Nowhere near as effective ...

 

[ericbeaumont]

concerned for my family since it's in my garden compost heap and they're getting quite defensive to anyone who gets within 5 metres.

Better option is stay 5m away from the compost heap for another month. Granted, it means that for a brief period humans must subordinate their needs to nature...

Nobody been stung? Neighbours reported problems? If not, this need to destroy seems to be driven by a fear of what might happen than what has; some kill honey bees for the same reason.

You've obviously never had a barbacue

What do wasps do at a barbecue? The same as humans: eat food. Unless you drink one or sit on it, no real harm is done. Show the doubters by feeding a wasp from your hand.

 

[fizzle]

Any tips?

TIA

Start the lawnmower and push it over the entrance.

 

[hemo]

As Eric has said give them a wide berth unless you really have to be near them.

 

[Karol]

Better option is stay 5m away from the compost heap for another month. Granted, it means that for a brief period humans must subordinate their needs to nature...

Agree if the nest is not a direct threat to human health.

<snip>

What do wasps do at a barbecue? The same as humans: eat food. Unless you drink one or sit on it, no real harm is done. Show the doubters by feeding a wasp from your hand.

Wasps at a barbecue are a health hazard and a cavalier approach is not wise. Seen too many victims and wasps exact a massive toll on human health and NHS resources. If nuisance wasps around a barbecue are not managed it only takes a split second caught unawares for tragedy to strike and the list of potential health complications from a wasp sting doesn't bare thinking about and certainly doesn't bare taking unnecessary risks (it's about 1 in 125 stings that present with serious complications). Once worker wasps are sweet feeding they are naturally coming to the end of their time so there's no damage done to the species to remove such a risk.

 

[plain_hunt]

My solar wax extractor is a magnet for wasps this year. They've found a tiny gap and have robbed all the honey from it. I can see where they’re getting in, but not how! I’m going to try some strategic bits of stuff, and see which they remove.All I need now is a hot day and they will die. But at least they’ve left my hives alone, I just need to keep old honey in the SWE.
My wasp trap is also out and being well used in the garden. Having said that, it’s not as bad as last year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I took out a drone frame that the bees had made. The queen was still laying in it. It had about a quarter of the cells on one side laid up. I left it in the field shelter away from the apiary for half an hour and I came back to see five or six wasps pulling the larvae out of the capped cells

 

[bobba]

Wasps can be great pest controllers, they will eat all sorts, but they are just sugar junkies this time of year.

As others say, just leave then for a bit if possible.

But if you feel that's not an option, I would try blocking the entrance in the evening, then shoving a hose pipe in a soaking them. Once I have given the heap a good soak I wound give it a pounding with a big log to try crush the nest.

But dont put any nasty stuff on your compost heap!

I cleared a wasp nest from a neighbors spare room with a good old Henry hoover recently. Wasps attack in a different pattern to bees. But you will quickly get accustom to them.

Whatever you do, suit up, and keep you hover by the door incase there are any followers or clingers.

 

[Nannysbees]

Just afraid to say but at the moment definitely fewer wasps than last year, the ones in the traps are very small, a lot more last year!!

 

[drex]

Thank heavens I extracted most of my crop on Wednesday when it was cool and overcast. Few wasps about. Finished off yesterday when it was warm and sunny. Inundated with wasps even though in a bee tight room and boxes kept closed until being dealt with.

 

[ericbeaumont]

massive toll on human health and NHS resources

tragedy to strike and the list of potential health complications

These alarming possibilities apply equally to every human activity and could occur at any moment of every day of everybody's life, but usually they don't.

Risk assessment is better achieved from observation and experience; extrapolating disaster from a natural routine annual event is pushing it.

 

[Boston Bees]

wasps exact a massive toll on human health and NHS resources

Yeah .... it's a slaughter out there. I see maimed bodies on the streets regularly, and NHS wards closing due to being too full. When I ask what has happened, the answer is always the same - those damn wasps!

 

[Karol]

These alarming possibilities apply equally to every human activity and could occur at any moment of every day of everybody's life, but usually they don't.

Risk assessment is better achieved from observation and experience; extrapolating disaster from a natural routine annual event is pushing it.

Every individual has the right to live their life to the risk profile of their choosing. You can't die from sky diving if you don't jump out of aeroplanes. Similarly, you can't die of a mast cell mediated heart attack initiated from a wasp sting if you are not stung by a wasp. The way not to get stung by a wasp is not to have wasps in your immediate vicinity and not to take unnecessary risks. So for example, through correctly implementing integrated wasp management at one of the UK's premier visitor attractions the number of people reporting to their medical centre dropped from an average of 2000 plus per season (over a 6 - 8 week period based on weather) to less than 20 per annum and the number of anaphylaxis emergency airlift events dropped from circa 6 per annum to 0 per annum such that they haven't had to airlift a wasp sting anaphylaxis casualty for the past fifteen years.

So in this case I am talking from real life experience.

 

[Karol]

Yeah .... it's a slaughter out there. I see maimed bodies on the streets regularly, and NHS wards closing due to being too full. When I ask what has happened, the answer is always the same - those damn wasps!

It's about 5,000 hospitalisations per annum (mainly over a 6-8 week period) for various complications some more serious than others. Wasp sting induced delayed heart attacks potentially account for circa 1000 deaths per annum and circa 200,000 to 400,000 people seek medical attention at the primary care level for wasp stings.

Make light of it as you will but it is a bigger problem than people realise.

 

[Boston Bees]

It's about 5,000 hospitalisations per annum (mainly over a 6-8 week period) for various complications some more serious than others. Wasp sting induced delayed heart attacks potentially account for circa 1000 deaths per annum and circa 200,000 to 400,000 people seek medical attention at the primary care level for wasp stings.

Make light of it as you will but it is a bigger problem than people realise.

"Every year in the UK there are 2–9 deaths due to anaphylaxis from bee or wasp stings"

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

Any evidence for your c1,000 deaths and c5,000 hospitalisations figure?

 

[Sutty]

Fairly old BBC news article (2006) give hospitalisation rate of 843 for a year for bees wasps and hornets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5181266.stm