wasp nest

[ferret]

What is the best way to get rid of a wasp's nest.advise please

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

where is it - and what harm is it doing?

 

[ferret]

well i'm hopefully going to get my first hive tomorrow and its about 50 yrds away from where my hive will bee.

 

[abm]

half a tea spoon of bendiocarb placed in the sweet spot will do the trick nicely.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I just give them a good eigh to ten second blast with wasp foam spray right in the entrance at dusk on the few occasions I have been obliged to do the deed

 

[theboynelson]

Foam works well, or a good slosh of ant powder in the entrance does the trick for me

 

[kighill]

Wast nest

As above but please consider wearing protective equipment. I also advise washing your suit/jacket should you use chemicals whilst wearing it.

Good luck

 

[Gilberdyke John]

What is the best way to get rid of a wasp's nest.advise please

Red (or white if you're feeling generous to the chancellor) diesel generously squirted into the entrance/onto the nest if exposed. Retire from the scene and within a short period the wasp's will be ex wasp's.

 

[Karol]

There are times that a wasp nest has to be dealt with but I sometimes think we are too quick to yield the scythe. Treating a nest injudiciously can create more problems than it solves so a little caution is warranted.

First off, are the wasps in the nest still in the hunting phase of their life cycle? If they are then you need to be aware that a) they are doing a great job knocking back a myriad of insect pests that plague us in other ways b) whilst they are hunting they are unlikely to cause your bees any problems and c) if you treat the nest at this juncture whilst the wasps are in their hunting phase and you get the treatment wrong you will prematurely create sweet feeding nuisance wasps that are far more likely to attack your hive than they would if they continued with their hunting behaviour.

All adult wasps feed on carbohydrate liquids. The only thing that changes is the source of that carbohydrate. During the hunting phase wasps get their carbohydrates from their grubs within their nest. The grubs digest and convert insect skeletons into sugar which they feed to their adults.

Foraging wasps will not re-enter their nest unless they receive permission from their sentries to do so. If you treat a wasp nest and kill the sentries then you will deny returning foraging wasps entry back into their nest and they will consequently be denied their source of carbohydrates from their grubs. Essentially this will force the displaced foraging wasps to find an alternative source of carbohydrates which could very well be your hive.

It may be better to wait therefore until there is evidence that the nest has entered its sweet feeding phase. This could buy your hive a few more weeks of peace. The sweet feeding phase happens after the sexual progeny has left and the old queen naturally stops laying eggs. At this point there ceases to be any grubs in the nest forcing the adult worker wasps to turn to alternative sweet foods such as fruit and unfortunately honey. Eradicating a nest at this time in its life cycle will minimize the risk of prematurely creating nuisance sweet feeding wasps and will also reduce the ecological impact of destroying the nest because it will allow the sexual progeny to survive to sustain future populations. Queen and drone wasps represent little threat if any to bee hives. It is the foraging nuisance worker wasps that do the damage and the interesting thing is that treating a nest during its sweet feeding phase will only serve to expedite the end of wasps that have naturally come to the end of the life cycle and are in terminal decline anyway.

If you do treat a nest then it is advisable to do so at the crack of dawn before the wasps start flying so as to catch the foragers whilst they are still in the nest. That way you will minimise the number of nuisance wasps that escape which represent a risk to your hive.

Please be aware that wasps are dangerous insects and are responsible for serious harm including fatalities. I always recommend that nests should be treated by professional pest controllers but being bee keepers you should be well versed in handling stinging insects. That said don't take unnecessary risks and wear your bee suit when treating wasp nests.

If you have a stent or stents fitted then please take extra care not to get stung. If you do get stung by a wasp then have a chat with your GP about Kounis III syndrome and the risk of the stent(s) clotting as a consequence of mast cell degranulation from mast cell degranulating peptide found in wasp venom. Your doctor may decide to adjust your antiplatelet/anticoagulant therapy for a while as a precaution. Don't be surprised if your GP hasn't heard of Kounis III - it's a bit of a specialist field.

Good luck with treating the nest.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Excellent post, Karol!

Just one thing. You say, "It may be better to wait therefore until there is evidence that the nest has entered its sweet feeding phase."


You tease!

What evidence do we need to look for?


Dusty

 

[Blue Spinnaker]

Very informative

 

[Karol]

<snip>

You tease!

What evidence do we need to look for?

Dusty

Ahhh! Now that's a question. Not so easy at the nest to the untrained eye:

There are two tale tell signs if you're monitoring the nest. The first is that foraging wasps cease to bring back bits of insect to the nest as there will be no grubs needing protein. The second is that you'll see an almost geometric increase in wasp traffic/activity at the nest which crescendos and then falls off. This mirrors the production of sexual progeny and the last of the workers and the need to feed them with protein. The crescendo then dies away once there are no more grubs to feed as foragers start looking for their carbohydrates from sources outside of the nest thereby spending more time away from the nest.

The above is quite difficult unless you have the time to monitor the nest on an on-going basis. A more generic but easier way is to just observe wasps generally to see if they are swarm feeding on sweet food sources. This isn't fool proof for each individual nest but works on a general level because by and large all nests mature at the same time. The spanner in the works here is if there is a proactive nest eradication programme on-going in your area which is generating lots of premature sweet feeding wasps. We often see this around visitor attractions where the attraction believes it needs to eradicate wasp nests early to prevent their wasp problem. If injudicious nest eradication is undertaken this only serves to make things worse by creating premature sweet feeding wasps thus unnecessarily bringing forward the 'wasp season'. Sadly we also see this with enthusiastic and dare I say it, slightly over zealous bee keepers who actively hunt out and destroy wasp nests in their area whilst wasps are still in the hunting phase of their life cycle.

There is no reason why any bee keeper should lose a single hive to wasps if they have a good understanding of integrated wasp management and use the proper techniques and tools. That said I am a strong advocate of utilising wasps to weed out weakened and diseased bee colonies to improve/maintain general bee health. Wasps that overpower a diseased colony will help contain the spread of the offending disease/affliction firstly by destroying the afflicted colony and secondly by preventing robbing bees getting accessed to potentially diseased honey.

 

[Finman]

What is the best way to get rid of a wasp's nest.advise please

Draw it into vacuum.