Wasp Nest! Help!

[Roxy]

I just looked outside the window of our 2nd bedroom and there are wasps busy building a nest on the underside of the patio roof.

Firstly - I don't want to kill them or destroy their home.

Secondly - I am shit scared of being stung by these things!

If I leave them alone, will they bother me? Is there anything else, I can/should do?

[tails4wagging]

You need to get rid of them now before they complete their nest. I dont think these pest control folks kill them just smoke them out I think?.

I know its horrid but they can be dangerous left to their own devices!!.

[Roxy]

Do you know how they smoke them out? Getting a professional pest control sounds expensive.

[FR]

They are not going to sting you, they will go about their own business. Just think, It'll be interesting looking at them through your window this summer.

[Roxy]

Yes, will they go elsewhere in winter? I expect so. I could remove their nest then.

[FR]

Yes, will they go elsewhere in winter? I expect so. I could remove their nest then.

Some may hibernate. I'd look that up. Yeah, then you could remove it if they die off or leave.

[Roxy]

Righto - thanks for the info.

[spiralannie]

dear me.

there was a mama wasp that began building a nest right in my bedroom window. i've got one irrationally strong fear of wasps, bees, and other striped buzzers, so my girlfriend helped me jimmy the window enough so that the startings of the nest would drop and mama would go roost elsewhere.. (gawd, she was so livid that she buzzed up against the window for a good five minutes. i could just hear her snapping her little fingers going "oh no you di-unt beeeitch"..)

anyhow, she decided instead to make her home inside my roof (apparently there was a hole...) my room's in the attic, and i'm out on my roof just about every day in the summer. this is not good. the two of us already don't get along, i don't think we can cohabitate.

any way i can discourage her from sticking around without hurting her or her family? are there essential oils or plants that wasps generally just can't stand?

suggestions are very very much appreciated! thanks!

[Roxy]

I was afraid last year when I noticed the wasps building a nest outside our window. I ended up leaving them alone, and we now have a mutual respect. They don't bother me and I don't bother them. I left their nest up all through the winter and now it's spring, they're back again.

[spiralannie]

really, they didn't bother you at all? that's heartening! my only worry is that i often have friends over for lunches and dinners on my roof, and food often proves too tempting for wasps and bees and buzzers.

[gogs67]

I was afraid last year when I noticed the wasps building a nest outside our window. I ended up leaving them alone, and we now have a mutual respect. They don't bother me and I don't bother them. I left their nest up all through the winter and now it's spring, they're back again.

The nest will just get bigger and bigger every year,I know from experience!

[veganwitch]

A wasp started building a nest right above our front door near the door jamb (silly wasp) . My huband had to move it because either the wasp would have gotten smooshed by the door or the nest would have gotten knoocked down one of the times we opened or closed the door. I felt bad it had to be moved but would have felt worse if we had hurt it later.

[Roxy]

The nest will just get bigger and bigger every year,I know from experience!

Really?

So far it doesn't seem any bigger, but maybe in the summer it will. If it does, I really might have to think about removing it during the winter.

[dresdown]

I set my self all kinds of different challenges some being turning my mind off and having a needle put through my back and out the other side. and also holding my breath for getting on for 4 mins but I want to do 8.30 sec, and the next thing i want to do is get stung by a wasp i want to get it put it on my arm let it sting me then set it free if you don’t experience it once you will never know what its like

[Roxy]

Ok then.

You are quite the curious person! I would prefer not to know what a wasp sting feels like.

I had once hear that a bee dies after it stings a person. Does anyone know if this is true and does the same thing go for wasps?

[Smoothie]

i think it is the wasps, not the bees, that dies after it stings?

[gogs67]

A bee can only sting once and then dies,hence the reason a bee will rarely sting.A wasp,however,can sting as often as it wants giving them reason to be more aggressive,although the venom runs out after the 4th or 5th sting until it's body can replace it.I know this from experience having been stung multiple times on my eye when i was on a motorbike one time!

[Smoothie]

haha that's a reliable source, i'd say

[Klutz]

When I was a child, a wasp stung me INSIDE my ear. I'll never forget that. About a year later, a bee stung me on my foot and my leg swelled up until the skin started splitting. (We had no insurance or money for doctors back then.) It took weeks until I could walk again as even the pressure of cloth touching my skin was agony...certainly couldn't put any weight on that leg. I've been scared to death of bees and wasps ever since. If one flies in the classroom, it's all I can do to restrain myself from running out of the classroom ahead of the kids. We all leave as once they are in the classroom, they are angry. Then, the business manager either tries to shoo them out the window, or if they are very aggressive, just kills them. I try to feel no guilt over this. In the end, if it's between me, 16 terrified children, and a wasp or bee, the wasp or bee is going to lose every single time.

[dresdown]

Klutz

You are running from them and i am running towards them to have the experience

How crazy

[xwitchymagicx]

^^ I'm guessing your allergic to their stings then.

I'd probably have to get rid of a wasps nest as wasps seem evil and seem to like following me around so they can sting me!

[xwitchymagicx]

i could just hear her snapping her little fingers going "oh no you di-unt beeeitch"..)

lol

[Roxy]

Gogs being stung in the eye How horrific.

And that's a horrible story Klutz, about being stung inside the ear and also what happened to you when you were stung by the bee. They both must've been extremely painful!

[gogs67]

I have no problem with bees,in fact when i'm doing gardening work it can be a bit of a task stopping the lawn mower constantly to move a bee over a few feet .Wasp's,however,are another matter and i hate working close by to a wasps nest,especially cutting heges etc when the first thing you know is a stream of them flying out round your head intent on causing damage.I've had to jump of a few ladders in my time to escape,which can be rather dangerous.The problem with swatting a wasp near it's nest is that it's body gives off a warning pherenome on death that attracts others to come and attack,not pleasant at all!
Bees don't seem to react in this way at all although we don't have the Africanized Honey bee in Britain,thankfully.A colony of them near your house can be a threat to life but ,as a vegan,i'd find it very hard to destroy it.Thankfully i don't have that ethical dilema!

[feral]

Oh goggs I got stung in the tear-duct as a kid, I can still remember the bloody thing flying into my eye and the look of horror on my poor mum's face when she looked at the damage that it did (elephant child lol). I didn't know about the pheromone thing, that's a bit scary. Our neighbour has a tree and for a week or so every year it gets swamped by hundreds of wasps, makes me nervous being out in the garden when they're all there.
I have lavender in the garden set at head height by the chairs so I can talk to the bees when they visit lol

[gogs67]

What kind of tree?Fruit?I know cottoneaster can attract wasps by the bucketload and is best avoided but if it's in your neighbours there's not much you can do!

[feral]

I don't think it's a fruit tree, I've never noticed any fruit on it. It has thick foliage and has a small white flower, it seems to attract the wasps and other flying insects for about a two week period then the leave it alone. It's not so bad as it's round the side of the house but I keep an eye on my cats when they're out in their run just incase.

[Pilaf]

i think it is the wasps, not the bees, that dies after it stings?

Wasps can sting repeatedly, and will, especially red wasps as they are highly territorial.

I don't consider myself fully vegan yet in that I don't consider them to be animals, mostly because they've assaulted me so many times. I regard them as little red demons who torment me during yard work, and I kill them. I'm not proud, just stating a fact.


I can't get to their nests to remove them in the winter, as they build them up between the tin in my roof and my attic where I can't reach them. My only option is to gas them out to save my skin (literally.)

But if I thought I could remove them in a non lethal way I'd try.

[feral]

I don't consider myself fully vegan yet in that I don't consider them to be animals, mostly because they've assaulted me so many times.

Strange, I've been scratched by cats, bit by dogs, rammed by cows and stood on by horses yet I consider them to be animals.

[gogs67]

That was harsh considering the context of Pilaf's statement! I think he feels guilty as it is.

[feral]

Hmmmmm I'm not sure I agree with you gogs . I wouldn't actually condem anyone for killing wasps that are being a threat to them but I do find it strange logic to define someing as non animal because it is a threat. Most animals are a threat, even the domesticated ones have been known to maul & kill.

[gogs67]

I think you're talking his statement too literally there feral.I'm sure he's only using the 'non animal' reference as some kind of self justification for the fact that he has to kill them sometimes,in an almost tongue in cheek way.Much the same as i don't really think Pilaf believes that he is actually being chased around the yard by 'little red devils'.

[feral]

He might be seeing little red devils gogs, he could be an Evangelist or a coked up crack whore

[dresdown]

Any killing is wrong don't you think each one of them is a individual? So what if you have been stung, doesn’t mean you have to hate them all. if you got bit my a dog or beat up by a human does that mean you would feel the same way?

Killing is wrong

[gogs67]

haha,never thought of that.Put me in mind of the episode of 'the twighlight zone' where the guy on the plane keeps seeing a gremlin thing pulling bits off but no one will believe him.Maybe poor Pilaf has to go into work every day and see little devils flying about but has given up trying to convince workmates that they are real!
(Have i taken this too far? )

[feral]

Possibly lol

[herbwormwood]

Are you sure they are wasps, many buzzers look similar
http://pollinator.com/identify/whatsbuzzin.htm

http://www.greensmiths.com/bees.htm

is also useful for identifying them and how to deal with them, and some really interesting info on their place in the world

[gogs67]

I was wondering why these sites were talking like to a child then i saw this bit "In parts of the United States, particularly in the eastern states, yellowjackets, wasps, hornets and bees are all called bees by the general public."

Luckily in Europe and the UK people are more educated when it comes to identifying bees and wasps!Well,i hope so anyway

[soyabean]

I lived in a flat and one year wasps built a nest under the roof right outside the front door, so everyday you had to get through a swarm of wasps to get in our out. I used to hate it, I'm afraid of being stung, and more importantly I was afraid of our two cats getting stung - even though it not hard for a person to avoid beign stung as long as you don't annoy the wasps, accidentally sit on one etc - out cats would instinctively chase them, try to catch them etc.
I try to respect the life of wasps, but the fear of gettign stung combined with many years ago, my parents had a lovely dog who got attacked by wasps in the woods and could easily have died if she'd had only a few more stings, I do find it hard not to dislike them. I know that's irrational - it's not wasps' fault that they evolved with stings and the behaviour of using them to attack anything they see as a threat etc.
Anyway, one day we came home to find that somebody (presumably the landlord who had been visiting the flat downstairs he owned) had put some white powder all around the entrance to the wasp nest and killed them.

If i get wasps coming into the house where i live now, i carefully shoo them out the window, or catch them with a glass and card and take them outside - but i still can't help disliking them a bit

[Risker]

Just found this;

Wasps
A favourite place for wasps to set up home is in the loft or shed. Simply placing a dish filled with water and ammonia can keep wasps at bay.

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign...e/visitors.htm

[Tromaville]

Wasps may sting towards the Autumn time. During spring and through most of the summer they tend to be less up for aggro. If the nest is in the eaves then once it dies just leave the nest, wasps don't re-inhabit the same nest they prefer to build new one each year so leaving nest deters em from building there again.

I had a wasps nest in the cavity behind my pantry they were geting in from outside through one of the air bricks so I just sealed up the pantry door and they couldn't get into the kitchen no more but still were coming in and out of the air brick to outside world but generally left me alone so I left them alone.

In the end I only had to kill 2 of them this was towards mid september and these 2 just kept attacking me and guests whenever we went into toilet so I saw that as self defence (one of visitors has anaphylactic shock due to stings in the past so wasn't going to risk it with her around) . Not bad since there must have been hundreds in that nest through the year.

One other tip is don't leave rotting fruit around towards end of summer cos it seems to really attract wasps

Trom

[Roxy]

Thanks for those tips, Trom.

I just had another look at the wasps nest outside my window and it appears to have disintigrated to about half the size it was, this time last year. I did see some wasps buzzing around the nest earlier in the spring, but it appears to have been abandoned now.

[herbwormwood]

Roxy could you post a photo of the nest?