Wasp nest

[Sam]

Yes totally correct, usenet qualification grade A+, well done that man! (wtf?)

Sam

[Seri]

Nick, if this is the first time you've had them (bearing in mind that I don't have the first clue how long you've been in your current house), then the chances are you won't see them that frequently. For some reason in my house we used to have them as far too frequent guest, but the filling of some old crumbled mortar has evicted them from their old summer holiday home.

Personally, check back when the weather gets warmer and see if there's the beginning of a new nest (it will be a very small little paper mache ball), if there is then perhaps investigate some of the various chemical solutions. Generally, the nest you have there now will be last years nest and will be completely vacant. Follow the other posters advice and remove it with a thick plastic bag and if you're really worried then freeze it over night,

If there's no new nests over this summer then to be it's probably easiest to just forget about them and check back each year. Hope this is of some help.

Seri

[Mike Hibbert]

Well, I would have thought it would have been useful to have understood what Sam was saying. If it wasn't, then surely the OP could have pointed that out rather than you. Seems to me like you enjoy picking fights.

[T i m]

Ah, but dogs don't climb into yer beer can when you aren't looking do they Mary? ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[Mary Fisher]

I don't drink beer from cans. Wasps can be rescued from glasses :-)

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I have the same condition. But I continued to keep bees until my arthritis made it unsafe (for the bees) and I still remove swarms of bees and wasp nests from properties when there isn't another option.

a) knowing about what you're dealing with makes it safe - most of us drive cars which can be lethal. In UK more people die as a result of vehicle accidents in one week than die of all stings and bites from all sources in one year.

b) the removal of one nest has a minuscule affect on the number of stinging and biting insects around us.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

These large wasps are hibernating queens. They might or might not have originated from the nest in your house - or from another you don't know about :-) They usually fly some distance from their nest to hibernate though. They stir on warm days or when disturbed.

Queen wasps rarely sting. They do if they feel threatened though. I was stung by one once which was snug in a finger of a gardening glove. If I were roused from a deep sleep I might defend myself from a perceived threat too.

As the colony progresses the successive generations of worker wasps are smaller than they are at the beginning of the season, there's less food for them because of the diminishing number of adults to feed them. So the big ones you see in winter months are always queens and not leftovers. Single wasps, apart from queens, can't survive for long without the rest of the colony, that's one of the definitions of 'social' insects.

It's true that in warmer climes social wasp colonies do survive the winter, the nests become very large and the occupants, by sheer numbers, are definitely pests. This has happened in some parts of Australia and New Zealand and it's a problem. But unless global warming speeds up hugely it's not going to happen here in our lifetimes. The north/south divide doesn't favour wasps in this country. Yet.

Perhaps we should all try harder to prevent global warming if only on that count?

By the way, the social wasp is not native to Australasia. It was taken, like the rabbit, by the greatest threat to Earth there is - Man.

Some you win ...

Mary

[graham]

Do as I did.

Get a large black bin liner. Pull it up over the nest from the bottom. Holding onto the side of the bag, clamp the top of the nest with your hand and it should drop into the black bag.

Tie a knott in the top and stick it in the freezer for 24 hours. Anything that was in it and is still alive will be dead.

Graham

[Stefek Zaba]

Possibly a bit *too* rough ;-) I think of a rooftile as being about a foot square; let's halve that to (over-)allow for overlap. Your palace then has a roof area of 65,000 square feet - let's see, 80x80 is 6,400, which would be a large-but-possible house (say a 20x20 yard footprint, wot with the roof being sloped), but 65,000 would be square-root-of-10 bigger on each side, so maybe 60-70 yards square. A not insubstantial building plot, but house-wise getting on for Footballer's Wives territory ;-)

[Andrew Chesters]

Sounds like T i m has never met a Spaniel. ;-) Oh, and BTW I still like them much more than wasps. They WILL be first against the wall come the revolution.

[T i m]

I've met a few me ol'e cocker! My mate just lost his springer .. even at 15 odd it would still tear a beer can up in about 10 seconds (if you weren't looking!).

King Charles (dog) ears make good beer mats ;-) (come the revolution.

Not sure what you would shoot them with Andrew .. Deet in a water pistol I suppose ? (but don't let Mary see me type that!) .. Shhhh

Or, if wasps wan't my beer so much (and we aren't fancy like Mary and all posh using (affording?) 'glasses' for our beer) let them finish my Special Brew, when they are all drunk give them a kebab and whisk them round to Mary's house!

All the best ..

T i m

[Mary Fisher]

Oh, poor dogs! I don't dislike them as much as that.

I don't know what Deet is, is it a canicide?

It's not a matter of being posh or affording.

a) we rarely drink beer, when I do it's not canned but bottled and I like to enjoy the colour through a clear glass.

b) the few times we drink beer it's with a meal. I wouldn't serve beer or wine in a can at our table.

But if you want to do it that's up to you.

If you drink things which wasps like you deserve what you get!

Mary

[T i m]

Drunk?

T i m ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

Quite.

[Dave]

What does that mean Mary?

Dave

[Nick]

This is an 'L' shaped late tudor building. The roof tiles are of the peg variety and are approx. 9" wide x 12" long. The size varies as these are hand made tiles. The outer walls of the 'L' are approx. 240ft x 200. The rough calculation given by me was provided by the best roofer I have ever come across. Oh & by the way, the adjoining barns have approx. twice as many tiles; IIRC overlap of tiles is 3/1. You obviously like figures ~ go figure!

As you say a not insubstantial building plot but it is not a palace, maintainance costs are huge. You are most welcome to the footballers' wives.

[Mary Fisher]

Insect orders are defined by their wing structure (ptera). For instance, flies are diptera - they have two wings. Think of pteradactyl - the flying dinosaurs, not insects but an example of the use of 'ptera'..

Hymenoptera include bees, ants and wasps, among others. In this case the 'hymen' element refers to its original meaning of membrane - very thin skin. Wasps wings are so thin that they're transparent, as are those of bees and ants.

Do a Google, I'm sure there'll be lots of information. There's a huge body of research on the subject.

Mary

[Stefek Zaba]

I'll believe your roofer's guesstimate - here's me taking 'typical semi or detached' as my model, while you're tending a place of rather more substantial dimensions. That'll keep you busy indefinitely, I'd've thought - good luck!

[Andy Clews]

Thus spake Mary Fisher unto the assembled multitudes:

Ooh! Ouch. I bet that hurt. I almost felt the pain just reading that.

[Mary Fisher]

It did. But if someone had muscled in on me when I'd been having a nice long deep sleep I might have responded with whatever weapon I had to hand.

Mary