Just discovered lots of wasp coming in and out of one of the my air bricks. Must be a nest.
Can I sort this out myself or do I need the professionals?
The internal side of the air brick is accessible, but crawling space only, and no chance of getting out in a hurry!
Already rang some pest control people, quotes seem a bit steep to me.
Any advice most appreciated.
Thanks,
John
You could try blowing some Derris dust into the air brick when the wasps are not very active. I've done this successfully, it probably needs the nest to be quite near the entrance for it to work though.
I think it was Derris dust, fine white powder used in the garden, not sure what else it's meant for though!
I cured wasps starting up in a roof once, don't know if it was just a fluke or a clever idea.
Pick a sunny day and wait until most of the wasps have left home, nip up to the outside of the air brick and paint it with something pungent ( I used creosote). Confuses the hell out of the returning wasps and most of them can't work out where to re-enter the roof space.
Is it a problem? Are the wasps getting into the house from the nest position? Is their external flight path likely to result in people getting stung? If they're not really causing a problem, let them bee (sorry, wasp!) - and remove the nest when they vacate it in the autumn.
If you want to deal with it now, you'll have to put a can of wasp nest destroyer in the nest entrance (not the airbrick) - for which you'll have to crawl inside the roofspace or whatever where the nest is. This is best done at night, when they are inside, working by torchlight (you, not them!). If you get the powder in the right place, they will carry it into the nest and all die - including the queen. When they are all dead, you can scrape the nest into a bin bag, and get rid of it.
Alternatively, contact the Environmental Health department at your local council. They may be able to help. You will have to pay (unless you are in receipt of various benefits) but they are likely to be cheaper than private contractors.
Get some wasps nest powder from a garden centre or one of the sheds. Puff the powder into the airbrick.
(ducks incoming comments from bleeding hearts (well, all but one of them who won't be reading this))
Local council will help you out..much cheaper.
sPoNiX
Here here, (or is it hear hear, I can never remember?). As I have said in a separate thread, I have rather changed my views on this subject.
This stuff does work very well indeed, I can confirm. You should be safe enough in the dead of night, when the little yellow-jacketed beasties are tucked up in their beds.
...but, if they aren't causing a problem, then don't fix 'em!
Rick
In message , John Smith writes
Being PC are they a serious risk? If no then let Gods creatures live.
If they are a serious problem then try the council, I had a nest in a remote radio site a few years back and the police engineers refused to go in until we cleared it (!). The council contractors gave the entrance one very quick squirt with a fluid from an aerosol can and the wasps outside that came in contact with it literally dropped dead, no screaming or running around, just fell to the floor. Those inside were never seen again. They charged £40 for this service about 3 years ago.
As it is an air brick I wonder if there could be some concern that they have blocked the air supply and the nest will need removing when it is finished with?
Tongue-in-cheek no doubt, but I'll take the (poisoned?) bait and say that I think there is a distinction between loving something, and merely tolerating it if it doesn't cause you any harm. Actually, I positively dislike wasps, (we used to call 'em "jaspers" when I was a lad at primary school), but I've sort of entered into a truce with them!
Rick
(Lucky Mary's on her hols or you'd be getting an earful now...)
Have you tried ringing the council? Some will do wasp nests for free if they are in your home - sounds like yours is.
David
Buy some "Murphy Wasp Nest Destroyer" - it's a powder in a puffer and puff it vigorously into the air brick *in* *the* *evening* when the wasps are in the nest and quiet.
Do this for 2 or 3 days on the trot. Problem solved.
Try one of the aerosol nest killers on the market eg RAID/NIPPON; these give you a distance of about 3m to stand from. Apply early evening when theyre gathering or early morning.
IMHO people generally only get stung by wasps because they react so stupidly to their precense. Wasps curious animals, they like to investigate things, if you ignore them they'll get bored fly off to somewhere more interesting. But make yourself interesting by screaming and shouting and flapping your arms about...
Hear, hear (as in listen to what that person is saying).
If they are a real problem, not just a panic induced percieved one, then try to get an insecticide based on pyrethrum, it's pretty much instant knock down (I suspect the instant sprays mentioned elsewhere are pyrethrum based) and degrades in the enviroment very quickly. It's also a natural product from a species of Chrysanthemum.
Do bear in mind that wasps are predators and eat quite a range of other garden pests, so they will be doing quite a lot of "good" in the garden.
I can live with them too, but at the time of the aforementioned nest, I had two young children and their mother wasn't putting up with any crap from me or the little yellow-and-black guys. So we called in Rentokil (the council had a fair backlog and were only about a fiver cheaper anyway).
They're a total pain in the arse come the back end of summer, mind you.
In article , Dave Liquorice writes
That's the line I spun my sister when we were kids and a wasp flew into the car, I told her to stay still, to ignore it and it would get bored and fly away - you do know what happened next, don't you >:-?
Still makes me laugh . . . .
Another sure fire way to get them to sting you is one I found to my cost when I was much younger.... sit on an old tree stump without realising that there is actually a wasp's nest in it!!! I have never before or after moved so quickly (once I realised what the acute pain in my arse actually was)...
Other thing is that I think wasps tend to have two distinct flight paths into and out of the nest. You can stand out of the flight path and be left alone, but if you're in the path you're liable to be stung.
Instant knock-down and kill is pretty important with wasps nests. If you use a normal fly spray then you can quickly end up with a lot of dying wasps crawling around the place, just waiting to be stood on by children, in which case they'll sting (quite understandably).
Quite. Especially in the early part of the season. However, late summer/early autumn they're mostly interested in sugars from fruit & seem to sting much more readily, I find.
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
Thats because they get pissed on the natural alcohol in the rotting fruit...
binge drinking and trouble causing then! yer typical Brit wasp.....
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
I used two cans of this stuff and it didn't work. The powder stuff worked first time.
MBQ
Not always.
Our council just arranges a call from a local pest control firm. The guy who came out to clear a wasp nest wasn't allowed to tell us directly (due to their contract with the council) but a nod and a wink made it quite clear that it would be cheaper to call them direct if we needed them again. The council were obviously taking a cut.
MBQ
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