have a wasps nest in the loft (*very* inaccessible, so I won't consider getting myself trapped up there). They are getting in through a slight gap in the eaves just above our back patio door. I was going to leave it, but sitting outside last night, they appeared to be getting a little more interested in us ...
Having trawled uk.d-i-y I notice the most common advice is a powder to puff around the entrance, in the late evening. However, given I will have to puff *up* , is this going to work in this case ?
Is there some sort of nozzle/pipe I can get or make to puff the powder into the hole itself ? Would a few cans of RAID[1] do the trick instead ? Should I consider a foam instead ?
[1]In Africa, I noticed they called this "DOOM" which seemed more appropriate !
Wasps also like to build nest in - and around - my house. This year's was in the garden shed, but they were also trying the garage roof (under the tiles) and similarly in my neighbour's garage. In the past they've nested in the loft, in a clematis and in a rhododendron bush - and scariest of all, under the bedroom floorboards (and they all came out, and partially blocked out the light from the windows).
I would initially give the wasp entrance a really good hosing with Raid (or similar), and then use the puffer. There's a technique that needs to be learned for effective puffing. With one motion, swing the bottle so that you get some (not too much) powder is at the nozzle end, and as the nozzle reaches the entrance hole, puff! Hopefully, the wasps will carry the powder into the nest, and that will see off those inside.
If you have (even limited) access to the loft (say through a trapdoor), go armed with a can of Raid and some sheets of newspaper. Stick your head inside, and give the loft area a good spraying. Then spray loads of Raid onto some of the sheets of newspaper (soak them), crumple up the paper, and throw it into the corners of the loft (especially where the wasps are coming in). That should provide a reservoir of 'slow release' Raid. [At one time, every year, I used to put two or three 'sachets' of Vapona in my loft - to deter the wasps and the woodworm - but you can't get them now (EC rules, of course!]
With luck, you will have successfully killed off your wasps. However, keep an eye on things, and it might be wise to repeat the treatment - just to be sure.
We left the wasps nest under our eaves until a neighbour asked. It seems they were flying from the next into the local woods to go hunting, and a significant number were taking a wrong turning and ending up in their kids bedroom in the hot weather.
Despite the entrance being 6" from the patio door, which is left open most days, I haven't seen a wasp in the house yet. It is quite amazing, watching the entrance ... they zoom in apparently from nowhere, and land perfectly.
We sometimes get them: I always spray the nest (if it's anywhere where there would be a conflict between us and them). If you make life uncomfortable and kill a few dozen, the gang will go live somewhere else.
Do NOT "just leave it", as I once did: if they don't get harassed, then the nest will just grow .... faster and faster.
You can get various sorts of spray: one I use has quite a trajectory on it.
If they have a good source of food it will get *very* big. I had one in a loft once, didn't discover it until late summer. It was about 3' wide and filled the gap between underside of roof and ceiling of about 18"...
Ah but once they have abandoned it you carefully remove it and donate it to the local primary school for their "nature table". Maybe even do a bit of research and a short talk about wasps, the benefits they provide and marvel at the construction of the nest.
I'd leave a wasps nest alone unless the occupants became a serious problem, like too many getting into the house or the nest was too close to an area that needed to be used.
Have had to remove two in recent years,one in a garden shed and one in a loft . The loft one was right in an awkward place where it was too difficultly to get close to. Both nests were caught early and had were not much bigger than a large egg.
I used a wet and dry vacuum cleaner latish in the evening when most wasps were home. . The cleaner was first emptied and then a small quantity of diluted washing up liquid was put in the tank,this quickly foams up an ensures the wasps get wet and cannot fly out again or fly quickly when you empty it.
For the loft one I made a hose extension from a length of plastic waste pipe which reached into the corner where the nest was.
Technique was to gently push the tube till it was about a foot from the nest then turn on the cleaner,then push it up against the nest entrance where any emerging wasps were sucked in immediately. You can hear them bouncing along the tube,when most had stopped emerging the tube was pushed into the nest which was sucked up with any remaining wasps.
I emptied the cleaner at the end of the garden where any surviving wasps could dry off and fly away though I don't know if they can actually reestablish themselves or just become bird food. Rather not kill them unless I have to as they control other pests like flies, it's in late summer they can get awkward as insect larvae supplies get short and they start foraging on things like beer and sugar.
Yes it's the late summer when they are their greatest nuisance. The other negative thing to bear in mind is that wasps are physically stronger than honey bees and can sting with impunity, so they can be the bain of the beekeepers life, particularly if the hive isn't all that strong and has food in it. They will kill out a hive quite easily.
I've got a home made puffer thing that I load with the powder and stuff up the eaves so that they carry the powder into the nest. Never failed.
If we have wandered into general wasp nest stories:
My father's preferred technique for dealing with wasps' nests built in the soil in the garden was to tip a pint of liquid nitrogen in during the evening.
Do not use SMBO's technique: Dig it out with a fork at about 3pm on a hot sunny day.
Advise for a long and peaceful life: If your SMBO uses the above technique, do not say "Well what did you expect?" when they get stung.
We had a wasps' nest in a very inaccessible corner of the loft. I got some liquid aerosol wasp killer stuff which was designed to squirt in a long jet, I would guess around five metres or so. If you can stick your head though a trap door and see the nest with a torch you could use it. You need to wait until night time when they've all calmed down and gone to bed. It saturates the nest and for me worked perfectly.
Going in the loft is a no-no. Our bunglow is "L" shaped, with the hatch in the other leg of the "L" to the nest. The only way to get to that leg is to squeeze through a point where the corner of the "L" is formed, on your belly, being careful to hit the joists ...it's a very careful maneuver, not to be hurried.
IMO it would be madness to get myself trapped in a loft with a wasps nest, with no means of escape.
Hmmm. Sounds similar to the technique I used under similar weather conditions when I was a nine-year-old boy. Running through the wilderness area of a neighbour's garden, I saw what I thought was an old football in the long grass..
Ditto, but I'm not sure if they always do sting as I've seen them bite the abdomen (entire back end) off a returning forager that is resting on a hive roof or body, leaving the bee almost fully functional with all its legs and a head but about 1/3 the normal length. The bee seems to be unaware of the missing body parts. If it had been stung then I'd have expected some degree of paralysis.
Sometimes I've spent half an hour squishing the little bastards as soon as they appear near the hives.
We leave wasp-traps near our hives once they start robbing in late summer. A large plastic bottle with a flap cut about half way down, and a beer/jam mix catches hundreds of wasps but never bees.
But for much of spring and early summer wasps feed their young on garden pests so don't destroy them unless they are a nuisance.
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