Loft Alien Intruders

Elves. You've had elves. Definately.

Wasps nests can be golf ball size or less.

| > Just been up in the attic to put Xmas decorations back, spotted two = weird=20 | > "nest"? things hanging from the polystyrene insulation sheets between= the=20 | > wooden roof supports. | > Both were spherical, hanging down on a "stalk" about an inch long, = dark=20 | > grey in colour. | > One was the size of a cricket ball, the other half that size. |=20 | Elves. You've had elves. Definately.

Elves with black and yellow bodies? =20 Like any of these?

Wasp nest. A queen wasp has started a nest and not completed it for some reason. Most probably she met with an accident so the nest never got built any larger. Wasp nest do not get reoccupied the next year.

"Gripper" wrote

Wasps it is then. Thanks for all the replies. Tomorrow is 'clear-the-attic-of-some-of-the-crap' day, so maybe more will turn up. We do seem to have had more than our fair share of the critters over the years, which is galling as I hate the b*****ds. Maybe they're like cats and instinctively know to go for the humanoids that are afraid of them. Thinking of cat-sized wasps now. Bugger. Need G & T bye Neil

There'll almost certainly be a hibernating queen wasp inside each nest. They build these little chinese-lantern-like nests to hide in during the winter - and will emerge (unless you dispose of them in the meantime) in the spring, to start breeding again.

AFAIK the wasps just hibernate somewhere sheltered, and build up from new again "next year". If you see a new little ball of a nest in the season, that's the time to do something - in fact, when you gat biggish wasps early in the year buzzing about, then

I very much doubt that, given the cutbacks in the National Elf Service recently.

Dave

Surely that means that there are a lot of redundant elves around - which may well end up in attics!

If you listen carefully at night you might hear their cries,

"Little Tiny Issue, Help the Gnomeless"