As in the heading. BBQ soon including a number of children in garden where I get pestered by wasps whenever I go out to do anything. I have heard that Bounce sheets as put in tumble driers help repel them.
Anyone got any (sensible)suggestions. Not sure my angle grinder, WD40 etc will help much?
What is attracting them? Particular flowers (cut 'em down!), windfall fruit (pick it up!), your sweet smelling aroma (don't wash for a week....)
Or is there a nest which you can track down and deal with at source.
Matt
Don't worry about it. The rain will keep them away.
Wasp traps. Take an empty jam jar (helps if there's still traces of jam in it - saves washing it up.) Drill a 7mm or so hole in the lid. Add a dessertspoonful of sugar and enough water to fill the jar about a third full. (Helps if you use warm water). Hang the jar somewhere where wasps are common - in the sun seems to be good.
I've killed about 1.5 pints of wasps like this so far this year. We have a nest somewhere in the garden, or nearby, which I cannot find.
Thanks for the replies so far.
Very few flowers in the garden.
No obvious nests in the area but certainly more wasps than usual.
I eat heaps of garlic. Perhaps if I go to the gym first to sweat some out.
Haven't got any jam but have seen beer traps work well. As long as they aren't drowning in my pints!
Rain is allegedly going to reduce or disappear by Sunday.
even better, get a 500ml tub of cottage cheese, use 95% of it, keep the rest warm till it goes a bit pongy. In the garden this will fill up with flies and wasps rapido.
rusty
Early in the season, wasps get sweetness from wasp grubs in the wasp nest, in return for feeding the grubs with caterpillars, insects etc. In late summer/autumn, the nests are coming to an end so no more grubs, and the wasps look for sources of sweetness elsewhere. The best way to avoid them when having your BBQ is not to have sweet foods spread around to attract them.
Never really repelled children in my experience although they do find the clean smell makes them feel a bit ill. .
May well repel me though. My tubes do not get on with polish or most parfums so our house is pretty much fragrance free.
As a combo measure, place sweet stuff in traps in a quiet part of the garden and serve only sugar free drinks to the kids.
Does the method somehow exclude bumble bees (are they too fat to go through the hole), honey bees and other harmless insects?
Kostas
I don't think bees go for that stuff.
WD40 will in fact work - it makes a decent flamethrower!
SteveW
My old blow lamp was a brilliant flame thrower if the fuel was not warmed and did not vaporise
They do occasionally, especially when the mix is 'fresh', a slug of vinegar in my wasp traps tends to keep my bees away.
Yes. I've never caught a bee, bumble or otherwise. Occasionally, I catch flies, but I don't care about them.
Make a fake wasp's nest. Wasps avoid other nests and never reuse them.
In message , Mark writes
I believe they are also not supposed to make a new nest in close proximity to an old nest (although maybe the wasps haven't read that rule).
However, I suspect that there may be more to not using an old nest than the looks of it. It may be more the smell of it (but I haven't checked this). If so, a fake nest would not work. But if anyone wants a real (old) one, I have one in my garden shed (albeit contaminated with the smell of wasp killer aerosol spray plus dead wasps).
If you think this is done in the insect world by looks alone then you are sadly mistaken, Smell is everything. It might be visually the most perfect reproduction of a wasp nest known to man but if it doesn't smell right then it's not going to work.
An existing abandoned / poisoned nest chopped out and positioned nearby might work although I doubt it as I've seen wasps nests built within a few feet of existing ones.
In my experiece wasps have used the same nest year after year until it was about eight feet long. They were so determined to return that they attempted to chew through the UPVC that I used to block their way in. As this is in Surrey perhaps the wasps are very conservative too, Robbie> --
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