OT - Bloody wasps!

they are not unwelcome, they are nice friendly useful things.

Well yes. Providing they nest in someone else's loft/soffit.

A down side to our new plastic windows is the rainwater drip which is arranged to form a channel at the bottom of the opener.

Opening a window now leaves a row of would be hibernators on the sill. A few wing flaps and they are in the room:-(

I dont think grouping them as "they" helps them interact with people. I think it's important to call them by name.

It's bound to start a relationship off on the wrong foot if your visitor is one of "them"

AB

Possibly more of them due to the hot spell this year. Personally I off them to reduce the chance that when they wake up next spring they build in the loft or something.

Not this year, but some years ago they were ending up in my bathroom and under the floor was a nest, worse they had made a hole through to next door and built an extension. Brian

Except when indoors and drowsy, when thy can be a hazard. Brian

Oddly enough we saw fewer wasps this year.

That said SWMBO was outside Friday, and saw a quite drowsy one bouncing around ....

Yes I think there were fewer wasps around this year. It probably made a difference that our present house doesn't have any fruit trees nearby, whereas our old one had plum tree, raspberry bushes, red/blackcurrant bushes etc.

Having said that, we did have a wasps' nest in the loft. Then we saw a lot of wasps! But that was the exception. Virtually none before or after that.

My wife is allergic to wasp stings, so I got the council pest-control guy out the following day and he squirted some fast-acting poison into the nest which he said might make them angry for a little while but they'd all be gone by the time my wife came home from work. And that's exactly how it happened - a lot of angry buzzing, a lot of wasps milling around outside the nest, and then nothing.

Yes we have them.

Bill

When I unintentionally parked the lawn mower over the wasps nest in the ground, so I could talk to the guy who'd just landed his glider in the field behind us (glider? WTF?), they seemed unbothered. I did however go back and put some readymix powder in the whole, then some water - it really cemented their friendship!

My opinion too - despite my house wall cavity being invaded.

But not drowsy enough not to want to sting you.

I have an old coat I use for gardening hanging outside in a covered alleyway - but because of the warm autumn, I haven't needed to put it on for some time. A couple of weeks ago, I had just got my first arm in when I felt a slight prick near my shoulder. Almost immediately I thought "Wasp!" - and sure enough, after I had ripped the coat off, a drowsy wasp fell to the ground. Of course, the wasp was only going what wasps do, and I now regret doing what humans do - ie I stamped on it.

"Friendly" is an oxymoron when used in connection with wasps. I'm quite happy to have bees around - they are far too busy to bother me. But wasps are another matter. From

They are a damn nuisance, and can be a dangerous one at that - particularly in a house. This is from

I've tolerated wasps building nests in our garden for the past four years, but no longer if they are entering the house (grandchildren playing). I seem to remember that you are in Oz, and with so many apparently lethal creatures around, maybe you are getting a bit forgetful of how many deaths wasp stings actually cause - far more than Funnel Webs, Redbacks, Box Jellyfish, and more than a few snakes which many are concerned about.

I played with a few at a outdoor wedding. Had a few dancing on my hands.

People stopped coming to talk to me... ;-(

Yes.

and with so many

In fact very few are

- far more than

Wrong.

Often a bit aggressive at this time of year. Surprised that the OP still has them.

Rather carelessly, I didn't make it clear that I was referring to UK-based incidence of wasp/bee sting mortality vs "other" sting/bite mortality in Australia. That paper you quoted clearly states that wasp/bee sting mortality /in Australia/ was very low, particularly when compared to other sting/bite mortality.

However, the picture appears to be changing with more recent data from

"A landmark national study by University of Melbourne researchers into deaths from venomous bites and stings has found that bee and wasp stings, which led to an allergic reaction and anaphylactic shock, were responsible for more than half of the 64 deaths over the 11-year period surveyed."

And the original article says that they only got 7 deaths in 30 years so most of the later ones are clearly bee stings.

Yes! Finally found the figures (25 bees, 2 wasps). See table here: