I got a local chap to come and exterminate a wasp nest this morning. The wasps had built a nest in the ground, but you couldn't see the entrance as they had tunnelled down through the undergrowth (which I can't cut away till they're gone).
The chap donned a bee suit, got a very long lance on a pressure sprayer and puffed loads of white powder into the tunnel. He reckoned they'd all be gone by later today, or tommorow at the latest.
What about the stragglers? They were out foraging when he was spraying the nest. Some are returning. What happens? Do they enter the tunnel, take a bite of some of the powder, and die? Or what?
He said if they haven't gone by Monday, give him a call and he'll come and do it again. But I really want to cut back the undergrowth so that I see the actual entrance. Yesterday I tried rapidly raking back the long grass around where they fly in and out, but that made 'em really angry and I got stung once on the wrist, despite wearing gloves and a thick jacket. (Should have put the sleeves inside the gloves and secured with a rubber band.) That wasp sting was RUDDY painful and the pain lasted all day, easily 12 hours. It's subsided now though.
MM