We have a very large wasps' nest inside the eaves of our roof - football size. (My question is at the end of this message.)
I've repeatedly sprayed it with the excellent Rentokil "Wasp Nest Destroyer", but inside the roof space I can can only see (and therefore spray) the inside half of it -- the rest is buried right into the eaves. I cannot get nearer to it than about 3 metres (and in any case I don't want to!).
I put up the ladders to the gutter, and tried to spray between the gaps in the tiles, where the buggers are getting in, but the spray clearly doesn't reach: they must have a walkway up to the nest,and the poisonous foam must be dissipating before hitting any part of the nest.
After a week of trying repeatedly (three cans of Destroyer used!), I've had to call quits.
My question: will winter kill this nest and all its inhabitants, or am I going to have to call an expert?
Wasps are not bees, which hibernate over winter. Wasps will die as winter arrives except for the new queens which will likely over-winter in your attic and then each establish a new nest next year. Wasps don't re-use nests. Old quuen dies too.
We had one in the garden plus one in the eaves, being dealt with by some local pest control klods. A few years back, we had one in an old shed that I was able to cover in the foam stuff. Dressed up like it was winter, edged in the door, and let fly with the spray can, which did for them.
Yes, the worker wasps will all die off (but not before partaking of your raspberry jam sandwiches), leaving only the young queens, who will fly off and find somewhere to hibernate over the winter (those underpants in the wardrobe), emerging in the spring to start new nests elsewhere, but not in that original football in your roof.
Spraying the outside of the football will achieve very little. You need to spray around the entry to the nest so that the wasps tramp through it and carry it deep into the nest, where it will get spread around and kill them all. If you can see from outside exactly where they are entering the roof space (quite possibly just one or two gaps under slates or tiles) and direct your spray there, that should get them. If you do it in the evening, most of them will be inside and won't bother you, and will pick up the poison next morning.
It is best to spray the entrance to the nest in the late evening when the wasps are in it. Of course, that is the most difficult time to see what you are doing!
Definitely inadvisable. If the wasps feel threatened they will attack en masse. Being up a ladder when they do is not the best place to be.
Wasps do not return to a nest they have made the previous year. A queen leaves to start a nest elsewhere. Any remaining wasps will die over winter.
Over the years we've seen so many wasps around the edges of our bungalow
- plus them sometimes sneaking in a crack - that we must have at least one nest a year. But it's never been a problem. Very occasionally we might have on persistent bugger in the evening when we're sitting outside with a drink. But if you can put up with that ...
That is certainly basically correct, but I have seen suggestions that where very large structures are found typically in places such as yours, they will repeatedly use a previous entrance and "route", building a new nest adjacent to a previous one. So once the season is over, I would be inclined to try to explore the entrance and perhaps remove any signs of their "walk-way" and all of the old nest(s). You probably won't be able to block off their entrance hole effectively but perhaps you could locate one of those "vapour" type loft insecticides just inside the entrance to discourage them from getting going. I suspect that, like ants, they have a good sense of "smell" and will be attracted to old wasp pathways.
Thats not "very large". "Very large" is what I found late in the year in a loft in Bristol. I'd gone up looking for something stored up there after thumping about for a bit I became aware of a strange rustley/scrapey/buzzy noise behind me. Turn round and shone the torch to reveal a wasps nest in the eaves, 3' wide and filling up 18" of gap from rafters to insulation. A few wasps crawling about it's surface then they started flying at me. I beat a *very* hasty retreat, Got some one it to deal with it, bee suit, long stick and squirty can of paraffin. Opened up the nest with stick liberaly squirted the nest and occupants with the paraffin and left. Did for 'em.
Next year I found a smaller nest earlier in the year (permethrin based wasp powder did for that one). Also found a couple of empty starter homes.
Spring of the next year a couple more active starter homes, just gave the loft space a good dose of ordinary fly killer. As a precaution spring the year after as well.
I normally say leave 'em unless they are causing a real nuisance, like their flight path across/near an often used door. I wasn't going to take my chances with that big one though and I wanted access to the loft.
I reckon wasps are just naturally curious. They buzz about looking for good food sources. If that happens to be near a human and that human starts screaming and shouting flapping their arms about it just raises the wasps curiousity and it tries to investigate, which of course just makes the human flap even more. Don't pay much attention to a wasp and it'll get bored and fly off...
You can kill wasps cheap with Borax. Borax is made of boric acid and has been used as a safe household cleaner for over 50 years. A box of Borax costs about $5 USD, as of 2009. You may already have some in the house. Mix equal parts Borax and honey or corn syrup. Spoon the mixture into some old lids. Strategically place them close to the wasps nest. Wasps are lured in by the sweet taste of sugar, but are poisoned by the Borax."
Not all insects fall for this sort of approach. But it might work.
The insects know it's there, but the mix may not have enough "attractant" to make them voracious.
Mix 1:1 if the insect is non-social, and won't be feeding others. You can mix 1:1 borax to icing sugar, to kill sugar ants. (Even though in theory, 1:16 would be the right one to use.)
If killing a nest requires a forager to feed someone in a nest, try 1:16 borax to sugar, so the forager stays healthy enough to make it back to the nest.
I only looked up this possibility, because I suspected I may have killed a wasp nest by accident here, this summer. It was above my head the whole time and I didn't know it was there. The queen was flying around the house for *days* trying to pick a nest site, and when I didn't see it anymore, I assumed it had "buzzed off". But no, it finally found a spot.
There's a theory that they don't go back to the same spot each time, because they can "smell" the nest of the other, and don't want to get into any nest fights. The house next door, has not had a nest where a large nest was located years ago. They have a "preferred side of the house", in terms of siting. This year, the nest was located under the lip of my chimney slab. The nest stopped at grapefruit size. Normally the nest doesn't stop growing, until I stop it. I only used insecticide on the first one. I have other means now for the job. I think angle grinder will be for the next one :-) By other means, none of those methods are suited to "submerged" nests in tight spots.
And that's why we have the borax, to use a food-based approach for the tight spots.
Borax/sugar mix is unlikely to work until early autumn, when the nests are on their way out anyway, so there's no point in putting it down.
Wasps feed their grubs with insects such as caterpillars. In return, the grubs exude a sweet substance that the adult wasps take. When the queen wasp stops laying in early autumn, signaling the end of the nest, there are no more grubs and the adult wasps seek their sweetness elsewhere, such as your raspberry jam sandwiches. Only then will they go for the borax/sugar mix. But there's no point in doing that, as the nest is dying anyway.
There's also the danger that other insects such as bees will be attracted to the borax/sugar mix. Killing them would be a very bad idea.
I don't know. The nest might be small if construction started late or their food source was scarce. When broken open in late winter do they have the same papery construction as larger wasp nests?
They just disintegrate to dust when touched. I have had several of these over the years, all a similar size. I only assumed wasps, because I had seen more than the usual number of wasps around the area, but I never saw any going in/ coming out of the nests.
THANKS, everyone, for _all_ that informative and good advice!
Yes Dave - I was expecting someone (TNP actually :-) ) to say that "that's not big" (i.e. football size). I would have crapped myself on seeing that monster!!
"Football" is big for us: I'm very used to f> I reckon wasps are just naturally curious. They buzz about looking
I agree 100%! It really irritates me to be sitting with someone who flies into a panic at the sight of a wasp; and if they have kiddies with them, they're setting a really bad example: I always try to fight the wasp's corner in that situation. But not when they set up home in my own home!
Then I doubt it's wasps unless the nests are quite a few years old. Despite being made of paper, if it's dry they are pretty robust and wouldn't crumble to dust.
First of all know thy enemy. Google the Waspbane website. Then get hold of some Ficam W. Make up about half a sachet into a garden sprayer and anoint the entrance route into the nest. A day or so later problem solved. There'l l be enough in the sprayer for a few annointings. Don't breathe the spray o r the powder.
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