Wasps at the top of a capped chimney

[Chris Bacon]

It's the time of year. They're looking for a nice warm place with sweet food.It might have been me suggesting leave them for a bit, it wouyld be my suggestion anyway, they haven't long to go.

[Robin]

a possibly less boring option (assuming not a thatched roof) might be

though the attachment seems to be out of stock

[John Rumm]

ok had not seen the photo... have now :-)

That looks relatively doable to me... I would stick a ladder up close to the gutter down pipe - roughly in line with the chimney, with a standoff on it about 5 or six rungs down from the top. That will let you climb past the eves to a level where you have still got 4 points of contact, and feet level with the adjacent roof slope (i.e. A little to the right from where the lower chap is in the photo).

Next an extending roof ladder, rolled up the slope, and flipped over to hook the ridge just to the right flank of the chimney which in the photo appears to be broadly in line with the edge of the lower section of roof to the right. Tie em together, and you now have and easy climb to the roof ladder and a safe step over onto it.

[nothanks]

That's a coincidence, SWMBO has just suggested that she could get me a drone as an early birthday present ... I could try some air-air combat :-D

[Nick Odell]

It ought to be much to late for wasps. It ought to be much to late for blackberrying too, but I was out blackberrying on Wednesday when I disturbed an unseen wasps nest and they all swarmed up. Only one of them managed to sting me and I definitely saw that one close enough to vouch for it being a wasp.

Nick

[Tim Lamb]

Swallows prefer an *indoor* nest site. Barn/stable roof purlin join to gable wall plate is the preference here. I wonder if it is safer from nest robbing Magpies.

[nothanks]

Hmm, I'm going to be putting-up reasons for not trying it - let's see how many I can think of ;-) (1) What's not apparent in the photo is the large roof over-hang. I changed some of the cast iron guttering using a ladder stand-off but it would be difficult to get enough room to safely transition to a roof ladder. (2) The roof is very long (perhaps longer than apparent so it would need to be a 3-section roof ladder. (3) The pitch is about 60 degrees and roof ladders only seem to be spec'd to 55 degrees. (4) the clay tiles are a little fragile. (5) I'd like a drone. I'm far from risk-averse (motorcycles, in my 20s I was a fire eater and then taught aerobatics for many years as a secondary job) but I don't fancy this. Are you volunteering? ;-)

[John Rumm]

ok so playing devil's advocate here...

So rotate the ladder 90 degrees, and lean it against the other wall - not so much overhang there.

I think the limit on mine is about 6.5m. IIRC its made by Lyte, and the longest they do is a double that goes to 7.6m

Fair point - the actual slope is not that clear from the photo, and I must admit I had not seen that 55 degree limitation on the roof ladders. I can't actually find an angle limit mentioned on mine - although logic suggests that there must certainly be a lower limit.

Yes that may be a problem - one that bites me from time to time as roofs have a habit of muttering "one at a time please" as I clamber on them to the sound of cracking tiles :-)

Well yes that may be abetter reason :-)

I refer yo to my answer to point 4 above!

[nothanks]

On 09/10/2021 21:06, John Rumm wrote: ... snipped

... snipped

A year ago my BMI was heading towards 28 so I radically reduced carbohydrates and now it's just above 23 and heading (I hope) towards

1. Stopping home made wholemeal bread was tough, but the extra bacon, fish, veg, red wine, etc made up for it. A change I'd highly recommend (perhaps unless you have high cholesterol).

[newshound]

I based my location on ones that I have seen working successfully at other stables. I have a pair inside on a gable end, as you suggest, and another pair outside but under a roof canopy type overhang at the front of the stables.

[John Rumm]

:-)

One of the downsides of being 6'3", is even when slim, still a bit on the heavy side for clay tiles!

[Tim Lamb]

My roof ladder has foam rubber pads lashed strategically to the roof side.

[nothanks]

[Andy Burns]

or a drone.

[Steve Walker]

Or a 20' pole (they are very lightweight) at the top of a 20' ladder. Much preferable to being close to the nest on a ladder or paying a fortune for scaffolding.