Wasps nest - safe?

[JellyBelly]

A friend has just discovered a wasps nest in the upper left-hand corner of one of the upstairs windows. It's on the outside of the house and so has been exposed to the cold, the wind and the rain that we've been getting of late. A couple of weeks ago it hit -2C overnight but for the past few days it's been more around +11C.

No wasps have been seen since she noticed the nest (she wasn't living there during the summer) but what's the chances that there are still some live ones in there that are liable to give me a nasty stinging if I get up a ladder to get the bloody thing down?

Jell

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:38:15 +0000 someone who may be JellyBelly wrote this:-

1) spray some expanding foam in the hole. 2) drink a cup of tea.

3) use knife to cut nest from window.

4) burn the nasty little devils.

[Huge]

Nil. They'll all be dead apart from the queen who'll be tucked up somewhere warm and dry waiting for spring.

[Guy King]

The message from Huge contains these words:

Balmoral?

[Mary Fisher]

Not necessary, there won't be any wasps left in the nest. If you try to spray expanding foam into the opening the whole thing will collapse.

There's no need to cut it down even, unless you want to. Wasps won't use it again.

If you do cut it down do it carefully, the outside envelope is vey fragile. When it's down cut it in half, carefully, with a bread knife and show the children the marvellous architecture of the construction.

They're not nasty.

I thought better of you, David.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Huge, you're wrong. The old queen dies off along with the workers. Only new queens hibernate, they're the ones who will found new nests in the spring if they survive.

Mary

[Guy King]

The message from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

They really are seriously impressive inside. I took a sectioned one to my son's primary school once - the kids were dead impressed.

[Dave Liquorice]

I'm tempted to ask how big it is? Golf ball on a stem or bigger?

Hear, hear, they are amazingly intricate and delicate constructions. See if a local Primary School has a teacher who could use it in lessons (mind I'm not sure that a "nature table" features in the modern curriculem). Or better still offer to give a small talk about wasps showing the nest. Wasps suffer a very bad press but are really fascinating, inquisitive and helpful creatures.

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, and there are several different kinds of 'paper' although they're all made from the same source.

Mary

[Weatherlawyer]

Forgive him his ignorance. So many stupid people living in towns and cities don't have a clue about the planet they live on. You could almost feel sorry for the clods if they were not such clods.

[Weatherlawyer]

Forgive him his ignorance. So many stupid people living in towns and cities don't have a clue about the planet they live on. You could almost feel sorry for the clods if they were not such clods.

[Mike]

And those that post things twice :-)

I stood barefooted on one once - that was a nasty one! By damn was it painful - for the wasp too I suppose.

[Weatherlawyer]

I hardly think that the people behind the Google Usenet interface are clods but then again they must be archetypical geeks.

[David Hansen]

On 27 Nov 2006 14:44:05 -0800 someone who may be "Weatherlawyer" wrote this:-

Extremely excellent, personal abuse and mind reading in one post.

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:43:58 -0000 someone who may be "Mary Fisher" wrote this:-

I bow to your superior knowledge.

Provided there are no wasps in the thing I'm sure the nest is very interesting inside.

I disagree. They are rather too aggressive for my liking, unlike bees which are welcome.

[manatbandq]

A poor workman always blames his tools ;-)

MBQ

[Tony Williams]

Hmm.... we have a beekeeper keeping his hives just down the road. The strain of bee he uses is a nasty sort of yellow looking thing, very aggressive when trapped inside the house. We have been told that he uses these aggressive bees because they produce the best honey. Not much comfort to SWMBO, who is liable to go into a dangerous shock if stung. :(((

[Huge]

I said warm and dry!

[Guy King]

The message from David Hansen contains these words:

You must have different wasps from us. Ours don't sting unless you poke 'em first.

[Mary Fisher]

That's uncalled for. I live in the inner city yet have handled more wasps and their nests than most people living anywhere else. Wasps live everywhere.

Wasp stings ARE painful, I sometimes have a very bad reaction to them but that doesn't make the wasps nasty. They sting to defend themselves.

A lot of people inflict pain on other people even though they're not defending themselves, that doesn't mean that all people are nasty.

Mary