Wasp's nest in my Observatory!! Help!!!

[Skipper Billy]

I have just been doing a spot of rewiring in my observatory and heard a wasp buzzing about - nothing unusual in that.

Except it kept flying the same route in and out - then I saw its nest under construction in a quiet corner !

Its only quite small - about the size of a golf ball at the moment.

Anyone know how to remove it preferably without harming the wasps??

[StarryEyed]

Call in someone quick. We had one in the eves they will keep coming back every other year. Show no mercy.

Edited April 27, 2019 by StarryEyed

[Hallingskies]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rentokil-VDTAZ012B-Wasp-Nest-Destroyer/dp/B01H2S24OC/ref=asc_df_B01H2S24OC/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309859607452&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5585671923939612406&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045021&hvtargid=pla-698532502539&psc=1

It’s the only way.  If you don’t wipe them out, the nest will grow to monster proportions.  I get them in my loft most years, last year a nest got to the size of a football before I found it and zapped them.  The foam works a treat.

[Skipper Billy]

OK - sounds like not killing them isn't an option. Thanks all.

Its a beautiful thing to look at !

[Gina]

I had one about football size in my garage a few years ago - amazing construction like paper.

[Paul73]

Lots of Ant powder at arm’s length (preferably someone else’s arm).

Paul

[Skipper Billy]

I am going to wait until later when its dark and cold then move it to the log store - its a similar environment and not far away.

We will see what happens !

 

[JamesF]

Yes, there is nothing you can do to move them once the queen has decided "that's where it is".  If it's only golf ball sized then quite possibly it's still the queen that's coming in and out, raising the first batch of workers.  Wait for her to return, then squish the nest with extreme prejudice.  Or wait for her to leave, then hose the nest down with ant powder before she gets back.  Sad, but if you want to use the observatory before late autumn it's probably your own choice.

James

[RichM63]

Aye did ye ever hear the story about the auld empty Wasp Nest…..

[JamesF]

2 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

I am going to wait until later when its dark and cold then move it to the log store - its a similar environment and not far away.

We will see what happens !

Wasps generally don't fly at night as far as I'm aware, but move it and you're likely to have a seriously unimpressed queen in a mood to vent her ire on anything nearby that's moving.  Worse if she has already raised the first batch of workers when you'll have perhaps a dozen of them to contend with.

Perhaps the best you could do (assuming its only the queen) is wait for her to leave, then block all possible entrances.  She might get the hint and find somewhere else.  Without her you can dispose of the nest or leave any grubs inside to die.

James

[wxsatuser]

Loads of queens around this year, had one inquiring about my obsy last weekend.
If it builds it's curtains I'm afraid, don't like killing but it's my obsy.

Watched a queen at work that got caught in a web and was fighting off two false widows.
She gave an enormous effort and eventually fell out of the web onto the window sill.
I took her outside, she being a bit knackered I had a good look at her, German wasp, then off she went.

[Debo]

Knock it down and use a bit of fly spray, job done.

[Beulah]

Thanks for the timely heads up! I've just checked the telescope shed;  lo and behold, a queen busy at work with a half made nest... jam jar and lid later and the shed is wasp free...for now...

Don't mind wasps as they are excellent pollinators and there's plenty of room in the garden for more nests... just not in the shed...

[mikeDnight]

These things are not Bee's, there is nothing nice about them. I would kill them without a second thought!! 

[Skipper Billy]

I know they aren't bees ! ? 

But I don't kill anything unless I have to.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, mikeDnight said:

These things are not Bee's, there is nothing nice about them. I would kill them without a second thought!! 

They are a vital part of the ecology.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41042948

 

[JamesF]

Just now, mikeDnight said:

These things are not Bee's, there is nothing nice about them. I would kill them without a second thought!! 

To be fair, common wasps are excellent pest controllers in the earlier part of the year (because their larvae are carnivorous).  The problems tend to come towards the end of the summer when the nest is being run down and fewer larvae are being produced.  The worker wasps' "reward" for feeding the larvae comes in the form of a sweet liquid the larvae excrete that they feed on.  So when the supply starts to dry up they go looking for it elsewhere and that's when they usually become a nuisance to us.

Obviously trying to set up home somewhere we really don't want them is a pain too, but wasps are hardly the only guilty insects there.

James

[mikeDnight]

10 minutes ago, Sland said:

They are a vital part of the ecology.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41042948

 

They are the devil's spawn, and killing them will do no harm whatsoever to the local ecology. Treating them as if they something to encourage is bonkers, as they are vicious and dangerous pests. For my part I shall continue to encourage Bees, but I shall merrily kill every wasp that looks at me funny!

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

They are the devil's spawn, and killing them will do no harm whatsoever to the local ecology. Treating them as if they something to encourage is bonkers, as they are vicious and dangerous pests. For my part I shall continue to encourage Bees, but I shall merrily kill every wasp that looks at me funny!

Sigh!

[Debo]

14 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

They are the devil's spawn, and killing them will do no harm

? for sure !

Edited April 27, 2019 by Debo

[Jkulin]

On 27/04/2019 at 21:32, mikeDnight said:

These things are not Bee's, there is nothing nice about them. I would kill them without a second thought!!  

On 27/04/2019 at 21:49, mikeDnight said:

They are the devil's spawn, and killing them will do no harm whatsoever to the local ecology. Treating them as if they something to encourage is bonkers, as they are vicious and dangerous pests. For my part I shall continue to encourage Bees, but I shall merrily kill every wasp that looks at me funny!

Shame on any of you that would kill rather than try and help relocate or wilfully destroy life.

Chapeau David for trying?

Edited May 2, 2019 by Jkulin

[L8-Nite]

Overseas when we had an invasion of wasps or bees in my barn, it was easy to convince them to leave by fouling the air with some chlorine bleach from a repurposed spray bottle.  

[Gina]

Having been badly stung as a child I hate wasps but I won't kill them if I can help it.  They do do good.

[carastro]

I agree, I never kill anything if I can avoid it.   Even spiders that I have a phobia for I bought a spider pick up stick on a very long arm, so I can put them outside unharmed.  But I would strive to try to get it removed especially before it gets too big.  The idea of the repellent spray sounds a good idea.  

Not sure if they are like bees though, if you remove the nest and put it elsewhere the Workers will still come back to the former place trying to find the nest.  We had that with a wild bees nest once that had nested in a bird box on a garage wall near the house, it was a bit dangerously close to the kitchen door and we had a young child then, so as some were getting in the kitchen we contacted a bee keeper and got some advice.  We moved it down the garden at night.  The following day there were hoards of bees hovering around the garage where the nest had previously been, so we had to go and fetch the bird box/nest and put it in a wheel barrow below the place where the nest had been.  By the end of the day the bees had found the new nest position and all was well, then we had to move it a couple of feet a day down the garden. Lol

I have also heard that wasps are an important part of the ecology. 

Carole 

Edited April 27, 2019 by carastro

[JamesF]

7 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Shame on any of you that would kill rather than try and help relocate

To the best of my knowledge there just isn't a practical way to do this with the common wasp (vespa vulgaris).  They learn where they live and they return there.  If the queen is still rearing the first batch of workers and the nest is moved, almost certainly she'll abandon the nest leaving any larvae to die, it not being the site she chose, and try to return to where she was nesting.  If she can't get in then she may look to start a new nest from scratch elsewhere.  If she can get in she'll quite likely just start building another nest where the first one was.

So the best you can probably do is stop the queen getting back to the existing nest and hope she'll give up and start again elsewhere.  But once they've started a nest queens are very persistent about trying to return and only need a very small gap to get through.  Four or five millimetres is almost certainly sufficient.  There's no guarantee she'll find it again for her next trip out when she's been used to leaving a different way though.

Honey bees aren't actually that different, but they will re-learn where they live as long as you take them far enough away that they won't recognise any landmarks and navigate back to where they originally came from (the general consensus is that three miles is far enough).

James