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

[Greymouser]

42 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

I'm vegetarian and have been for 36+ years, I don't eat anything that an animal has to give its life for.

Ah but you eat dairy, yes? You are aware of the calf that has given its life for you to eat cheese and milk eh? Never mind the cruelty involved in some branches of the dairy industry... ?

[Jkulin]

10 minutes ago, Greymouser said:

Ah but you eat dairy, yes? You are aware of the calf that has given its life for you to eat cheese and milk eh? Never mind the cruelty involved in some branches of the dairy industry... ?

Please don't make assumptions, only fools assume, I don't have to explain myself to you.

[Greymouser]

Indeed...

[Skipper Billy]

14 hours ago, Greymouser said:

I find myself to be curious, are you then a Vegan? I am not having a go, just being nosy!

I try to live by the Buddhist philosophy which amongst many other things includes love and kindness to all living things (yes that includes wasps!) and doing as little harm as possible. I am not vegan but I eat as little animal produce as possible. Both my kids and all my grandkids are vegan - their choice not mine. 

I know we are not allowed to discuss religion here so I would add that I am in the camp that Buddhism is not a religion it is a philosophy or a way of life - others will disagree.

[tomato]

I once went into a music shop to buy a violin for my daughter, the grand lady who ran it went into the window to pick up the instrument and disturbed a late summer sleepy wasp which promptly stung her,  twice. She was more concerned about having disturbed the insect that the two stings!

Some people are tougher than they look.

[Skipper Billy]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

I once went into a music shop to buy a violin for my daughter, the grand lady who ran it went into the window to pick up the instrument and disturbed a late summer sleepy wasp which promptly stung her,  twice. She was more concerned about having disturbed the insect that the two stings!

Some people are tougher than they look.

Moral - Caring for living things doesn't make you a wimp or a wuss !

[Gina]

Definitely not!

[Greymouser]

4 hours ago, Skipper Billy said:

I try to live by the Buddhist philosophy which amongst many other things includes love and kindness to all living things (yes that includes wasps!) and doing as little harm as possible. I am not vegan but I eat as little animal produce as possible. Both my kids and all my grandkids are vegan - their choice not mine. 

I know we are not allowed to discuss religion here so I would add that I am in the camp that Buddhism is not a religion it is a philosophy or a way of life - others will disagree.

I suspect our outlook is quite similar and yes, definitely a philosophy, rather than a religion. 

I have not eaten meat for about 30 years, spent much of that time as a vegan, though tried very hard to not be judgemental about other ways. Indeed I have always even prepared and cooked meat etc., even whilst I personally, was on a Vegan diet, for my wife and sons etc. Thing is you have to be careful with a Vegan diet, it is easy to get into very serious health troubles on that diet. Which is part of the reason why I am no longer a Vegan, but now a Pescatarian, who does not have dairy. My morals are really simple, if you are willing to kill the life, you should be able to eat that life, though I would rather be a vegan again, even though I like fishing! ?

All ways of life, without exception, have an impact on the environment we live in, often quite detrimental. All I try to do is try to limit the impact I make, where I can. Wasps are in fact fascinating, so are ants and especially Bees. In fact all life is. 

[Macavity]

Intrigued. I discovered a golfball sized nest in my obsy. It was empty!
Whatever had emerged from the few CELLS had obviously flown off... 

But I sense THIS was the "preliminary" stage? Queen Wasps needs a
FEW workers to start things... Then the whole thing kind of expands?! ?

In retrospect, I feel a bit SAD the *BEE* Colony that moved into my
cavity wall died out in their first winter... But I think they might have
(no fault of theirs) become a bit of a problem? A HIVE-FULL of Bees
in my small garden was quite a *sight* though! They didn't sting me. ?  

I believe WASPS might be a bit more feisty... 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Macavity

[Davey-T]

Wasps are fine unless you annoy them, they're a bit like those folk in Star Trek, if you swat 1 of 3000 the other 2999 know immediately and come get you

Dave

[RobertI]

Not wasps I know, but last year a huge swarm of bees appeared above my garden and slowly moved towards my neighbours houses. Reminded of the horror move ‘The Swarm’ (!)  I ran up the road knocking on doors to warn people, causing  some panic along the way. The swarm landed in a elderly neighbours laurel bush - when I described the horror lurking in her garden, she said “Ooh marvellous, I’ve been looking for a new nest”. She immediately donned her beekeeping outfit and within five minutes had relocated the nest to somewhere safe for transport to her beekeeping centre. SHE didn’t panic. ?

[michaelmorris]

I had a similar fledgling wasps nest in my garden shed a couple of years ago.

I simply broke it up with a stick. The queen kept trying to rebuild it and once a week I destroyed it. After a 5 or 6 weeks she didn’t come back.

[alan potts]

Get it all the time here, just kill all of them with spray, hate wasps, love bees though.

Alan

[Cyril]

I'm not a million  miles from you billy and we come across these small wasp nest quite often in our trees and bushes, we have a old one in the combe above our front door it was there when we moved in thirty years ago and I've never seen a wasp go near it but it is big, like the mother ship of all wasp nests.

Don't do what my old boss did  though to the one in his attic, sprayed it wilth paraffin and set light to it, the wasps left and the plasterer  moved in to replace the ceiling .

As a youngster I served my first apprenticeship as a butcher and was intrigued by the way wasps cut pieces of beef out of a hind quarter of beef  hanging in the shop, small neat cubes, the lucky ones got away with it  but most were squigged by a big handed flat knife blade.

Live and let live was my motto and I joined the army!!!

Edited May 1, 2019 by Cyril

[mikeDnight]

On 27/04/2019 at 23:08, Jkulin said:

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

Chapeau David for trying?

I don't wilfully destroy anything unless it pauses a serious threat! If Bees had decided to make a home for themselves in my observatory I would happily leave them alone until they moved on. Spiders are more than welcome and I never kill them. But wasps and hornets are not welcome either in my home or my observatory, and if wasps began building a nest in my observatory or in my home, I would kill them without a second thought. They are potentially life threatening, so to encourage them to remain is mindless stupidity.  Destroying a wasps nest will have zero impact on the overall wasp population, and to imply that it will is also mindless stupidity. Perhaps being stung by a few wasps might cause you to reevaluate priorities.  Trying to explain to a child who's been stung by a wasp or wasps, that wasps are really quite nice like Bees and buttercups, is going to be a hard one to pull off convincingly, especially if that child suffers from anaphylactic shock and dies. 

I was once stung on the end of my thumb by a Bee when i was 5 years old but I still like Bees. I've had a meat pie stolen out of my hand by a duck, but I still like ducks. A sheep once stole my hotdog and onions, and seagulls dive bombed my fish & chips, but i still like sheep and seagulls. And ive been stung on the throat by a wasp and will kill wasps from now till doomsday to protect myself and my family from their vicious, unprovoked aggression. 

[Jkulin]

On 02/05/2019 at 11:33, mikeDnight said:

Perhaps being stung by a few wasps might cause you to reevaluate priorities

Been there a number of times, but would still never kill a living thing wilfully, if everyone had the same attitude as you then there would be no world to live in, Your attitude is selfish to the extreme!?

On 02/05/2019 at 11:33, mikeDnight said:

They are potentially life threatening, so to encourage them to remain is mindless stupidity

By the way so are bees, spiders and a whole host of other living things!

If people who have been attacked by bears, moose, hippos, sharks, crocodiles can forgive and let live, then why can't can't you?

Edited May 6, 2019 by Jkulin

[JamesF]

To be fair to wasps, if (honey) bees had moved in, they'd be there as long as they could maintain a colony -- effectively forever.

Both wasp and bee stings can result in anaphylactic shock.  The chemical make-up of the venom is different, but the physiological effects of the sting are broadly the same.  I believe it's possible to be highly sensitive to one type of venom and not the other however.

And whilst there are species of both wasps and bees that can appear highly aggressive, neither tend to attack unless provoked.  The nature of the provocation may not be clear to the victim however.  Some bees and wasps are much more territorial than others.  Some honey bees seem particularly averse to a bee-keeper wearing certain types of clothing or using toiletries with particular perfumes and will attack almost immediately the hive is opened in such cases.  Both wasps and bees seem to perceive some things as threats that we may not understand, and aggression can also depend on circumstances -- for example if the nest/hive is under stress due to lack of food.

None of which means that I fail to understand the risk that both bees and wasps can present to some people, particularly children and that they can be a real nuisance.  Sometimes destroying a wasp nest is the only practical way forward, but there are an awful lot of them around.  Our builder (who, oddly enough, is allergic to bee stings) told me earlier this week that he's just re-roofed a garage locally and found many dozens of queen wasps hibernating under the slates when he removed them.  Each one of those would attempt to establish a new colony as soon as the weather is warm enough.  Bees are generally a whole lot more tricky to deal with when you don't want them where they are.  For example, a few I went to look at a colony of bees that had moved into someone's brick-built shed.  It wasn't possible to remove the colony without dismantling the shed, but the shed itself was immediately next to the only path to the front door of the house and on the other side of the path was the wall of another house.  The bees were leaving the shed at about head height, across the path

James

[Yawning Angel]

There are mixed views on the effectiveness of Citronella on wasps, but the general consensus seems suggest they are repelled by it - as are the general menagerie of flying bugs. There are diffusers that don't involve leaving burning incense or candles in your observatory ???

For under a fiver, it might be worth a go: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B076SN7VDR/

[wesdon1]

11 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I don't wilfully destroy anything unless it pauses a serious threat! If Bees had decided to make a home for themselves in my observatory I would happily leave them alone until they moved on. Spiders are more than welcome and I never kill them. But wasps and hornets are not welcome either in my home or my observatory, and if wasps began building a nest in my observatory or in my home, I would kill them without a second thought. They are potentially life threatening, so to encourage them to remain is mindless stupidity.  Destroying a wasps nest will have zero impact on the overall wasp population, and to imply that it will is also mindless stupidity. Perhaps being stung by a few wasps might cause you to reevaluate priorities.  Trying to explain to a child who's been stung by a wasp or wasps, that wasps are really quite nice like Bees and buttercups, is going to be a hard one to pull off convincingly, especially if that child suffers from anaphylactic shock and dies. 

I was once stung on the end of my thumb by a Bee when i was 5 years old but I still like Bees. I've had a meat pie stolen out of my hand by a duck, but I still like ducks. A sheep once stole my hotdog and onions, and seagulls dive bombed my fish & chips, but i still like sheep and seagulls. And ive been stung on the throat by a wasp and will kill wasps from now till doomsday to protect myself and my family from their vicious, unprovoked aggression. 

I can't agree more with your sentiments about Bee's. Spiders etc being welcome, but not Wasp's! They are very aggressive and need no reason to sting you, and they often attack in packs/swarms for no reason whatsoever! I was stung multiple times on the face and neck as an 8 yr old child, and i was simply playing with a friend on the school playground!?? They ( the Teachers ) subsequently found a nest close to where i was playing, but we weren't very close, or trying to interfere with said nest!?? Maybe another member might be an expert on insects and will challenge my comments, but in my experience, Wasps are vicious, but bee's are gentle, docile little fellows who will only ever sting if threatened or provoked...

Edit-i will never hurt any creature unless it is actively seeking to hurt me. I'm a animal lover, and this extends to insects and all living entities, even Wasps!

[Greymouser]

Needed Edit and deletion because I can...

Mooo!  ?

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Greymouser

[Hallingskies]

The tone on this thread is becoming quite waspish.  I thought I had logged on to Cloudy Nights by mistake....

[Jkulin]

On 02/05/2019 at 23:11, wesdon1 said:

Edit-i will never hurt any creature unless it is actively seeking to hurt me. I'm a animal lover, and this extends to insects and all living entities, even Wasps!

Cool, just as it should be!

[bingevader]

On 02/05/2019 at 11:33, mikeDnight said:

They are potentially life threatening, so to encourage them to remain is mindless stupidity. 

That holds true for us as a species too then?!

[JamesF]

I've had to discourage several queen wasps from setting up home in the observatory and in the shed where I keep my beekeeping kit this weekend.  There seem to be so many of them about at the moment.

I had the impression that last year was a pretty tough year for them.  They seemed to emerge quite early and then we had that very cold and snowy period at the end of March which I think was too much for many of the newly-emerged queens to handle.  This year they seem to be emerging much later and in far larger numbers.  There could be an awful lot of wasps out looking for a meal towards the end of the summer.

James

[happy-kat]

I've found that wasps bother people who are smelly with perfume/talk/hairspray/tumble dryer fragrance/clothes softener/hair gel. Basically if you smell full of fake commercial product you'll get bothered and add a fake bit of food .......