Wasps are a common occurrence during the summer months and for many people they will adopt an attitude of if the wasps aren’t bothering them, so they won’t bother the wasps; live and let live right? 

 

Wrong, absolutely incorrect and I’m not saying that because its my job and how I make money – the definition of a pest is an animal, plant or insect in the wrong place and if you have a wasp nest inside your property, even if its giving you no problems at the moment, then it’s a pest – pure and simple. 

 

Leaving a wasp nest to continue its cycle is not a good idea for two reasons, the first is that even if you never get bothered by them they will produce hundreds of Queen wasps that will hibernate inside your building and the most likely scenario is that they will emerge somewhere in the spring. 

 

That somewhere will be inside bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens as the insects will travel through the smallest of gaps seeking light and warmth – March and April are cold months with fewer hours of light, and so we get loads of callouts to sleepy wasps crawling into rooms and there’s nothing we can do as they will have spread throughout the voids. People will get stung and then they worry about pets and children inside, when this could have been avoided if the wasp colony had been treated when it was all contained within its nest. 

The second scenario is a little more serious and poses a potential threat; we all react to a wasp sting, some of us will get the large area reaction where we experience huge and painful swelling in the affected area, the lucky few get a small area reaction so just a red painful bump and for some people, a wasp sting may prove to be life threatening because of anaphylaxis. People often call up asking for an immediate service and we do try to get out as quickly as possible to deal with wasps because they are ‘allergic’ – we are all allergic to wasp stings. Firstly, they are painful, and we can feel our heart rate increase following a sting, then we get the redness and the swelling and that’s followed by the terrible itching, which for me is the worst part as it keeps me awake at night. 

Leaving a wasp nest is not a good idea as this homeowner in Twyford found out, the wasps have been inside the property all summer and slowly breaking down and enlarging their nest; wasp nests start around the size of a ping pong ball and will grow until they can fill a dustbin given the right conditions. 

 

Wasps are extremely industrious insects, and they will gnaw through insulation, rubber seals, plastic ventilation trunking and plasterboard to gain room for the colony to grow, it is common for wasps to be behind a section of plasterboard where the customer can hear them grinding away. A tap on the wall maybe all that’s required to piece the skin of paint that is all that is containing the colony and you can put your finger straight into the heart of the wasp nest. 

 

This is what happened in Twyford when the customer tapped on the wall to shut the wasps up, we turned up and removed the skin exposing the interior of the wasp nest and treated this with a powerful insecticide which is really fast acting and allows us to remove the colony in one piece.