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Should I just leave a wasps nest alone?

alanbeeb

alanbeeb

pfm Member
We've got a wasps nest, can see dozens of them going in and out a small gap just above a dormer window under the roof tiles.

The wasps aren't really bothering us, only a couple have flown through the adjacent window when its been open over the last few weeks - but that's hardly unusual in summer, nest or not.

I've been reading a bit and the general attitude towards wasps seems to be softening, they are a pain for picnics - but people are beginning to realise they are valuable in the ecosystem for controlling genuine pests, clearing up rotting things, and also do a lot of important pollination while bees take all the credit!

So I'm tempted just to leave them to get on with it...... but can they actually cause damage? do they chew wood or anything like that? thanks
 
Leave them for this year, then seal up the holes.
Next year they will spend a while looking for alternatve ways in, if they fail, after a while they will burger off elsewhere.

Edit: Jamie beat me to it.
 
Wasp nests are made of paper. The paper is made from exactly the same material as humans use for most paper - wood pulp.

Immeasaurably thin slices are chewed off wood by the wasps and then pasted onto the nest - that's why wasp nests are made from what appear as scales of different shades of greys and browns as different sources of wood are used.

The easiest place to see where it has been collected is on uncoated wood outdoors, where they will leave a tiny checkerboard pattern on the surface. A large nest is going to weigh just a few ounces, and that paper will have been collected by all of the wasps from thousands of different places. Wood loss in any one place will be totally and utterly insignificant.

Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. In the next very few weeks, the brood will all hatch as queens and drones and the nest will "die" - the workers will disperse to look for sugary foods rather than insects to feed the brood, which will no longer exist. While the brood exists, they secrete a sugary solution, like honeydew, and it is that which the workers feed on. No brood, no food for the workers, so they disperse, until cold weather kills them off. Just queens over-winter.
 
We had exactly the same experience two weeks ago.
They were however getting into the bedroom and because the nest must have been just above the plasterboard ceiling they were stinging us if we went in the bedroom, perceiving us as a threat.

We tried live and let live but they were becoming a nuisance throughout the house so called in the exterminators.
 
Vinny said:
Leave them alone and they will leave you alone
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This. Wasps get a bad press but they are as vital a pollinator as bees. And they are a gardener’s friend in that they prey on pests. Unless they are seriously interfering with your access to house or garden, leave them be. They will die off by November. The queen will overwinter in the nest then fly off in the spring to start a new colony. They do not return to the same nest.
 
We had one a few years ago, it wasn't a problem as only the missus got stung :)

The wasp man said leave it alone (as it was up a height), and also said they dont return to the nest, and he was right, they haven't. The year after I did catch the critters trying to build one in my garage, it was about the size of a walnut when I spotted it, and (Sorry Suffolk Tony) removed it - but I couldn't be running a wasp gauntlet every time I got the car/pedal iron out, as I'm a bit scared of them!

But in summary, they'll just go away, watch out for knackered ones creeping about your carpets, this is how the missus got stung.

S
 
There was a small wasps nest low on a tree branch right in front of the tree trunk in our front garden.

One took offence at me and stung me perfectly symmetrical middle of forehead.

Declared war on the nest and shot it to pieces with my trusty air gun, took 2 days of attack, and they vacated.

The nest was straight in front of the main trunk so was always a backstop for the pellets.

Gary
 
They are pollinators and only become pests after the sugar runs out in the nest. Like most insects they are in decline. If you don’t get hysterical about them being near you they don’t sting for fun.
 
MUTTY1 said:
They are pollinators and only become pests after the sugar runs out in the nest. Like most insects they are in decline. If you don’t get hysterical about them being near you they don’t sting for fun.
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Spot on, flaying arms and such are like signals, come in, dive, attack, depart, attack again...................
 
H20GNA said:
There was a small wasps nest low on a tree branch right in front of the tree trunk in our front garden.

One took offence at me and stung me perfectly symmetrical middle of forehead.

Declared war on the nest and shot it to pieces with my trusty air gun, took 2 days of attack, and they vacated.

The nest was straight in front of the main trunk so was always a backstop for the pellets.

Gary
Click to expand...


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