Wasps!!

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 

It seems to me they are in it for themselves

Sounds a bit like hoomans to me 

[BWM]

8 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Its the change in tone specially if there are flies around which is particularly pleasing. 

 

I like insects but flies and wasps are surplus I feel. We want bees and creepy crawlies for the birds and flowers but what use are wasps? 

 

do wasps actually have a valid place in the egosystems supporting human life? 

 

 

It seems to me they are in it for themselves

Wasps are very useful for much of the year, both for pollination and pest control. I'm no fan of them either!

[magnetman]

15 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Sounds a bit like hoomans to me 

There is that. 

 

 

[droshky]

Health warning:

 

For the vast majority, wasp stings are minor nuisance. We’ve had issues with them having an organised go at our wooden stern rail, and obviously their sting hurts. However, careful! You’ll probably know all of this if you’re so afflicted, but Mrs D has had over the years a mild allergic reaction to  soft shell crabs, wasps and then suddenly without warning (potentially fatal anaphylactic shock) to a snake bite (an adder, not a cider based mixed drink). Most people don’t have this problem 

 

Following the amazing response of the ambulance service in arriving swiftly at our remote location, swift application of adrenaline almost certainly saved her life. We had no previous indication of this issue, but have now been advised to carry epipens whenever snakes, wasps or other potentially dangerous situations may occur, and we do! You may never know until it happens that you or one of yours has this weakness, and most of us don’t. But she’s been warned that from now on she is more vulnerable. So if you’ve ever had an unusual reaction to shellfish or wasps… or of course snakes… be especially aware of the possibility of anaphylactic shock reaction causing your airwaves to tighten and act swiftly!

[PeterScott]

 

fortunately abandoned wasp nest from roof rafters during building work. Lots of wasp-years to build ?

[Jerra]

5 minutes ago, PeterScott said:

 

fortunately abandoned wasp nest from roof rafters during building work. Lots of wasp-years to build ?

Possibly only one year.  In the main, the colony dies off apart from Queens who seek somewhere to hibernate like a snug narrowboat.

 

After a bit of a Google Pestuk.com say:

 

Firstly, wasps nests cannot be reused. Each year the queen wasp will build her own nest. Queens will not reuse other nests and it is unlikely that another colony would move into an already built nest.

[Ronaldo47]

I have found ant powder to be very effective in destroying wasps nests. Some years we see wasps coming and going through the air bricks by our front door, and an application of ant powder to the air bricks they are  using so that the wasps have to walk over it,  has always resulted in no more wasps the following day. My wife is allergic to insect stings so they really do have to be eliminated. 

[BWM]

11 hours ago, Jerra said:

Possibly only one year.  In the main, the colony dies off apart from Queens who seek somewhere to hibernate like a snug narrowboat.

 

After a bit of a Google Pestuk.com say:

 

Firstly, wasps nests cannot be reused. Each year the queen wasp will build her own nest. Queens will not reuse other nests and it is unlikely that another colony would move into an already built nest.

Even though they may not reuse an old nest, it is not unusual for wasps to add on to a previous nest in a desirable spot. I've seen some that are several feet across!

[haggis]

Glad to report that all is well. Just a slight swelling this morning.

[Grassman]

11 hours ago, Jerra said:

Possibly only one year.  In the main, the colony dies off apart from Queens who seek somewhere to hibernate like a snug narrowboat.

 

After a bit of a Google Pestuk.com say:

 

Firstly, wasps nests cannot be reused. Each year the queen wasp will build her own nest. Queens will not reuse other nests and it is unlikely that another colony would move into an already built nest.

 

During 10 years as a pest controller, every year I received calls about wasps in the weeks leading up to Christmas. People were going into their lofts to get the Xmas decorations out, and disturbing hibernating queens. 

 

Someone commented on there seeming to be less wasps around last summer. This may have been because the preceding winter was mild. As a pest controller mild winters were bad for business because the warmer days would rouse hibernating queens into thinking it was Springtime so they would emerge and then find the was no food around (insects etc) and they'd die. As a consequence less queens obviously meant less wasp nests in the summer. Whereas a cold winter meant the queens would stay safely hibernated. It varied so much, for example one year I dealt with 507 nests but the following summer I only did 85.

[Mike Tee]

Many, many years ago my wife and I, together with her sister, sisters husband and 3 kids, went off to France on holiday. We took my motorcycle and our family car, and the adults took it in turns to ride with me. My sister in law loved riding the bike (got her away from the kids!) and once whilst on the back screamed in my ear that a wasp had gone down her neck.

I pulled onto a handy side road and stopped, and a minute or so later the car came round to see what was up. All occupants of the car were amazed to see her ripping her clothes off! Naturally I closed my eyes as would anybody. Well, one eye.

[ditchcrawler]

6 hours ago, Grassman said:

 

During 10 years as a pest controller, every year I received calls about wasps in the weeks leading up to Christmas. People were going into their lofts to get the Xmas decorations out, and disturbing hibernating queens. 

 

Someone commented on there seeming to be less wasps around last summer. This may have been because the preceding winter was mild. As a pest controller mild winters were bad for business because the warmer days would rouse hibernating queens into thinking it was Springtime so they would emerge and then find the was no food around (insects etc) and they'd die. As a consequence less queens obviously meant less wasp nests in the summer. Whereas a cold winter meant the queens would stay safely hibernated. It varied so much, for example one year I dealt with 507 nests but the following summer I only did 85.

That interesting information, thanks. I get a nest in the loft from time to time.

[haggis]

I am glad I told you all about my wasp bite as I have learned a lot from the replies. One thing I didn't find out is where the wasp went after it bit me 🙂 

[PCSB]

I've found anthisan the best for stings, be they from wasps or nettles! Glad theres been no adverse reaction.

[haggis]

Thank you but I now find an After Bite pen is best . I used to have a bad reaction to cleg (horse flies) bites and tried all sorts of internal and external remedies. The only one which seems to work for me is the After Bite pen which is available from most chemists.  I sometimes need to apply it a second or third time but since I started using it, the bites and itch don't cause me a problem. 

We are all different! 

[Naughty Cal]

18 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

I have found ant powder to be very effective in destroying wasps nests. Some years we see wasps coming and going through the air bricks by our front door, and an application of ant powder to the air bricks they are  using so that the wasps have to walk over it,  has always resulted in no more wasps the following day. My wife is allergic to insect stings so they really do have to be eliminated. 

Are you sure they are wasps?

 

We have mortar bees that use the weepholes in our house above the windows. 

 

They are solitary bees and cause no harm or nuisance.

 

We also have miner bees under the front hedge. Again solitary and not really a nuisance until we need to cut the hedge a couple of times a year. They are a bit territorial then!

[Ronaldo47]

     Yes, definitely wasps.  We did once have bees using the same air bricks to make a nest under the floor at the front door and I regretfully had to dispose of that too. 

    When I rewired our house shortly after moving in some 40 years ago, I found an abandoned wasps nest the size of a football  attached to the joist with the old electric cables passing through it.

     

 

[MtB]

Having a life-long interest in wasps and similar insects my mate was amazed many years, ago to see in our local record shop a record of the sounds made by all the different types of wasp. So he bought it!

 

Disappointingly on listening to it, he recognised none of the tracks on it, so he returned to to the shop and told them he was a renowned expert on wasps and none of the tracks were recognisable to him. The shop manager looked carefully at the record and said "I can see the problem Sir, you were listening to the bee side".

[bizzard]

Elvis Presley got stung in 1958.

[magnetman]

12 hours ago, haggis said:

 . I used to have a bad reaction to cleg (horse flies) bites and tried all sorts of internal and external remedies. 

 

We used to get a lot of horseflies as we had 3 ponies. One day we were doing something in the garden and messing about in the pool and one of the lodgers (slightly large house) was about to dive in. He was into swimming underwater for the length of the pool. It was a 25m pool. 

 

Anyway I alerted him to the fact there was a horsefly on his back he said 'That'll come off' dived in swam to other end and it was still there. 

 

Durable and nasty those ones. I had some bites from time to time but no bad reaction. One of my sisters (ironically the one who was most into the ponies and had a room full of rosettes) had a terrible reaction and loads of swelling. 

 

I don't like horseflies but have never been bothered by them while being around Boats. It seems to be a horse problem. Don't like horses either much. 

 

 

Edited January 8 by magnetman

[Grassman]

Naturally with my job as a pest controller I came across many strange and bizarre wasps nests. The largest one I dealt with was the size of a fridge freezer (in a barn) and the strangest one was in a bed in a gap between the pillow and duvet.

 

It was a rarely used spare bedroom at the end of a cottage, and south facing. There was a hole in the wooden window frame where there’d once been an aerial cable through it, and this is where the wasps were getting in and out.

 

Regrettably I haven’t a photo because it was in the days before camera phones.