Boarding out the loft yesterday and today, a 9 year old house so not too dirty up there - l ain't great with spiders etc but felt fairly manly knocking off the couple of dead spiders l saw with my gloves... then all of a sudden l spot this... I had my phone in my pocket, took a quick pic and then googled wasp nest... Jesus christ! l spotted a dead wasp on the loft floor yesterday and thought nothing of it... after a slight man scream l ran across the boards of the loft like Linford Christie and leapt through the hole with such finesse Jonathan Edwards would have been proud, a perfect landing onto the bed. I thought about hitting it with the young uns lightsaber, thinking they all must be dead but in the interests of health and safety l'll call the professionals. Anyone recommend any wasp nest removal experts?
No need, You can buy a wasp's nest destroyer aerosol from any garden centre. Doesn't look like a huge nest to me. Don't do what I did and pay £40 for a bloke to come along and just spray the nest with an aerosol. Do it when the wasps are in - ie when it's dark. Wear gloves and a mask, keep you distance, give it a good squirting and then scarper back out of the attic. Check it out in a day or two
Alternatively leave it another couple of months in January there wont be any live wasps in there and you can safely remove it I took out a massive one a few winters ago - was somewhat worried when I started but neednt have been - worst case there may be one queen hibernating in there
Exactly this., I once had one in my garden shed, A squirt with the aerosol from B&Q at evening time, a quick getaway- all sorted.
The Wasps will be dying off now and they don't reuse the same nest so nowt to worry about - be useful to find out how they got in and block the hole though.
If you really are too scared, the council will normally send someone along to spray it with something, then hit it with a stick so it falls into a bucket and charge you £50 or so for the privilege.
What you have shown is an immature wasp's nest. This is the first 'cup' which the queen makes in spring after coming out of hibernation. It looks as though the queen either died, or started a nest somewhere else. Maybe the dead wasp you saw was the queen. If it was trapped in the loft and couldn't get out, it wouldn't survive for long. The nests are dying in any case at this time of year and they don't get re-colonised. The little nest of yours is already dead and so will the queen likely be too. The queens come out of nests around this time of year and hibernate in places like the folds of curtains, air vents, or lampshades. Worth a quick check to see if you have any from other nests. Happy swatting.
We've called "Buzz" and within 15 mins they've turned up. A woman dressed like she's been to the gym and put a buzz logo jacket on came up into the bedroom just as I'm descending the stairs with the hood up, head torch and face mask, just two eyes poking out, she pissed herself at the sight of me. Once in the loft she said it was that small it was hard to spot... alright alright l said. She's smoked it out saying that only the Queen will be in there - in hibernation. She then proceeded to show me what a real wasps nest was like from their Facebook page, one was 4ft high. £50 lighter and on the way out l asked what now, "wait and then knock it into a bin bag in a couple of days..."do you not come back with the bin bags, l replied! She laughed again, and don't forget to put that one on your Facebook page it was massive, l shouted.
Shows my ignorance cos I've found those in my left before and done nothing about them, I've always thought wasps nests were a lot bigger.
She said its a good job we've spotted it now before it got bigger next year, when l first looked up l thought "when did we have that light fitted" The woman had sparkly white trainers, nails done, no mask or anything. I feel really manly at the minute.
I’m sure we’ve got quite a few of these in the garage from previous years, I had no idea what they were.
Understand your reaction - wasps/bees/moths/slugs I'm o.k with but if there's a rat about I'm running in the opposite direction - not too happy with mice either.
Thats what I've to do tomorrow, armed with just a bin bag. "Take a week off with the kids during the hols" she said...
You are right. Wasps cannot operate less than 12 degrees c. This time of year the Queen will leave nest and Hibernate. The Drones and others die. This nest will be or soon will be obsolete. Nothing to worry about Not really right thing to do , in killing them. I had one in my loft last year, caused no problems
