Wasps nest

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

For years,every summer we have had lots of paper wasps in our garden.They did us no harm and we never realy noticed them apart from the scratches on the fences where they remove tiny slivers of wood to make their nests.
We are moving in a few weeks and I thought I would clean up the garden ornaments to take with us.My granddaughter bought me a lovely ornamental bird house and it has been up for about 4 years,well I went to remove it and loads of wasps chased me I just caught sight of the coiled nest inside,it looked like one of those chinese paper lanterns.
What I want to know is,does anybody know how long the wasps nest,and when will they vacate their new home.I realy don't want to kill them but I do ant to take my bird house with me when I move since my granddaughter bought it for me and has sentimental value.
Is there any way I can encourage the wasps to move on,any help would be appreciated.Thanks on advance.

EasilyAggravated

smoke them out. doesnt kill them and they wont return

economiser

They would nest until the end of the Summer and then die out except for the queen. They never come back to the same nest. If you smoke them out make sure you are fully protected. I used to keep bees and they can be difficult enough but I never tried to smoke wasps.

cattie

When I had a wasps nest in the eves of my roof last year & phoned the council for advice I was told to wait till late October & the frosts came & they should all die off, which they did.

Our local council charge around £50 or so to come out & get rid of wasps nests but I was only willing to pay that if the wasps became bothersome, which lucky didn't happen.