When do wasps die for winter?

Davesnave

red_imps_2003 wrote: »

I have often wondered if the little bar stewards actually had any point.

Yes, they have a place in the world and a job to do, but it doesn't necessarily impress humans, even though they are relatively recent arrivals in the ecosystem and generally far more destructive.

There are different species, so behaviour varies, but usually aggression is the result of being drunk on rotting fruit, or getting dozy and disorientated as the autumn and colder nights arrive.

It's not in a wasp's best interests to draw attention to the nest, so they typically keep a low profile within about 5m of it, unless it's disturbed, or until one of the situations above arises.

Nicki23

Hi, looking for a bit of advice. I notice a lot of wasps flying around my bedroom window in August, which I thought was late in summer for a nest. Judging how many there were, there must have been one either in the guttering or loft. As it was late summer, I left it thinking it would die off soon. However today in mid November I still see a few flying around the bedroom window, does that mean they are in the loft? I've only had a couple in the house, but I want to go in the loft soon and we have had two bad frosts in the past week, so I had assumed if there were in the guttering that would of killed them. How long can they survive in the loft? Thanks in advance.

Chanes

Nicki23 wrote: »

Hi, looking for a bit of advice. I notice a lot of wasps flying around my bedroom window in August, which I thought was late in summer for a nest. Judging how many there were, there must have been one either in the guttering or loft. As it was late summer, I left it thinking it would die off soon. However today in mid November I still see a few flying around the bedroom window, does that mean they are in the loft? I've only had a couple in the house, but I want to go in the loft soon and we have had two bad frosts in the past week, so I had assumed if there were in the guttering that would of killed them. How long can they survive in the loft? Thanks in advance.

They should die off soon, no food and that's it. The nest we had was in my roof eaves; they didn't trouble me in the loft, in fact, I can't remember seeing any on the odd time I popped up there. But we did see them outside that bedroom window.

Davesnave

Went to see my wasps today, living in an old rabbit burrow away from the house. They were all still hard at it, one landing and one taking-off every second, so there is still plenty of food about for the workers.

Meanwhile I'm finding a few queens in and around the house trying to hole-up for winter. They seem to know what's about to happen, but the proletariat are still blissfully unaware, thanks to our increasingly screwed-up seasons....

Marktheshark

Wasps build nest from wood, they chew it up to make paper.
The nearest wood, the damage they can do to roof support beams and floor joists can cost tens of thousands of pounds to repair .

The old wives tale they wont do any harm.
LOL...

Gloomendoom

Marktheshark wrote: »

Wasps build nest from wood, they chew it up to make paper.
The nearest wood, the damage they can do to roof support beams and floor joists can cost tens of thousands of pounds to repair .

The old wives tale they wont do any harm.
LOL...

Have you any examples of common wasp damage costing tens of thousands of pounds to repair?

Marktheshark

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Have you any examples of common wasp damage costing tens of thousands of pounds to repair?

https://www.google.co.uk

juno

I keep finding dead wasps in my kitchen. I have no idea how they get there, but I had 3 on Thursday.

Chanes

Marktheshark wrote: »

Wasps build nest from wood, they chew it up to make paper.
The nearest wood, the damage they can do to roof support beams and floor joists can cost tens of thousands of pounds to repair .

The old wives tale they wont do any harm.
LOL...

I google it but couldn't find any reports of extensive damage costing tens of thousands of pounds by the 'garden' yellow wasps in this country?

Davesnave

Chanes wrote: »

I google it but couldn't find any reports of extensive damage costing tens of thousands of pounds by the 'garden' yellow wasps in this country?

That's because there aren't any.

When someone provides 'Google' as their reference source, you know how much credence to give to their posting.