📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Wasps

Options
Found out the hard way that wasps can get mad when disturbed.  Tbh wasn't sure if they were wasps popping out of a hole in my garden border until I got too close and was stung!  Anyone have a non toxic way of helping me move these critters along? 🐝
Just my opinion, no offence 🐈

Comments

  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,410 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    If you can see the nest, just keep spraying it with water.  The paper nest will absorb the water and rot away.  The wasps will hang about for a bit, but then disappear.  In the meantime, they will be too busy trying to rebuild the nest to bother anyone.
  • Black_Cat2
    Black_Cat2 Posts: 558 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Great advice, I will try that, thank you
    Just my opinion, no offence 🐈
  • Grenage
    Grenage Posts: 3,201 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If it's a classic underground nest then you could just leave it be - it will die out once cooler weather arrives.  The wasps we have had nest in our garden weren't bothered unless we poked around the entrance.
  • goldfinches
    goldfinches Posts: 2,535 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Grenage said:
    If it's a classic underground nest then you could just leave it be - it will die out once cooler weather arrives.  The wasps we have had nest in our garden weren't bothered unless we poked around the entrance.
    I think this is sensible advice. I remember having a wasps nest in a bank in the garden many years ago and my parents deciding to boil a kettle full of water and pour it into the hole. The end result was an emergency visit from a pest controller who was visibly scornful, both parents had to visit the local gp for stings and we children were confined indoors for at least a day. That must have been both painful and expensive and I still remember witnessing some of the results half a century later!

    "She could squeeze a nickel until the buffalo pooped."

    Ask A Manager
  • Black_Cat2
    Black_Cat2 Posts: 558 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I had every intention of pouring water in the hole but chickened out.  Whilst I don't have too much of a problem with them there and being stung once, I am more concerned how large the nest will get underground. Googling it was a bit worrying. The nest is in amongst my planting where I would like to plant a couple things in the future.  Do they return to the nest each year? 
    Just my opinion, no offence 🐈
  • Emmia
    Emmia Posts: 5,685 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Could you lay a hose and turn it on from a distance with a trickle of cold water, thereby discouraging them but not angering them?


  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    There are about 7 different species of wasp in this country and some give very little bother at all. When I had a nest in the lawn at a previous house I could mow over it and the wasps would get bothered, but they never came after me. Most ground-dwelling wasps seem to be careful not to attract attention, so maybe you were just unlucky. All the ones I've had at my present property seem to take over old mouse burrows, and as they are so unobtrusive, they're hard to spot. They never return to the same nest and I don't usually find them till autumn, when they get drunk on rotting apples and a little less predictable.
    I'd say bide your time and see if the aggression repeats, or if it was a one-off.
  • Black_Cat2
    Black_Cat2 Posts: 558 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thanks all yes I'm going to leave that part of the garden alone and hope this is a one off 🐝
    Just my opinion, no offence 🐈
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177K Life & Family
  • 257.5K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.