Growing veg after treating wasps nest

Spiderroo

Late last summer, we started having problems with wasps mobbing us in the garden which meant I couldn’t hang washing out. With the help of a builder working on our house, we realised there was a huge nest behind a rock wall round the flower bed under our kitchen window (I think in a hollow between the wall and actual flower bed or a big old pot the previous owner had chucked there). We had the nest treated by a pest controller so we could use the garden again, he sprayed it with a long pole and we could use the garden again. 

We’re now getting ready to tackle the garden this spring, can we grow stuff in the bed where the wasps lived? Will the insecticide impact on things growing and is it safe to grow fruit and veg in? I should have asked at the time but I was focused on dealing with them so they stopped trying to sting me. 

Also when we dig there will we find thousands of dead wasp bodies? The idea of that gives me the absolute creeps! 

fatbelly

I've also had wasps build a nest in an old pot in a corner of a garden. Throw that away properly and that ptch of ground will be the same as any other. Plant what you like there.

If your are growing veg, potatoes will force you to give the ground a good digging when you harvest.

Farway

The wasp bodies will have decomposed or been eaten by other bugs/ microbes by now, so very unlikely to find any.

Insecticide residue, only by asking pest man as we can only guess, and my guess is it will not leave a residue because there would have been no need to use one like that. And generally these Eco days persistent insecticides are a thing of the past.

However, if you can't ask him, I would just avoid fruit & veg there and stick flowers in

FreeBear

He probably used a permethrin based insecticide. Whilst very effective at killing almost all insects, it will break down in soil fairly quickly (typically, 4 weeks or so). The health risks from planting veg in the bed next spring will be minimal.

twopenny

You may find some of the nest. They are quite beautiful. They won't return to it.

You also may find a podcast 'Wasps v Bees' on BBC sounds Infinite Monkey Cage.

It explains a lot in a fun way and may change you view on wasps - not the chasing ones obviously. But you can divert them differently spring and autumn. They disappear by autumn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001np29

Dustyevsky

It was probably a Bendiocarb based product, which will have broken down in the soil by next season. If you want to be extra-safe, just grow flowers there for a season, as Farway suggests.