Topic: Wasps on my new allotment!!

[Tenuse]

Hello,

I have signed up to an allotment and this weekend went up to get started on the clearing. (Luckily the former owner left half of it covered in carpet, which makes up for the mares tail and bindweed.)

I got halfway through clearing my first patch and noticed lots of flies - on closer inspection they were wasps! There is a nest in the ground (although I didn't get too close as they were pretty angry! :o).

The council told me I had to clear it myself. Yikes. Does anybody have any suggestions? I have never dealt with a wasps nest in my life.

Yours buzzingly,

Tenuse x

[teresa]

Hi,

The only way I know how to deal with wasps is to burn them out. ;)
Build a bonfire over where the nest is in the evening when all at home with dry twigs wood dry leaves and paper then set it alite with a match.
As the nest is made out of a paper substance push a bit of paper down the hole first.
Then stand well back till all is burnt and leave alone untill the next day check carefully good luck
Teresa

[Hugh_Jones]

As long as the entrance hole is easy to see, destroying the nest is quite simple provided you do it after dusk.  There are several brands of proprietary Wasps Nest Destroyer on the market - all equally effective - and a small quantity of the powder introduced into the entrance hole soon sorts them out.  Personally I use a `pump up` sprayer with a long lance; I simply unscrew the lance, fill it with the powder, reconnect, pump up the sprayer, stick the nozzle in the hole and press the trigger.  I usually deal with 3 or 4 wasps nest every year from holes in the ground to `rugby balls` in the house eaves or in shrubs, and nothing has ever come out of one alive after this treatment.  But you Must do it by torchlight after dark.

[djstig]

Ive just got an allotment and the plot next to mine has got wasps, however the stripy gets entrance is on our side of the plot and the nest is right by the fence.

I might use some of this advice to get rid of them or leave it to the allotment manager incase I get stung :-[

[Hugh_Jones]

Any time now the nests should be vacated. The recently emerged new queens will go into hibernation for the winter and all the workers will die, so you shouldn`t need to bother.  It is most unlikely that the old nests will be used again in the future - what usually happens is that foraging animals and insects will get inside and clean up any larvae that are left.

[djstig]

Oh fair enough I'll probably leave them to their waspy devices then the stingy swines :D

[Tenuse]

Yes I got lots of quotes for how much it would cost to clear the nest, then decided just to let them die naturally. There are still a few buzzing about but at least they have stopped chasing me away now  :o

Ten x