Wasp Nest Problem

[Emagggie]

I have a wasp nest on the edge of my plot. As I understood wasps to be beneficial I have left it alone assuming they will be gone before too long. I told everyone I saw nearby except as I didn't see my 'behind me' plot neighbours for most of the summer they didn't know it was there. I learned yesterday that the lady was very badly stung over the weekend. Her husband is very irate to say the least according to the allotment clerk. He tells me not to worry. I do feel a bit responsible though and now I must do something about it. The question is what can I do? Does any one know how to deal with the nest? I'm not wanting to pay a pest removal firm to get rid of it for me.

Worried of Essex.

[Emagggie]

[Unwashed]

A good squirt of this kind of stuff is quite effective.

It's rotten that someone got stung, but it's hardly your fault.  I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to have left the nest, for the reasons you say. 

[Emagggie]

Thanks Unwashed. That's cheap enough. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

[Emagggie]

Well I tried the chemical route ...twice! The wasps will not be moved. They are still around. They just made another entrance to the same underground nest. Anyone got any ideas please?

[tomatoada]

I would not tackle a wasps nest myself.   I would get the local pest control people to do it.  A sting in the wrong place can be fatal.
Isn't the local allotments department responsible? 

[Toadspawn]

All the wasps will die over the next few weeks other than the newly made queens who will hibernate somewhere overwinter and emerge in the spring ready to start a new nest. Therefore it is probably a waste of time taking any action at the moment.
However, if they are are still a problem and you want to get rid of them get some ant and wasp powder and puff this into and around the hole. As the wasps crawl over it they will become contaminated and in the process of cleaning the pesticide will be passed around inside the nest and they will all eventually die.

[Trevor_D]

Get in touch with the Council. Ours have a couple of free-lance guys they bring in as necessary. We had this problem in the summer, just before our BBQ. As we're an independent site, they couldn't do it for us, but they gave me the contact details of the two they use.

(As it happened, we didn't have to use them as the wasps conveniently disappeared the week before the BBQ!)