Really need help with wasps/bees at night

[Bequia]

Hi everyone

I'm in need of some advice on how to deal with some wasps/bees. I'm not sure what they are...I'm thinking they're wasps. There is a nest in my next door neighbours brick vent. About a week ago I noticed 3 half dead ones in my bathroom one morning. This week our 16 year old son woke us up in the early hours of the morning in a panic because he had found the bathroom was swarming with them, they were attracted to the light. I didn't know what else to do but kill them, I managed to shut the window and sprayed them with everything I could find at 5am ..several times.
An hour later when my husband got up for work there were still some flying around, the others were not able to fly but were crawling. Later that morning I counted 35. Now, we were not concerned about them until last night when our son was up late again (summer hols ). His description of the wasps has totally freaked me out.
He was playing his xbox at about 3am when he heard a tapping against the bathroom window so went to have a look, it was the wasps He took a look outside of his bedroom window to see where the wasps were coming from, what he saw was wasps swarming around the street lights and darting around in the available light. He then went back to playing (with headphones on) thinking he was okay because the windows were shut, that was when he noticed 2 wasps land on his T.V. He hadn't realized that his window had been left open, quickly shutting it he darted downstairs to find the kitchen window was also covered in wasps (kitchen light is left on overnight). From what he's described I'm sure you can understand why I'm franking out a little.
We've lived here for 13 years and have both grown up in this area and have never encounted anything like this. We've also had a nest of wasps, much bigger than these current ones, in our garage which is pretty close to the house and never had a problem with them at night. Is this usual behaviour for wasps or even bees?
I'm staying up tonight to photograph them (if possible)
I hope someone will be able to advise us on what to do...if anything

[Phoebe]

Hi Bequia, wlecome to WaB.

I can understand you freaking out at this who wouldn’t? I would advise you to contact your local council for some pest control and speak to your neighbour about the nest in the vent. Leaving lights on will attract them it’s better turning them off and keep all windows closed at night.

If you do get photos I would be interested to see them but don’t put yourself at risk.

Phoebe

[Bequia]

Hi Phoebe

Thanks for replying so quickly. I honestly didn't know that wasps can be attracted to light or that they were active at night...it's quite bizarre, but none the less, we are being careful and keeping the windows shut. Unfortunately we have to keep at least the bathroom light on for our younger son.

We'll approach our neighbour about the nest and will give our local council a call but I'm not holding my breath there their usually only interested in bees.

I'm settling down for tonights vigil now. I hope that I can capture something to show you but I have doubts about my camera's capabilites. Am I able to post video footage?

Thanks again

Bequia

[Phoebe]

Hi Bequia

I think there is a way to post a video on here now but I don't have a clue how to do it. There is a forum on here titled Video so you could take a look in there. I will see what I can find out about it and let you know.

The local council should be able to rid the wasps if that is what they are, I think if it is bees then it might be different they may want to know if it is bees or wasps before they come out though. Check it out with them anyway.

Good luck with the photos.

Phoebe

[Phoebe]

Any news on the wasps Bequia?

[Nervsys]

I am interested in any response to this as this seems to be something quite unusual, and I have a similar problem. Around 3/4 days ago my girlfriend was stung by a wasp while in the garden in the early evening. Currently my cat is quite ill, which means that I have to take her outside for a few minutes late at night. That night I turned on the light in the back room of the house and instantly there were two very large wasps banging their heads against the window. 4 days later and they still turn up every night. They are very large (at least 50% larger than usual), more wasp like than bee like as they are completely non-hairy and very bright yellow/black, and have a large white 'nose'/mark in the middle of their face which I have never seen on a wasp before - at first I thought this was simply due to banging into the glass over and over, but I've seen 3 of these wasps together now and they all have this lump. Also the night time behaviour seems odd for wasps too - I've lived in a house with a wasps nest in the bathroom fan/vent before and they were never active after dark.

What are these things?

[Monkey Orchid]

Bequia - quite often when I've attended moth trapping nights wasps have turned up in quantities to some of the light traps, so I'm guessing that it's not unusual behaviour for them to gravitate towards light. Keeping windows shut if you have to have a light on overnight is probably a good idea, in the short term.

I have noticed in the past couple of weeks a lot of wasps around, both outside and coming into houses; and behaving in that slightly dopey and yobbish way that I don't normally associate with wasps until later in the summer. Has anyone else observed unusually high numbers or aggressive behaviour?

I'm not bothered by wasps myself (despite often having been stung by them) but I can totally understand being freaked out about them regularly coming into your living space, especially in quantity. Most councils/local authorities will offer advice and sometimes removal of active wasp nests, although there may be a charge for the service. The local authority that I used to work for was forced to contract out their pest control services due to slashed budgets: the contractor would deal with wasp nests, but during the busy summer months there was often a waiting list of people wanting his services, so it could take a while for the problem to be attended to. There are plenty of private pest control firms in the phone book... But if the nest is in your neighbour's property then you'd have to liaise with them and they'd be the ones to call the pest controllers in to do the work.

The description of the 'wasps' flying in and out of air brick holes does sound like it could be bees of some sort... But without a photo it's difficult to ID for sure.

If all else fails, remember that as summer draws to an end and the weather grows cooler the wasps or bees will dwindle in numbers and eventually die off, leaving the nest empty. Only the queen will survive, to crawl off somewhere snug to hibernate through the winter... And hopefully when she emerges next spring to set up a new nest somewhere, it won't be too close to your house. We've got an apple tree in our garden so it's Wasp Central out there at the moment: I try to be careful where I walk and sit, never go barefoot, and check my glass of juice or cup of tea before I drink from it. I try to remember that it's a small price to pay for all the thousands of aphids the wasps have eaten for me over the last few months, keeping my vegetables and flowers healthy.

[twigged_on]

Hi guys!
My name is sam from leicester. I would like to add to this post here and say that i have also noticed alot of wasps around at the moment both in leicester and hinckley. They all seem very dosile and im easyly able to swat them with a newspaper or even my hand. Also a couple of nights ago and tonight i have had about 10 or so wasps comming into my house. it always seems to be around 1:00am. They are very small wasps tho and extremely dosile. there must be somthing in the air or somthing like this. i havnt worked out if there is a nest nearby or anything like this but i did notice about 6 months ago we had some mortar bees in buzzing around the side of the house but they have since dissapeared. it would be interesting to see how many people this is happening to because i have never noticed it befor and i have had my windows open in the kitchen for the last 2 yeas or so and i have never seen them in the house befor. Is there any more expert advice out there about this????

[Beastingbeer]

Hi I just came across this thread as I was trying to find out about wasps swarming at night. About a month ago my boyfriend and i had been on a night out and came home about 2am. I went to bed and was woken by my boyfriend at about 3am. He had fallen asleep on the sofa and been woken by a strange noise. As he woke up he thought there were moths flying around the lights, but quickly realised they were wasps. At least about 50 of them, but they were not attacking him. They had come through the windows which were open a crack. He came and woke me, we didnt know what to do so we closed the windows, shut the door and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up and i thought it had been a strange dream, or that my boyfriend was exaggerating. I went into the lounge and there were wasps crawling all over the windows, curtains, everywhere around the windows. They were very docile, not flying at all. It took three of us over an hour to scoop them all up and throw them out the windows. They didnt fly off, just fell to the ground.

We thought this was very strange behaviour for wasps, and no one we know has ever heard of this! For the next few weeks we saw a huge amount of wasps flying around in the day time, we saw they were flying into a hole in the masonry of a neighbours house, obviously where their nest is. We are still seeing a few wasps flying around now.

I can definitely say the insects that came into our house that night were wasps. Having got rid of them all the next day we saw them up close. They were normal wasps, normal size. They did not have any unusual markings or lumps. Since that night we have not had any more wasps trying to get in the house. We are still a bit freaked out though, as it was a very strange experience!

[Beekeeper]

Beastingbeer.

Wasps, Bees and even Hornets will be attracted to any light source, if they have entered via an open window they will always head towards a light.

Of course in unfamiliar surroundings, they soon become disorientated and loose the will to live after an hour or so if they cannot find their way out,,the best thing to do in those circumstances is turn all your lights off, turn an outside light on and leave a window or door open for a while so they can all depart your home, that should be end of problem.

Bees do not usually fly at night but on rare occasions, if there is a strong nectar source close by and a very warm evening they will fly until almost completely dark.

Also in the case of bees, i dread snow on the ground when i wake up, as due to the light reflected from it, bees will automatically be attracted to it and on leaving the nest just nose dive upside down into it as they think it is sky.

Time and time again i have found little holes in the snow with a dead bee at the bottom of it, i always clear snow from the entrance and the ground beneath as soon as i can to avoid unnecessary losses, if i know snow is on its way beforehand, i always shelter the entrances of the hives with anything i can.

Ian