Close Encounter!

Cordaline · #1 (**permalink**) 14-06-2010, 01:53 PM

I opened my shed door last night & was met with a swarm of Wasps!

I few weeks ago I found the conical start of a nest on the ceiling, so I knocked it off in the hope they wouldn't come back. Wrong!
I stood & watched where they were going & surprisingly the nest was in a blanket.
So, armed only with a can of Raid, in I went & squirted the bejesus (haha) out of them! I left the door locked for ages & when I thought it was safe, having really pee'd them off, went back in & pulled the blanket out.
This is what I found.......

As you can see, I got the Queen. The really interesting thing was, when I crouched down to take the photo's, the larvae were wriggling around. You can see the different stages of emergence in each of the pics!

Anyway, just thought I'd share this because it's not normally the sort of the thing you get too see. Plus, I don't suppose there are to many people out there brave (or stupid) enough to do what I did!!

Jonners · #2 (**permalink**) 14-06-2010, 02:14 PM

Amazing, Cordaline.

A few years back when my boys were much smaller than they are now, we had a wasp nest in a flat-roofed shed. The nest was suspended from the wooden roof, and we first noticed it when it was about the size of a golf ball. However, it began to grow much bigger so I decided that from a safety point of view it was not a good idea to have it there. One evening I armed myself with a large plant pot holder and a flat piece of metal that would cover said container. Even late in the evening there were a couple of sentries on duty, but I waited until I thought it was safe and lifted the pot up to the roof so that the nest was inside it. I then slid the piece of metal along so as to slice the nest from the roof and at the same time form a lid over the pot. I then got my wife to drive me to a safe location, making sure that my window was open in case of the need for a swift ejection of nest. By now the pot was humming, so we pulled over into a rarely used farm track, where I dropped the nest and ran! Wasps were still buzzing round it days later, but I shouldn't think that its long term chances were very high.

A builder did recently remove an old disused was nest from inside our roof/soffit. You could see the different colours of the different wood that they had chewed to make their nest. Such clever creatures. I can sit in my wooden office in my garden and on a quiet day can hear them chewing at the window frames.

Littlesparrow · #3 (**permalink**) 14-06-2010, 02:36 PM

This spring I found a queen wasp just starting to build a nest in my shed. i waited until she went out then took it down. she returned shortly after and buzzed about in a very cross manner, but took the hint and did not rebuild in my shed, no need to kill her which was good.

Cordaline · #4 (**permalink**) 14-06-2010, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Littlesparrow

no need to kill her which was good.

I didn't intend to kill this Queen, she just happened to be there.
I can't have a Wasps nest in my garden with 3 little ones running around. Humans over Wildlife had to take priority here.

Beekeeper · #5 (**permalink**) 14-06-2010, 07:05 PM

I get called out to deal with quite a number of wasp nests every year and last year was no exception, but one will always be inprinted on my mind, it was in a barn underneath a hay bale which was partly stuck out from the stack.

Wearing only shorts and a veil i thought it would be just as easy to remove as the one i did a few minutes previously in the same property (The first one was hanging from a limb of a cherry tree and was easily dropped into a dustbin liner)

Having placed another dustbin liner underneath the nest i proceeded to also knock it off its supporting bale but what i didn't realise is what i could see was actually only a third of the nest, the rest was built into the hay stack proper, i got the bit off the bale no problem and then all hell broke loose with very angry wasps giving me a damn good hiding.

My legs had numerous stings and the shorts were no protection from their fury, needles to say i beat a hasty retreat and wondered for a while if i would forever be speaking with a high pitched voice

The farmer and wife who had been watching from a distance were no-where to be seen and both their dogs had also vanished along with one son who had been there as well, i did eventually find them sitting in the kitchen of the farmhouse with all the windows and doors shut which i thought strange being that it was a hot summer day.

Ian