Wasp Nest

My flat roof often gets a wasp nest in there...

as its in the bathroom you can lie in a bath and hear them munching, very disconcerting!! But they do hardly any damage so I've always left them alone, at the end of the season, late Autumn, I have just used outdoor sealant to fill in the cracks where they get in so next season they hopefully will go somewhere else.....

Such as your home!!!

However if your ceiling is looking a bit saggy then I would get rid of them before they munch their way in and join you in the bath!!!

John.

Don't you have a pest control service over there? We don't have such a service here where I live so we usually resort to smoking them out. The house smells like smoke for a while but it gets the critters out.

There probably is a pest control dept', but that'd be more for rats I'd guess.

They are not actually being a pest (yet)....

There were some big old wasp nests in the loft when we moved in...I think they only use them for one season...brilliant structures.

I'm not sure where they get the material from...I don't mind if the bring it in....but I don't want then to eat the roof timbers!

Hey, maybe I should install a wasp cam?

Del they don't cause much damage at all, from the wasp nests you have seen its quite a fragile papery thing, so not much wood has been used and I think the wasps only use rotten wood or leaves or something...

As the local pest control guy said when I called him out years ago to destroy a nest. He said they are part of nature, if we didn't have wasps eating the grubs, caterpillars etc... then we'd be knee deep in flies.

I remember looking out of the kitchen window at a green catapillar type thingie crawling along the outside window sill, as I was watching and wondering what it would turn into when it 'grew up' a wasp came from knowwhere and casually grabbed it, stung it and then flew off with it!!!

So my quest as to what it might have grown up to be was quickly dashed....!!! LOLOLOL

John.

Cheers, I'll leave 'em alone.

That works on sooo many levels, inertia and karma to name just two.

Calm, calm .. karma

Del

Here's a thought what if they are munching and the whole lot comes down on your or some one else's head?

Everyone entering my house has to sign a 35 page disclaimer... .

(Terms and conditions apply)

My Lawyer has been speaking to the Wasp's Lawyer and....

Del:

I'm not sure about wasps but if they are yellow jackets and your ceilings are drywall (wallboard or whatever you call it) they may be making a nest from the gypsum. They don't appear to eat it but they do use it to make their nest. Result is a nice round hole through the gypsum that doesn't extend through the lower layer of paper or paint. You can check by lightly tapping the ceiling in the area in which you hear the munching.

My house and work shop are full of wasps and hornets, this includes a nest inside my mail box at the end of the driveway (rural style). They all leave me alone, even when I reach my hand in to get the mail! Mud wasps have built a nest above my red 1998 Ducati 900ss and when the larva hatch, bits of dried mud rain down on that Italian paint job but no damage.

At my previous place of residence, wasps would nest in the chimney every summer. When fall arived and I fired up the oil furnace, the entire basement would fill up with a cloud of buzzing fury and I would swat them for hours. The dead wasps were so numerous that the floor would be covered. Again, no real damage and not a single sting in all of these years.

To be clear, here in Ontario, when fall arives, it does so with two r^s

Don't sweat the spelling too much here Merky, very few seem to. BTW, I'm in Richmond Hill, just north of TO.

I've had extremely good success with wasp and hornet killer spray available at most drugstores (chemists) or hardware stores. Havent been stung yet.

At the risk of upsetting the live and let live advocates I suggest getting the wasp and hornet spray that goes 20+feet and soaking the nest down real good. Much safer to do it at night when they are all in the nest. My father in law got attacked severly by accidently running over a nest with his tractor. My wife an I and my dog have also been stung by paper wasps and bald faced hornets. Fortunately we are not allergic. For someone who is allergic an attack can be fatal. I am now trying to get rid of a bald faced hornets nest in the peak of my garage roof. The hornets can be particularly agressive. This nest is about 10' around and quite evil looking besides being in a high traffic area. It's gotta go.

I can personally attest to the aggressive nature of the bald-faced hornets. They seem to attack on a whim. But a 10' (around = circumference?) nest? Not 10"? Is that some kind of Guinness Book record?

Sorry, poor terminology. It looks to be about 8-10" dia. and about 10" tall conical going to a small 1' dia hole at the bottom. They build it in layers starting at the top and working their way down to the tip which is the entrance. The one near where my wife got attacked was about twice that size on the edge of our woods. There are some interesting web sites on the subject. On one I saw a pic of a nest in France that looked to be about 3 feet dia. Scary!

As a lad, I was forced to go visit my grandparents that lived fifty miles from the nearest town in Idaho. Looking back, I wouldn't have traded those times for anything.

They had a cabin - no indoor plumbing, no electricity, and no running water! We're talking real "Grizzly Adams" log cabin. Anyway, I was amazed at the size of bumble bees and honey bees! They were at least three times the size you see in California!

We took many long walks through the forests, always with a dog, of course, just to let the cougars and grizzlies know that we were coming. However, the point is in this rough, distant country, there was always something trying to sting or bite you. It was like "Hey! who brought the candy into the forest!!!"

Screw the grizzlies, just keep me away from the ticks and the horse flies!!!

That sounds idylic for ones childhood....no such luck for me as a kid...best thing we had was an old overgrown brickworks with a couple of ponds...plenty of wildlife but now't as scary as Grizzlies or Cougars...... 'Mum Mum can we have a Grizzly'.... 'We'll see...now run along..there's a good boy....'

grown ups are nooo fun!

Yeh, that whole fig/fly lifescycle thing is ludicrously complex...I read about it one of Dawkins books... Climbing Mount Improbable I think.

I am reminded of a situation I ran into back in my younger days. I was working in the woods to help clear a forest camp when my boss ran the chainsaw into a hornets (yellowjackets) nest. Those suckers were very upset!! One of them landed on my wrist and started stinging the hell out of me. The rest of the crew was screaming "HIT IT BILL!! HIT IT BILL!! Of course I could not because "If you hit them, they will sting you". I did go ahead and hit it, but the funniest thing was yet to come. One of the people who was laughing the hardest got a yellowjacket down the back of his pants... and he got stung worse than I did. It is so funny when I think of it today...

Anyhow, wasp were we talking about??

Bill

Hornets are another matter altogether. Big, really big, like Buick big! And very bad tempered. While the hive numbers are usually small, they're so big and venomous that a hornet attack can often be fatal.

They're such a problem in Japan, that the foresters seek out and post signs near hornet nests. Later, they send in the exterminators. No ecological quarter is given!

We can't just go out and buy that sort of stuff over here. Everything has to be licenced, and DEFRA would be down on anyone suppling it like a tonne of rectangular building items. Del, if you are at all worried, contact the pest control department at your local council, they will advise you on the best course of action, and if that is to remove, they will do it for free. (My Grandfather was pest control officer in Esher, got called out one day and had a door opened by that Anthea Redfern in a negligee! Brucie wasn't about to get his autograph, though...)

Cheers....good game, good game

Del, I would let them be there if they do not enter your rooms. We had that problem two times:

At first they came into our living room and I didn`t know from where - until I realised that they came through the drying cracks of our wooden house. I fixed those with silicone and everything was quiet.

Secondly they thought they might live well under the step between our kitchen and terrace with the result that we couldnt get in or out without being attacked. I had good results with coolant spray to get them slow and friendly and a sharp water jet attack after freezing them. Now its silent. The hornets we have now are in a tree some meters away.
Regards Uwe

Hi uweka,

"the drying cracks of our wooden house. I fixed those with silicone"

You probably sealed them permanently within the inner and outer walls. Sort of "entoombed" the critters eh?

"I had good results with coolant spray to get them slow and friendly"

Was that Freon by chance? That'll sure slow them down all right.

P.S. An earlier poster suggested the critters in Del's overhang might be yellow jackets. FYI: yellow jackets make their nests in the ground. Heaven help you if you inadvertently step on it. Those buggers HURT, as I can attest!

Pesky varmins. I entombed one lot that had got in under the roof at the north, using some self-expanding foam. Three weeks later, after getting back from holiday, there were 50-odd in the upstairs toilet upon arrival home with jetlag, 35 of them dead. When we pitched the roof over the extension, the site of the nest became evident during the installation of a 2-way lighting circuit cable...

Two years later and another lot had found their way in between the window frame and a tiny gap in the render to the south. The local hardware superstore did very nicely out of that one, thank you, as various fluids and sealants were applied to no avail. The local council has a very, very, very, very nice man that comes out to squirt substances all over the place and it seems to have done the trick - until next year?

It's when a hornet flies in through one kitchen window and out the other that things start to get a bit heated. Living in a neighbour-free zone can be difficult sometimes.

Well, I'd say your hearing is just a little too good. Since you don't like killing things, I'd suggest that you take up skeet and trap shooting, which will do two things for you: 1) You will eventually want to kill something real, and 2) Your hearing will eventually degrade to the point that you won't be able to hear them munching on your house.

Have you ever been stung on the lip by yellow jackets? it is very unpleasant. I watched a friend get stung 21 times when she hit an old stump with a machete and she went into some sort of coma and nearly died. Around N. Ga. we also have these carpenter bees that drill/chew small 3/8" holes into any exposed wood and they do big structural damage. If you can't get wasp spray then use mineral spirits or Bar-B Que starter it melts their wings so they fall to the ground. I hate to kill living things as much as anyone but wasps and hornets are fair game in my opinion.

pipewelder

Thanks all..

I recon it's 50% for kill 'em 50% leave 'em alone...

So I've decided, I'll kill 50%...I'll be interviewing them individually over the next few days to decide which ones survive.

Actually I'll leave 'em, but keep an eye on the situation just in case.

If you smoke them out, you'll just be driving them away, not killing them.

I suggest you use the sofa since they seem to produce copious amounts of smoke when set on fire .

A friend of mine with 60 employees had this problem. Wasps were seen entering a crevice in his building about 10 feet off the ground. So he went and bought one of those raid wasp killers sprays, climbed up a ladder and sprayed the whole thing into the hole and then filled the hole with putty.

In about 10 minutes a few hundred very angry wasps were zooming back and forth insid his factory space. Soon all the employees were outside looking in.

No work done that day, pro wasp killer called, fumigated the place and left. All OK next day.

SO make sure the wasps have no other way out into the work area if you spray.

As long as we can join in with live web-cam interviews! we live in a democratic world ( even though it is held in the hands of a few!) and would like to know that all is done above board with no dog collars or submissive postures involved! I have come along way from torturing live wasps in hollowed out acorns with pins and magnifying glasses (I was only about 10 OK) and have embraced the beast irregardless of number of legs or if it has a sting or bite! After all, we are all in this shit together (can I say shit in public or do I put a few **** in its place?) Anyway, If they step on your turf and you are no longer the alpha male then I guess it out with the spray or the Hoover!

That was me, I forgot to sign in! Anyway, be careful, you don't want to end up like this!

Or this!

Been there done that!

When I was at our village junior school the headmistress kept bees, chickens and had a vegetable garden. The kids were allowed to help, this icluded sawing up fallen pine trees with a big two-man saw and splitting logs with wedges and a huge mallet.

One day I was coming back from playing football (past the hives) all hot and sweaty and the bees took exception to this and I got them over my face and in my hair... I was stung all down one side so I looked really weird. Got a day off school!

These days, none of those activities would be allowed and there would be an outcry if a kid got stung like that ..... and we call it progress?

That head teacher was great...it kept the kids busy, used up their energy, taught them plenty and you were only allowed to help if you were well behaved.

When I was about 20, me and my mates went to Donnington for the bike racing, we were the pit crew for my mate! anyway on that fateful day a bee landed on my hand, unfortunately I had a pint of cider in it which (after a knee jerk reaction) I threw all over my pit mate! the bee took a dislike to this and stung him on his upper lip! Do you remember Plug out of the Beano! I say no more! We ended up on the floor in fits of laughter! as for Steve, he ended up with a phobia of insects!

Yeh..Plug!... LOL

(shameful waste of pint tho' )

I think the rest of the world are now mystified!

Aside to being dangerous to children an other living things, they can do significant damage to the structure of your home if the are inside the space where the ceiling joists are. The cost to repair this type of damage can be very expensive. I am dealing with this issue right now on an extension to my home, which is also a flat top. I am in the process of removing the roof to replace damaged wood and remove excessive mud, of which they make the nest. Cost, doing all work myself, will exceed $2000.00 US.

I really don't like chemical sprays but will use them as moderately as possible. My family and grandchildren are more important to me than any negative effect the sprays may cause.

Del,

I have never heard wasps munch anything!

Even the HUGE Carpenter Bees we get here in North Carolina, US do not make noise when the eat wood, and eat wood they do! You see some 1/2 inch holes in a beam and a pile of bee poop under the hole and you know you have problems.

Are you sure you do not have some other inhabitants up there, like mice, rats or squirrels?

As for me, when something starts to eat my house I consider it an act of war and respond accordingly.

I exagerated a tad, but yes I can hear them...

Maybe it's just them scurrying about and doing their funky thing rather than actually eating the timber...that's my dilema...are they getting rotting wood from elsewere for the nest or are they eating the joists/rafters or whatever you call 'em!

They are just small wasps not hornets or anything spectacular.

Where I had nests in the loft there wasn't any sign of damage....

Are we talking wasps or termites?! Since when do wasps eat wood? I thought they were predacious or parasitically on other insects. So when do they eat wood?!

They don't eat the wood...they chew it up to make their 'paper' nests....but I'm not sure if the take old rotted timber or my joist!..

Maybe If I leave 'em a pile of newspapers they'd use them...(joke- ish?).

On the other hand, a well tossed cherry bomb should take care of all your problems. When in doubt, blow 'em up!

I'm not sure how a cherrybomb would help!

I'm sure we can design one in some how!

Just gun the engine into their nest... Now is not the time to switch to a hybrid!

Supplies: 1 ladder (use as needed), 1 hand held propane torch with flame spreader tip, 1 match

Proceedure:

1. Walk past nest and determine which wasp is the guard (lookout, second story man, whatever). It will reposition itself to watch you as you move back and forth.
2. If needed, set up the ladder near the nest, BUT NOT DIRECTLY UNDER IT, without greatly disturbing the the wasps.
3. Step back about 20 feet.
4. Light the torch. Set to high flame.
5. Get a fix on the guard wasp.
6. Drink a Red Bull. (optional)
7. Rush in going straight for the guard. (It will be the first to attack) Wave the torch around rapidly. You are not barbequing, just burning their wings so they can't chase you. Be aware there will be MANY angry falling objects. This step must take no more than 2 seconds to complete.
8. Run like hell, not looking back, for at least 100 feet.

This proceedure is usually effective in reducing the wasps by about 80%. Wait a day and repeat as necessary.

Disclaimer: The above proceedure is entirely ficticious and in no way represents what will probably happen. Only an idiot would even think of trying something as stupid as this, even though it works. IT SHOULD NOT BE TRIED BY ANYONE!! If you do try it, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.

9. call fire brigade.

10 watch house burn down, before they arive

11 Observe wasps flying in and out of smouldering pile.

12 Run quickly away from wife....

13. When far enough away from wife, turn, smile slyly and say "Well honey, no more wasps!"

14. Run quickly from wife (again)....

I don't know what kind of wasps you have in England, but as for the US, they're generally benign. They make rather small nests, usually on the outside of a house. If you're peaceful, you can get quite close to the nests without being attacked. Even "mud daubers" - wasps that use mud to make their nests are also rather easy going.

The only wasp-like critter that makes a large nest in low access places, and are on the touchy side are "Yellow Jackets." Not only do they have rapid-fire, repeating stingers, they also have fairly nasty jaws. Are these the guys that have got into your roof?

No no no...

Like everything else in England our wasps are MUCH BIGGER than yours,

These are about 8" long...but they are smartly dressed and wear bowler hats...

Their nests are mostly made of chewed up copies of the 'Times'.

But seriously they are small (about 1/2" stripey jobs) and relively benign, but can be a nuisance if you are eating out on the patio. We do get Hornets too (~1.7215"), had one the other year gorging on rotting plums (we'd had a glut) so he was drunk ! We left him alone 'cos ya don't wanna mess with a drunk Hornet!

Especially if they're from Scotland!

"What er yoo lookin at!!"

Your wasps, do they have that "no waist" look or do they have a more solid type body?

They are classic insect construction head thorax abdomen... teensy weensy wasp waist between stripy abdomen (or arse as we call it technically) and thorax (or bit in the middle)...

Jeez do you want me to count the stripes?

That would be helpful and funny, at least from here.

OK, so you don't have yellow jackets, you have wasps. Which is a relatively good thing. Wasps usually reside in small numbers and are less hostile. Yellow jackets, on the other hand, tend to live together in larger numbers, are more aggressive, and are carnivorous. They's likes their meat!!!

Yellow jackets can be hell in the summer during a barbecue. The smell of cooking meat brings them in for miles. And they'll take it right off your plate! About the only thing that works to keep them away is to hang a few day old fish somewhere up wind from the picnic. They'll pass you by and head for the fish.

When I was in southern California, I encountered the ocational yellow jacket at a picnic, especially on meat or in soda cans. Also there were the usually small nests of mud dauber wasps which I discovered eat spiders. I moved to NE Pennsylvania and the paper wasps and bald faced hornets are everywhere. Unsder any piece of sheet metal or iron, every house eave, inside every barn roof, you will find wasp nests. Accidently disturbing one is not fun.

Yes, most wasps are parasitic. They paralyse their pray with a sting, then take it back to the nest or sometimes dig a burrow, deposit their victim and lay an egg on it. Still alive, the host acts as a living meal for the larvea... I wonder where they got the idea for Alien? This is why on hot, summer afternoons, you can watch wasps slowly cruising into and around the ivy... They're looking for a nice, juicy spider to parasites for their young.

In Southern California desserts, you can run into black wasps several inches long and outfitted with bright orange wings. These wasps parasites trantulas... and the tarantulas don't stand a chance. Another rather small species parasites tomato horn worms. They are able to pierce the body of the Caterpillar without hurting it. The reason for the piercing is to lay their eggs inside of the Caterpillar. You can tell an infected tomato horn worm by it's enormous size. The wasps larvae produce a hormone that makes the Caterpillar a growing/eating machine. When it's time for the wasps to hatch, it's the end of the road for the host.

One more... Did you know that all figs are pollinated by a very tiny wasp that lays it's eggs inside the budding immature fruit of the fig. They grow and eventually leave the fig before it's ripe for eating. The larvae that didn't make it are dissolved by strong enzymes within the fig. So you would never know that they had been there.

That's really disgusting! I've never have been fond of figs or tomato worms either for that matter. I first learned about the spider thing when I kept finding dead spiders on my work bench. I finally looked up and saw a small mud wasp nest. Then I saw them carrying big spiders into the nest.

Good discussion point the whole 'disgusting' thing...it's all a bit arbitary/culturally based.

I know people who won't eat heart.... but will eat kidney ? D'uh?

Where I live deer hunting is very big. Yet I encounter people who will buy a hamburger at McD's but will not eat venison.

I've never had or want to eat a McDonalds or Burger King burger...

I find them disgusting, the smell as you walk past those places is YUCK!!

John.

That's offal! Hmmmm.....kidneys.....

How would you like your own sitcom? That was great!

I had some flying critters in my home that came in around the propane pipe. I put a couple of moth balls up there, and they got rid of the problem. It may drive them out without killing them.

In your case, you might put in some mice to eat the wasps, then later you can have a feast on the mice!

S

They have rather sharp sides. And potent when they sting. I had a golf ball size lump on the inside of the arm where one of the little light brown ones stung me (at least for 2 months).

I am a live and let live sort of guy, but my wife and kids are super allergic to stings and I am usually hysterically instructed to kill them (she had a relative who died from a bee sting). Mostly when the nest is very small.

I use a page crumpled up newspaper set fire to it and burn and remove the waxy nest.

I have a theory that they can sense fear and if you approach them without fear they won't attack. they have only stung me when I accidentally pressed them against something.

A young lad goes into a pet shop and asks,

"'Scuse me, mister. I wanna buy a wasp."

The proprietor says,

"I'm sorry, sonny, we don't sell wasps."

The young lad protests:

"Owwww. You've got one in the window!"

Smirk.....

So you remember that pet shop, Del?

I'd be sure they aren't Wood-bores before you get too comfortable.

They drill a 1/4 inch holes through the timber and eat the lumber, while making a habi-trail out of the beams. They are about 3 inches long with a very sharp and painful sting via the multiple sharp barbed tail section. When they swarm, (as they did to my uncle when he cut through a massive birch tree), they can cause heart failure and shock. He was hospitalized for days until the swelling and potential liver damages were cleared. I'm told the cure is often as poisoning as the attack. Bites of fifty to eighty count are not uncommon.

Hornet bites can be very poisonous. Small children and pets can be overcome easily. If they have allergies they can die in minutes after being attacked.

Wasps kill bees, so they are fair game.

Destroy the hornets or wasps, as you call them. Have someone do it for you, before someone gets hurt badly; like you. Look for Liquid Gold. It shoots 20 feet and kills in seconds.

If you decide to use the instructions posted by the others, please, please, please; have a friend shoot the video and post it.

DO NOT KILL THE BEES, PLEASE!

Hi Moto,

The wood borers around here are no more that about 1" in length. They do, as you say, drill a perfect 1/4" entrance hole in untreated timber. I think, once inside, they make a turn and create tunnels within the wood. They are correctly called "carpenter bees" and are mainly solitary by nature.

What part of the world are you in that has 3" long, swarming, carpenter bees? You call them "wood borers" but I wonder if what you are describing is something other than a carpenter bee? Maybe some type of hornet perhaps?

Regards,

-John

I'm just kidding... (I figured that last post would set the hardcore environmentalists ablaze!)

First identify that species!

Is it ichneumons?

These insects I'm speaking about are big and scary. We have them by the truckload throughout the Northeastern US but they live everywhere in various forms.

They are called Wood Borers by woodsmen, but not all will sting you. Might make you jump around and make your heart go fast, though. (Yes there is a wood borer beetle, also). Lumberjacks aren't very species specific and ten to group them all as "one who bores through wood". Keeps it simple.

Here's a great place to verify the species before you break out the exterminating gear.

Keep in mind, some of the scariest insects alive are actually considered a beneficial species because they exterminate deadly species for us. Most can be lured away from your home, if you are smarter than a bug.

Here's a list of some of the more gruesome bugs and weather they are good guys or cannon fodder. Wear goggles, bug mesh face gear and long sleeves when hunting tens of thousands of dangerous insects and shoot that video!

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ichneumons.html

*** No, they are NOT correctly called carpenter bees! That's the big fuzzy ones! He said wasp!

Do you often encounter these insects, trying to stick their ovipositers in your ear?

Yeah! One day around the back porch of my dad's house, I found this thing that looked like a green cigar neatly tucked behind the moulding. I carefully removed it and brought it inside, where I left it in the window.

A few months later, while passing the window, I saw three little bees trying to get out. So I opened the door and let them go. When I inspected the "green cigar," I found that it was actually three chambers made of leaves and arranged in a linear configuration. Each had been filled with a good supply of pollen.

I don't think these little guys would ever be unwelcome in my house.

I went out to kill some wasps once. Have you tried shooting them on the wing with a .22?

A 12 guage works better.

I prefer a heat seeking ground to air missile, followed by a barrage of 150mm cannon fire, and to top it off, round the clock carpet bombing by B-52s.

Some people ask "Why don't you just use a fly swatter." A fly swatter?! Well, I say where's the bloody sport in that?!

'Tis unsporting to use even a .22! I only stopped using a stiletto 'cos of time restrictions...

Yeh it's a bitch to aim steady in heels!

ER removes 'em for Archery... maybe you should try flip flops?

The trick is to stand on firm ground...

The First Zymurgy Law:

The only way to control a a bunch of wasps, once released from their hive, is to build around them a bigger hive

The second Zymurgy Law:

You can't even begin to do it. Why bother in the first place?

Isn't it one of the Murphy laws?

A few years ago we were renovating a very old house. An expert was engaged who prescribed new purlins as the roof appeared to be pushing the walls out. About 50cuft of timber was heaved into place by a fantastic builder. Once the the dust had settled and we'd started to forget about Living Without (cooker, bath, toilet etc etc) we became aware of company in bed at night, well just above the bedactually. For at least a couple of weeks we were perplexed by this extraordinary munching noise, very clear at night with little background noise. Then it dawned on us 'someone's eating our new roof!'. I didn't find any evidence of Actual Building Harm but you sometimes see garden furniture they've stripped the surface off and think 'what else do they do?

Discourage them with something but keep the flame low when operating in the presence of dry timber.

Wife has recently started keeping bees, quite different, their nest smells great. Hives in mid build freshen your living room.

there are two ways to go about this:-

1) Call in a professional, keep well out of the way, the car is a good place to hide, take beer and a good book (or girlfriend!).

2) Ignore them till winter, remove nest, seal all holes up.

If you go for 2), then make yourself some simple wasp traps ( so that you can still use the garden/kitchen/bedroometc, place them everywhere where the wasps should not go, several at a time).

The Method.

You cut off the top at the widest point of an empty plastic water or drink bottle, eg. the complete neck, the part must be as be as wide as the bottle body as the will need to be clipped together (if my description is not good enough, I will make a diagram or picture, just ask).

Half fill the bottom part with a mixture of honey or jam or beer (or all three!) and water, mix well. Put the neck back inside the top of the cut off bottle, but upside down now, so that the widest part of the cutoff neck is at the top, with the old screw cap opening at the bottom, leaving at least 1/2" between screw cap opening and liquid. (Do not forget to leave the screw cap off!). This will guide the insects in through the wide part, but make it difficult for them to fly out without landing in the liquid and drowning....

Retain the two parts together with paper clips or similar.

The unit is re-usable after emptying the dead wasps on the compost when full.

Always add a teaspoon of vinegar if you get bees going in there, the vinegar will drive them off and other "good" insects.....

Place well out of reach of small children and stupid adults!

Nice trap.... !

They are no bother as the nest is out of the way round the side of the house...OK it's above the new patio which we spent lots of time and cash on ... but hey we have 2 patios.

Mrs Cat wants me to build a 3rd. ! ..she must have a patio fetish!

PS. I always thought that Patio Doors was an Irish folk singer!

(Patty O'Doors... for anyone who is still asleep..)

Why if I had a horse, I'd horse-whip you for that joke.

Haven't tried the torch method yet? I know you want to...

Ah, A new version of the jam pot trap!

Get a jam pot, put in half inch of jam, beer, sweet stuff and water (only a bit) and mix well, cover the pot with cling film. shake the pot a bit so that all surfaces are coated and then make a few small holes (big enough for the wasp to pass) in the cling film! place around the garden and catch wasps! Thanks for the vinegar tip!

Yours is simpler, mine is prettier!!!! So There!!!!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder my friend! As long as they both catch wasps and don't get blown over in the wind then it's good for me!!!

...of course!!!

Did you like the vinegar trick?

You got me good and proper on that one Andy! (he said scurrying off to re-arm his traps!)

My intention was not to get you, really. We all have info, we all like sharing it....

I was told about this trick by a local bee keeper about 15 years ago. Seemingly it just stops the "good and wanted" insects dying unnecessarily....only the "bad" ones are not put off by the vinegar, God knows why!

Dosage that I have used is between a teaspoon and a desert spoon full for each jar...whether that is enough or even too much, I cannot say, sorry.

Let me know your "results" eventually please.

Here in Spain, they use bees to pollinate the tomatoes but, it tends to draw out the wasps and the hornets as well! The bees are good for my plants but unfortunately, they like my traps! I will asses the quantum vinegar theory and report back asap! You mention the Good and the Bad, but what about the Ugly? Maybe a small mirror would scare them off! (LOL)

...and us as well!!!!!

Experiment with dosages, you appear to have a possibility to bring some science into the subject with your mixture of bees and wasps.....

I have just seen a documentary, on the dwindling number of bees, as a world-wide phenomenon, which is happening in alarming numbers, not just to honey makers, but also to ecologists.

I hope we can clearly see, that this is a potential to lead to world-hunger, because bees are major pollinating agents here on the planet.

Hmmm. if we start a thread on ... 'is the EM Smog harming bees' we'll have a re-run of the 'is it safe to live under powerlines 'thing...not to mention the dowsing.

Right...what happens if you have a homing pidgeon with a bee on it's back flying beneath power lines?

(I told you no to mention dowsing!)

On a local level, not in our back yard! Bees mutliplying faster than I can build hives for the little blighters. On no it's the 'taters that have the blight. Anyway

The business of the bees disappearing or getting lost is another shocking discovery, and they have veroa to contend with. My concern is that we have introduced so much Stuff into the environment so rapidly that its going to be impossible to assess what harm is done by what substance/emission.

But genetic understanding will save us.

I saw a show on TV about some hornets in Tibet or somewhere over in that area that are HUGE. I am thinking that they said the things could grow to 3-5 inches long. The sting from these hornets was supposedly super bad and could even kill a human if they got multiple stings. I am glad we don't have those whoppers here in N. Georgia. I don't have good luck around bees, wasps or hornets they always seem to know to swarm me and sting, even honey bees have done this. I am sure it is because I am so sweet and they smell this.(yeah right) Does anyone know anything more about those gigantic hornets?

pipewelder

I would say that they are fairly normal Hornet size for Germany (and Texas???), they are also a protected specie too! Very expensive if you kill one and its gets around.....

I just keep still and after a short inspection, they fly off.

They sound like a Vietnam Huey when near your ears.......scary.....

A friend of mine nearly died after multiple stings after he accidentally destroyed the nest with a bulldozer.....10 days in the hospital brought him round......

Year, sounds like they need protecting!