Wasps Nest In Loft

[balli hi]

Last time it was Blue !Removed! nesting in the eves of my home, now i have a potentially more serious problem , a large wasps nest in the loft with the entrance just under the eves, a couple of days ago my daughter started complaining of wasps just outside her bedroom window and i went and had a look, i could see wasps going in and out of a small gap just under the eves, i then went into the loft and could see a sizable nest between the roof felt and loft insulation much like the one in this photo

I contacted the council, they advised that unless the wasps are causing a nuisance i could possibly wait until September / October when the nest will die off of its own accord, other than that there's a 3 week waiting list and they charge £80-plus to kill it off.

Just wondering if anyone has ever tackled a wasps nest themselves, any USEFUL advice would be greatly appreciated, iv'e already tried telling the wasps to buzz off but their not taking any notice lol :D

[Jan&tone]

Hair lacquer and then run like hell....

It stops them flying but takes a few minutes to work, then some wasp killer spray from a supermarket.

Much cheaper than the council!

Don't forget to dispose of the nest when they're all dead.

[Uber_Luke]

That looks pretty big, how easy is the nest to get too? I wouldn't fancy spraying them whilst hanging out a window or up a ladder. what about a hose pipe, power washer from ground level?

Did you tell the wasps to buzz off using a wasps voice?

[balli hi]

lol, no that's probably why their still there.

I can get to the nest easier from the loft, but the only way to get to it from the outside is by leaning out of the window, i can't get close with a ladder because the nest entrance is directly above the center of our conservatory roof which is of the apex type.

[acetip]

Yes Wasps nests are a nuisance,but you have to admire the work thats gone into the nest.

Some councils used remove pests for free,now they charge, its the sign of the times.

[Chris81]

I found a huge one in my loft in October last year - like a massive beachball. Not knowing the first thing about them I called the council's pest control (£25, so its a lot cheaper up north!) and he came out said 'whoa thats the biggest one I've ever seen' and he sprayed some stuff into it and lit another product which smoked out the loft. As it was October there was only the queen and a couple of drones left, so it was otherwise empty. In its prime there will have been hundreds if not thousands of wasps in it. He didn't even remove it - said it wasn't dangerous and they wouldnt return but I gave it 2 weeks and removed it by hand. Layers of honeycomb inside like a tower block. Absolutely amazing. Shame it never came out in one piece but to be honest it wouldnt have fitted through the loft hatch.

If I was you I'd wait a couple of months till they've all died off, then spray it with some product from a hardware store just to be sure then remove it by hand.

[balli hi]

Thanks everyone for your contributions

[Bizarra]

A couple of Summers ago I had one beside my front door in a disused meter recess, fronted with a wooden door with a hole to view the absent meter.

I ignored the wasps & had no trouble. They came to know me When I'd be going in, I'd feel the tickle of a wasp touching my cheek {Facial } & having identified me they would go off about their waspy business leaving me in peace ;)

Tis a wonder that I got any post!I used peer into the box @ their nest & there was always one doing sentry duty @ the entrance, regarding me with a beady eye.

What was the outcome? My Son sprayed them without my knowledge R.I.P. wasps

[balli hi]

A couple of Summers ago I had one beside my front door in a disused meter recess, fronted with a wooden door with a hole to view the absent meter.

I ignored the wasps & had no trouble. They came to know me When I'd be going in, I'd feel the tickle of a wasp touching my cheek {Facial } & having identified me they would go off about their waspy business leaving me in peace ;)

Tis a wonder that I got any post!I used peer into the box @ their nest & there was always one doing sentry duty @ the entrance, regarding me with a beady eye.

What was the outcome? My Son sprayed them without my knowledge R.I.P. wasps

Lol Vic ,

I have decided to sit tight and wait till they die off of their own accord, not much sign of that happening any time soon though, we've been getting the odd few in the house every day when we leave the windows open, they also come into the kitchen as well through the open windows or door, but they are soon dealt with with my new hand held zapper lol, its the type that looks like a small tennis racket that is powered by a couple of AA batteries, and it really works, i can personally vouch for that , when i first got it i pressed the button and touched the mesh with my finger but nothing happened and i thought it didn't work, i tried it again only this time pushing my finger through the wire mesh to the wire in the middle, boy did it give me a jolt :censor: , it near took my !Removed! finger off, it made a loud pop and there was some smoke coming from my now charred finger :lol2: i had no idea that a couple of little batteries could deliver such a jolt my son thought it was hilarious, near wet himself laughing .

[Uncle Bob]

I've removed two wasp nests from my loft over the years, both about football size, this is what i done...

Tools......broom handle, spray can of wasp killer, tape, and a henry Hoover. Strap the spray can to the broom handle, add all the extensions to the Hoover pipe, turn on Hoover.

Put tape over the top of the jet on the spray can, so its spraying continuously, poke can into nest, let the whole can empty, turning the can so it spray all around the nest, with the Hoover running ,start to Hoover the nest up, including any wasps making a run for it.

Once hovered up, take Hoover bag out , put in bin liner and dispose of.

The job is a it of a fun fair ride, you need to be on your toes, the last one i done was in a very tight spot in the loft so no quick escape but its the amount of spray you pump into the nest that kills them.

[korat102]

Just remember that if you do disturb them near their nest, they'll attack a light source so if you're carrying a torch you'll probably get an even bigger belt than that little zapper you stuck your finger into :)

[balli hi]

You don't live anywhere near Essex do you Bob mate every time i go into the loft and check on the nest there's always 5 or 6 of em crawling on the Shell of the nest no doubt on sentry duty, the nest is a bit larger than a football, more like a beech ball really, i have taken some photo's of our actual nest now and will post them up when i get a chance, i somehow don't have the bottle to want to tackle the nest myself given its location , i'd feel a lot happier if it were near ground level where i could spray the poison in and then leg it, knowing my luck something would go wrong if i tackled it in the loft and the little buggers would swarm out and sting the crap out of me .

[Uncle Bob]

If you don't fancy doing it , i don't blame you , no one likes getting stung. The torch/bright light thing is very true, the only time i know we have a new wasp nest is after the two 100 watt bulbs have been on for a while, wasps start flying around them but that works to my advantage, they fly to the light , get burnt by the hot bulb, fall to the floor and i get chance to deal with them, using a size 12

Yes, if it goes wrong in the loft and the spray can stops working, after you've poked it in the nest , you are well in the !Removed! !

This was one of the nests i dealt with, you have to admire their engineering skills, this is all made from chewed up wood and spat back out to form the nest.

[balli hi]

The entrance to the nest is just at the top right of the rafter, you can just make out a few wasps at the entrance.

This is the actual nest.

[balli hi]

I'm curious to learn just how long it would have taken the wasps to build their nest, i certainly didn't notice it when i went into the loft to retrieve our suitcases before setting off on holiday in mid July, the first i knew of it was when my daughter complained that there were a lot of wasps flying around outside her bedroom window a few days after we returned, anyways, i have researched some information that may be of interest, apparently the Queen wasp will start to build her nest in early spring after hibernating through the winter, the eventual occupancy can consist of anything between 250 to approximately 5000 wasps . its anyone's guess as to how many wasps are contained in my photo above.

Nesting habits

Various wasp nests

The type of nest produced by wasps can depend on the species and location. Many social wasps produce nests that are constructed predominantly from paper pulp. The kind of timber used varies from one species to another and this is what can give many species a nest of distinctive colour. Social Wasps also use other types of nesting material that become mixed in with the nest and it is common to find nests located near to plastic pool or trampoline covers incorporating distinct bands of colour that reflect the inclusion of these materials that have simply been chewed up and mixed with wood fibres to give a unique look to the nest. Again each species of social wasp appears to favour its own specific range of nesting sites. D. media and D. sylvestris prefer to nest in trees and shrubs, others like V. germanica like to nest in cavities that include holes in the ground, spaces under homes, wall cavities or in lofts. By contrast solitary wasps are generally parasitic or predatory and only the latter build nests at all. Unlike honey bees, wasps have no wax producing glands. Many instead create a paper-like substance primarily from wood pulp. Wood fibers are gathered locally from weathered wood, softened by chewing and mixing with saliva. The pulp is then used to make combs with cells for brood rearing. More commonly, nests are simply burrows excavated in a substrate (usually the soil, but also plant stems), or, if constructed, they are constructed from mud.

Solitary wasps

The nesting habits of solitary wasps are more diverse than those of social wasps. Mud daubers and pollen wasps construct mud cells in sheltered places typically on the side of walls. Potter wasps similarly build vase-like nests from mud, often with multiple cells, attached to the twigs of trees or against walls. Most other predatory wasps burrow into soil or into plant stems, and a few do not build nests at all and prefer naturally occurring cavities, such as small holes in wood. A single egg is laid in each cell, which is sealed thereafter, so there is no interaction between the larvae and the adults, unlike in social wasps. In some species, male eggs are selectively placed on smaller prey, leading to males being generally smaller than females.

Social wasps

The nests of some social wasps, such as hornets, are first constructed by the queen and reach about the size of a walnut before sterile female workers take over construction. The queen initially starts the nest by making a single layer or canopy and working outwards until she reaches the edges of the cavity. Beneath the canopy she constructs a stalk to which she can attach several cells; these cells are where the first eggs will be laid. The queen then continues to work outwards to the edges of the cavity after which she adds another tier. This process is repeated, each time adding a new tier until eventually enough female workers have been born and matured to take over construction of the nest leaving the queen to focus on reproduction. For this reason, the size of a nest is generally a good indicator of approximately how many female workers there are in the colony and some hornets' nests eventually grow to the size of beach balls. Social wasp colonies often have populations of between three and ten thousand female workers at maturity, although a small proportion of nests are seen on a regular basis that are over three feet across and potentially contain upwards of twenty thousand workers and at least one queen. What has also been seen are nests close to one another at the beginning of the year growing quickly and merging with one another to create nests with tens of thousands of workers.Polistes Some related types of paper wasp do not construct their nests in tiers but rather in flat single combs.

Wasps do not reproduce via mating flights like bees. Instead social wasps reproduce between a fertile queen and male wasp; in some cases queens may be fertilized by the sperm of several males. After successfully mating, the male's sperm cells are stored in a tightly packed ball inside the queen. The sperm cells are kept stored in a dormant state until they are needed the following spring. At a certain time of the year (often around autumn), the bulk of the wasp colony dies away, leaving only the young mated queens alive. During this time they leave the nest and find a suitable area to hibernate for the winter.

First stage

After emerging from hibernation during early summer, the young queens search for a suitable nesting site. Upon finding an area for their colony, the queen constructs a basic wood fiber nest roughly the size of a walnut into which she will begin to lay eggs.

Second stage

The sperm that was stored earlier and kept dormant over winter is now used to fertilize the eggs being laid. The storage of sperm inside the queen allows her to lay a considerable number of fertilized eggs without the need for repeated mating with a male wasp. For this reason a single queen is capable of building an entire colony by herself. The queen initially raises the first several sets of wasp eggs until enough sterile female workers exist to maintain the offspring without her assistance. All of the eggs produced at this time are sterile female workers who will begin to construct a more elaborate nest around their queen as they grow in number.

Third stage

By this time the nest size has expanded considerably and now numbers between several hundred and several thousand wasps. Towards the end of the summer, the queen begins to run out of stored sperm to fertilize more eggs. These eggs develop into fertile males and fertile female queens. The male drones then fly out of the nest and find a mate thus perpetuating the wasp reproductive cycle. In most species of social wasp the young queens mate in the vicinity of their home nest and do not travel like their male counterparts do. The young queens will then leave the colony to hibernate for the winter once the other worker wasps and founder queen have started to die off. After successfully mating with a young queen, the male drones die off as well. Generally, young queens and drones from the same nest do not mate with each other; this ensures more genetic variation within wasp populations, especially considering that all members of the colony are theoretically the direct genetic descendants of the founder queen and a single male drone. In practice, however, colonies can sometimes consist of the offspring of several male drones. Wasp queens generally (but not always) create new nests each year, probably because the weak construction of most nests render them uninhabitable after the winter.

Unlike honey bee queens, wasp queens typically live for only one year. Also queen wasps do not organize their colony or have any raised status and hierarchical power within the social structure. They are more simply the reproductive element of the colony and the initial builder of the nest in those species which construct nests.

Not all social wasps have castes that are physically different in size and structure. In many polistine paper wasps and stenogastrines, for example, the castes of females are determined behaviorally, through dominance interactions, rather than having caste predetermined. All female wasps are potentially capable of becoming a colony's queen and this process is often determined by which female successfully lays eggs first and begins construction of the nest. Evidence suggests that females compete amongst each other by eating the eggs of other rival females. The queen may, in some cases, simply be the female that can eat the largest volume of eggs while ensuring that her own eggs survive (often achieved by laying the most). This process theoretically determines the strongest and most reproductively capable female and selects her as the queen. Once the first eggs have hatched, the subordinate females stop laying eggs and instead forage for the new queen and feed the young; that is, the competition largely ends, with the losers becoming workers, though if the dominant female dies, a new hierarchy may be established with a former "worker" acting as the replacement queen. Polistine nests are considerably smaller than many other social wasp nests, typically housing only around 250 wasps, compared to the several thousand common with yellowjackets, and stenogastrines have the smallest colonies of all, rarely with more than a dozen wasps in a mature colony.

[Uncle Bob]

I have to agree, your nest is much bigger than the ones I've dealt with, i would suggest £80 is well spent or look up a local pest control guy in your area.

[Bizarra]

Tut Tut! such blood - thirsty people

It is so much easier to befriend them & let them get to know you. No danger of being stung & no falling off ladders or through attic floors :lol2:

[Karma Supra]

I had a wasp nest in one of my shed with cars parts in a few years back....

I poked it with a stick and got stung in the face :(

[Bizarra]

I had a wasp nest in one of my shed with cars parts in a few years back....

I poked it with a stick and got stung in the face :(

Top of the list of things NOT to do

[balli hi]

There's been a development, nothing to do with me Vic , but there seems to have been a seismic shift to our waspy friends home, i went out in the garden earlier and could see at least 30 to 40 of em swarming around the entrance, so i went up in the loft and could see that the top of the nest has come away from the roof felt, judging by the dip in the loft insulation the nest must weigh a fair bit.

[Uncle Bob]

They will work like hell now to fix the problem.

[Bizarra]

There's been a development, nothing to do with me Vic , but there seems to have been a seismic shift to our waspy friends home, i went out in the garden earlier and could see at least 30 to 40 of em swarming around the entrance, so i went up in the loft and could see that the top of the nest has come away from the roof felt, judging by the dip in the loft insulation the nest must weigh a fair bit.

Funny thing, Balli And

Two neighbouring countries & a language relatively in common

You have "Lofts" & we have "Attics" Your loft is identical to my attic, except that it is tidier :lol2:

[balli hi]

They will work like hell now to fix the problem.

I have just checked out the squatters in the loft, and you were so right, the nest is as good as new, they really are ingenious little creatures

[Karma Supra]

I had a wasp nest in one of my shed with cars parts in a few years back....

I poked it with a stick and got stung in the face :(

Top of the list of things NOT to do

It was infact covered on this very forum

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39827

I just laughed out loud re reading this thread!

[balli hi]

I had a wasp nest in one of my shed with cars parts in a few years back....

I poked it with a stick and got stung in the face :(

It was infact covered on this very forum

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39827

I just laughed out loud re reading this thread!

I enjoyed reading your thread Charlie Nice one :D

There's still no sign of the wasps in my loft of dying off, in fact they are as busy as they have ever been and we've been getting quite a few of em in the house of late, i went up into the loft today for the first time in a few weeks and was amazed to see that the nest has grown, it now has a small extension to the left side of it, i bought a can of Nippon wasp nest destroyer foam a few weeks ago and its looking like i may have to use it, it can be sprayed onto the nest from a safe distance of over 3 metres, so is ideal for my situation, however :D , i'll give my winged squatters a further fortnights grace to clear off of their own accord, and then i'm afraid its the spray foam for them