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Sacha[_3_] · 10-07-2008, 07:23 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 10/7/08 18:42, in article , "Broadback"
wrote:

Sacha wrote:
On 10/7/08 17:35, in article ,
"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

........of the wasps. We've just had a wasps nest destroyed and the
man from
the council said "good job too". Apparently what we had trying to nest in
the eaves of the tea room kitchen, were German wasps. I don't think I've
ever heard of them but according to him they're smaller, darker than our
natives and very very vicious. He said that while the well-mannered
English
wasp will mostly ignore you if you don't bother it, these will positively
attack you if you're near them.
Anyone else had any experience of these wasps?
Yes, they are bad news. There was one area of the estate I do a bit of
work on sometimes where a colony started, and I used to carry a large
springy fly-swatter. I think I would have won Wombledom that year.

Found the nest and one night, tipped a quantity of shotgun powder into
it through a funnel, lit a fuse to it, and WHOOOMPH! that was that.

Why do I get the impression you enjoyed yourself *enormously*? ;-) The
more I here of these things, the more relieved I am that they've gone to the
wasp nest in the sky!
I never worried about wasps until a few years ago when I got stung
several times. The next time the reaction was terrible, so now I am very
wary. As a bit of an aside I seem to have a wasp nest in an abandoned
mole/mouse hole at the edge of my lawn. Is this normal, all other wasp
nests I have seen are outside and consist of a "paper" ball?

I think you are right to be wary. I'm extremely allergic to bee stings and
now carry an Epipen with me. As to your wasps in the ground, a friend of
mine ended up in hospital while digging her garden one day. Her spade had
gone right into a wasp's nest. Whether it's actually usual, I don't know
but it happens.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon