I just noticed that wasps appear to be nesting insdie a partition wall here-
getting access via an airbrick about 2m above ground level. There is a lot of
activity- I don't know how long they have been there. I have read that by the
end of the year a wasps nest in the ground or in a loft etc may be the size
of an armchair, and would expect that if this is taking place inside a
partition wall, it would achieve about the same overall bulk but be spread
out some metres between the two walls. As far as I can see there is no way
they can get inside the building from the partition. I have read that wasps
are quite beneficial to the environment and especially the gardener so my
inclination is to leave it be, and try to remember not to run towards the
airbrick shouting and waving my arms and banging things, etc. I think a wasps
nest is deserted after one season- I wouldn't be quite so keen if I thought
this was going to repeat year after year.

The question is- can this still go disastrously wrong in some way if I leave
it there?

--
Vacutone

In article m,
Vacutone writes:
|
| I just noticed that wasps appear to be nesting insdie a partition wall here-
| getting access via an airbrick about 2m above ground level. ...
|
| The question is- can this still go disastrously wrong in some way if I leave
| it there?

Yes, but it is MORE likely to go wrong if you try to get rid of it!
And that includes getting someone in to do the job, as you may be
unlucky and pick a cowboy. The chances of a problem are very low
indeed, but never say never.

And don't believe what you read about armchairs - that is very rare,
and almost all nests are MUCH smaller.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Vacutone" wrote in message
s.com...
I just noticed that wasps appear to be nesting insdie a partition wall
here-
getting access via an airbrick about 2m above ground level. There is a lot
of
activity- I don't know how long they have been there.

Probably since May! The critical words are, "I just noticed ... " :-)

I have read that by the
end of the year a wasps nest in the ground or in a loft etc may be the
size
of an armchair,

That would be VERY unusual if you're in UK.

and would expect that if this is taking place inside a
partition wall, it would achieve about the same overall bulk but be spread
out some metres between the two walls. As far as I can see there is no way
they can get inside the building from the partition. I have read that
wasps
are quite beneficial to the environment and especially the gardener so my
inclination is to leave it be, and try to remember not to run towards the
airbrick shouting and waving my arms and banging things, etc. I think a
wasps
nest is deserted after one season- I wouldn't be quite so keen if I
thought
this was going to repeat year after year.

All the above is correct - except that the sprad of the nest will not be
more than a metre, I think, depending on the depth of the cavity. Most wasp
nests are perhaps the volume of a large football but not a large beachball.
Their shape is determined by the space they occupy.

The question is- can this still go disastrously wrong in some way if I
leave
it there?

No. There are some who will advise how to kill the colony but it's not my
advice. Enjoy watching them. Disturbing the nest or trying to kill the
occupants could cause far more defensive action and you won't have made the
slightest difference to the overall population of wasps in your area.

Thanks for being concerned and intelligent about it!

Mary

--
Vacutone

"Vacutone" wrote in message
s.com...
I just noticed that wasps appear to be nesting insdie a partition wall
here-
getting access via an airbrick about 2m above ground level. There is a lot
of
activity- I don't know how long they have been there. I have read that by
the
end of the year a wasps nest in the ground or in a loft etc may be the
size
of an armchair, and would expect that if this is taking place inside a
partition wall, it would achieve about the same overall bulk but be spread
out some metres between the two walls. As far as I can see there is no way
they can get inside the building from the partition. I have read that
wasps
are quite beneficial to the environment and especially the gardener so my
inclination is to leave it be, and try to remember not to run towards the
airbrick shouting and waving my arms and banging things, etc. I think a
wasps
nest is deserted after one season- I wouldn't be quite so keen if I
thought
this was going to repeat year after year.

The question is- can this still go disastrously wrong in some way if I
leave
it there?


I doubt very much whether a wasps' nest in the cavity of a wall will cause
any damage to the structure. You do not need to destroy the nest unless the
wasps cause you a problem. If they do, and you decide to get rid of it, seek
expert assistance.

"Vacutone" wrote in message
s.com...
I just noticed that wasps appear to be nesting insdie a partition wall
here-
..

The question is- can this still go disastrously wrong in some way if I
leave
it there?


Sounds like good cavity wall insulation to me :-)
Don't know about armchair size, but I once had one in a loft that I could
not pull a dustbin bag over when I took it out. The plan was to pull the bag
over it before cutting/breaking it away from the joist to stop bits going
all over the contents of the loft. This was of course after the wasps had
left, I'm not daft enough to try with them in residence.

Mike

"Muddymike" wrote in message
...

"Vacutone" wrote in message
s.com...
I just noticed that wasps appear to be nesting insdie a partition wall
here-
.

The question is- can this still go disastrously wrong in some way if I
leave
it there?


Sounds like good cavity wall insulation to me :-)
Don't know about armchair size, but I once had one in a loft that I could
not pull a dustbin bag over when I took it out. The plan was to pull the
bag over it before cutting/breaking it away from the joist to stop bits
going all over the contents of the loft. This was of course after the
wasps had left, I'm not daft enough to try with them in residence.

Your way is the best. But the shape sometimes determines whether you can put
a bag over it, if it's fixed to joists the nest has to be sawn through and
it means that it's not a nice convenient shape :-)

Mary

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:21:33 +0100, Mary Fisher wrote:

I have read that by the end of the year a wasps nest in the ground or
in a loft etc may be the size of an armchair,

That would be VERY unusual if you're in UK.

and would expect that if this is taking place inside a partition wall,
it would achieve about the same overall bulk but be spread out some
metres between the two walls. As far as I can see there is no way
they can get inside the building from the partition. I have read that
wasps
are quite beneficial to the environment and especially the gardener so
my
inclination is to leave it be, and try to remember not to run towards
the
airbrick shouting and waving my arms and banging things, etc. I think
a
wasps
nest is deserted after one season- I wouldn't be quite so keen if I
thought
this was going to repeat year after year.



All the above is correct - except that the sprad of the nest will not be
more than a metre, I think, depending on the depth of the cavity. Most
wasp nests are perhaps the volume of a large football but not a large
beachball. Their shape is determined by the space they occupy.

I'd go along with the spread a metre or so diameter from the entrance
hole. I had one in the eaves of a loft, that was about 3' long 18" high at
the front and about 9" high at the rear, discovered it at the end of the
season. A little larger than a beach ball...

Thanks for being concerned and intelligent about it!

Agreed if thier flight path or entrance isn't going to bring you and them
into regular close contact leave 'em be. They are good at keeping garden
pests down.

I only have two very slight concerns. One is damp bridging from the outer
to inner skin of the cavity wall via the nest and the other possibilty of
blocked ventilation into the cavity. Wasps using airbricks as access isn't
all that common I wonder if this brick is damaged in some way either
aplastic one with naggered flyscreen or broken brick one making the
ventilation holes just that little bit larger.

When they have died off in the autumn gone it might be worth taking that
brick out and replacing it, at the same time you could clear the cavity of
the nest.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Yes, but it is MORE likely to go wrong if you try to get rid of it!
And that includes getting someone in to do the job, as you may be
unlucky and pick a cowboy. The chances of a problem are very low
indeed, but never say never.

And don't believe what you read about armchairs - that is very rare,
and almost all nests are MUCH smaller.


We've just had a nest in a pyracantha that I'd trained over the end of
the path down the side of the garden. They were buzzing fairly
innocuously at the beginning of the spring but getting more troublesome
and more numerous in the last few weeks. As our patio doors open very
nearby and they started to fly in regularly I decided they had to go!.
I could see the nest so stood on the other side of the garden, shut the
patio doors and jetted a spray of water into the bush/tree until it took
out the nest.
Probably not a good thing to do and should have left it but we had so
much trouble with wasps when we had the red oak that I had to do
something before it got too much.

The red oak used to have a lot of black fly etc. up high in the branches
by June and this in turn gave sticky surfaces to the lower leaves which
the wasps of course loved. They used to drink up so much that they would
fall drunk on the ground into the grass. In turn the dogs and us got
stung as we trod on them by accident.
They covered the ground!
At night once they'd recovered they obviously had a nest on the other
side of the house as they would all fly onto our windows and patio doors
and crawl up and down them.
We had 56 on the kitchen window one night, it was like The Birds film
only worse!!

Luckily mine have now all gone from the Pyracantha and I shall take care
they don't come back next year!
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article ,
Janet Tweedy writes:
|
| We had 56 on the kitchen window one night, it was like The Birds film
| only worse!!

Try "The Furies" by Keith Roberts :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"echinosum" wrote in message
...


The OP wants to leave it be.

Mary

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Yes, but it is MORE likely to go wrong if you try to get rid of it!
And that includes getting someone in to do the job, as you may be
unlucky and pick a cowboy. The chances of a problem are very low
indeed, but never say never.

And don't believe what you read about armchairs - that is very rare,
and almost all nests are MUCH smaller.


We've just had a nest in a pyracantha that I'd trained over the end of the
path down the side of the garden.

The OP's situation is different, quite rightly the preference is to leave it
be.

As you said, "Probably not a good thing to do and should have left it ... "

Mary

On 23 Jul, 12:53, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message

...

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Yes, but it is MORE likely to go wrong if you try to get rid of it!
And that includes getting someone in to do the job, as you may be
unlucky and pick a cowboy. *The chances of a problem are very low
indeed, but never say never.

And don't believe what you read about armchairs - that is very rare,
and almost all nests are MUCH smaller.

We've just had a nest in a pyracantha that I'd trained over the end of the
path down the side of the garden.

The OP's situation is different, quite rightly the preference is to leave it
be.

As you said, "Probably not a good thing to do and should have left it ... "

Mary


You can get a powder that you poff into the entrance in the evening/
night when the wasps are inactive, they then carry the powder into the
nest and it kills it.
I think Wilkinson sell Rentokil Wasp Killer Powder which is the one I
use

David Hill
Abacus Nurseries

With the benefit of a nice warm location for their nest, they may well not die off until well into winter.

I successfully got rid my first cavity wasps' nest simply by blocking off the access to it. I think I got that one quite early. It didn't work the second time because they found other ways out that were less congenial to me, so I made a strategic decision to reopen the original entrance.

Wasps chew wood to make their nests. The second cavity wasps' nest I had was just below a wooden windowsill, and I could hear them chewing at the windowsill, it was quite loud.

There are aerosol wasp nest killers that are very effective and easy for the kind of wasps nest that is confined inside a hole such as a cavity wall. The trick is to use it at night (that means well after dark) when the wasps are mainly dormant. That way you aren't interfered with, and you get most of them as they are all at home. I have used them a couple of times with success.

When the wasps start losing their way and regularly coming into the part of the house that you occupy, as they will, you may wish you'd got rid of it sooner. You can end up with dopey wasps crawling over your bedding in the early morning, (he says from experience) which sets yourself up perfectly for the sting.

"Dave Hill" wrote in message
...
On 23 Jul, 12:53, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message

...

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Yes, but it is MORE likely to go wrong if you try to get rid of it!
And that includes getting someone in to do the job, as you may be
unlucky and pick a cowboy. The chances of a problem are very low
indeed, but never say never.

And don't believe what you read about armchairs - that is very rare,
and almost all nests are MUCH smaller.

We've just had a nest in a pyracantha that I'd trained over the end of
the
path down the side of the garden.

The OP's situation is different, quite rightly the preference is to leave
it
be.

As you said, "Probably not a good thing to do and should have left it ...
"

Mary


You can get a powder that you poff into the entrance in the evening/
night when the wasps are inactive, they then carry the powder into the
nest and it kills it.
I think Wilkinson sell Rentokil Wasp Killer Powder which is the one I
use



The OP prefers to leave it. Why does everyone bang on about killing anything
they don't understand?

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"Dave Hill" wrote in message
...
On 23 Jul, 12:53, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message

...

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Yes, but it is MORE likely to go wrong if you try to get rid of it!
And that includes getting someone in to do the job, as you may be
unlucky and pick a cowboy. The chances of a problem are very low
indeed, but never say never.

And don't believe what you read about armchairs - that is very rare,
and almost all nests are MUCH smaller.

We've just had a nest in a pyracantha that I'd trained over the end of
the
path down the side of the garden.

The OP's situation is different, quite rightly the preference is to leave
it
be.

As you said, "Probably not a good thing to do and should have left it ...
"

Mary


You can get a powder that you poff into the entrance in the evening/
night when the wasps are inactive, they then carry the powder into the
nest and it kills it.
I think Wilkinson sell Rentokil Wasp Killer Powder which is the one I
use



The OP prefers to leave it. Why does everyone bang on about killing
anything they don't understand?




They don't seem to be 'banging on' about killing wasps because they don't
understand them, but because they have encountered nests they found to be an
actual or developing nuisance.