Wasps

Wasps do not carry diseases but can inflict a painful sting, a habit which increases as the insect becomes more irritable when the weather turns colder and after they have been feeding on fermenting or over-ripe fruit juices.

In most cases the sting is no more than unpleasant. However, multiple stings and stings in sensitive places such as the head or mouth, may be more serious.

The common wasp will form nests in soil banks, roof spaces,wall cavities and trees. Colonies only survive one season in the UK. New colonies are started each spring by over wintered queens. They forage on a wide range of foods including insects,spiders and sweet substances. They may be aggressive if threatened.

Biology

The over-wintering fertilised queen wasp emerges from hibernation around mid-April and searches for a suitable site for her colony. From chewed bark and dried timber mixed with saliva, she makes the initial cell, which is smaller than a golf ball. Within the individual chambers the queen will lay between 10 and 20 eggs. The resultant larvae are fed on insects and other invertebrates. The first brood of adult workers, sterile females, take over the task of enlarging the nest and providing food for the subsequent eggs laid by the queen.

By late summer a wasp nest can contain anywhere between 3,000 to 5,000 individuals and be over 30cm in diameter. During the latter part of the summer males and young queens emerge and mating occurs. The fertilised queens will fly away to find suitable sites to sleep for the winter.

In autumn, the workers and few remaining males become sluggish, and their feeding on ripe and over-ripe fruit can produce a tipsy behaviour, leading to aggression towards people who interfere with them. The onset of cold weather will kill off the remaining workers and males. Only fertilised queens survive the winter.

Significance

In the early part of the year wasps do a great deal of good by feeding on dead birds, insects, and waste. They are in small numbers and too busy to cause nuisance.

Later in the year when larval rearing is reduced, the workers search for sweet substances and can become a major nuisance in homes, bakeries, fruiterers and especially in jam and sweet factories.

Old nests are never re-used, although in favourable sites a new nest may be built close to the old one.

How To Get Rid of Wasps

Trying to deal with a wasp’s nest by yourself can be dangerous. Wasp stings are very painful and cause intense swelling; a single nest may contain several thousand wasps. Wasps will sting you if disturbed or aggravated.

Problems normally start with the warmer weather of spring; this is when the queen wasp builds her nest. It could be in the roof space of a house, in a garden shed, inside a hollow tree or in a bank of earth.
Aberdeenshire Council does not provide a service to treat wasps but our advice is:

DO NOT TRY TO TACKLE THE PROBLEM YOURSELF

Aberdeenshire Council's preferred contractor is Pro-Check Environmental Services Northern Ltd and they can be contacted on 08448 006484. The charge for wasp treatment is £16.04

Treating and controlling wasps

Although this is a job best left to professionals, it may be possible to treat smaller infestations yourself.

The main question to ask yourself is, ‘Am I confident – can I do this safely?’ If you decide to tackle the wasps, here are a few handy tips:

• Buy an appropriate insecticide which is usually a powder and follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully
• Always wear protective clothing
• Wait until dusk. Wasps are less active in the dark