How to Get Rid of Wasps in a Greenwich Property

The Honest Case Against Doing It Yourself

Aerosol nest killers cost a few pounds and they do something. So this is not an argument that DIY never works. It is an argument about what happens when it goes wrong.

A disturbed colony defends itself, and wasps can sting repeatedly - unlike a honey bee, a wasp does not lose its sting and stop. When people are badly hurt treating a nest themselves, the injury is usually not the stings. It is falling off a ladder while being stung, several metres up, with both hands occupied.

That is the actual risk profile, and it is not proportionate to the saving.

• Never treat a nest from a ladder. If it is at height, that settles it on its own.
• Never treat one if anyone at the property has a known sting allergy. Stay away from it entirely and say so at the booking.
• Never block the entrance. More on this below - it is the single most counterproductive thing you can do.
• Never treat a nest in a confined space such as a loft you have to crawl into, where there is one way out and it is behind you.

Why Blocking the Entrance Makes It Worse

It is the most intuitive response and it is close to the worst one.

A sealed nest does not give up. The colony looks for another way out, and in a cavity wall or a roof void the other way out is frequently into the room on the other side. People who have filled a soffit gap with expanding foam in the evening have found wasps coming through a light fitting the following day.

The same applies after a treatment. Leave the entrance open.

What Actually Happens on the Day

1. The entrance is located. If you have already watched the traffic and can point at it, this takes seconds rather than twenty minutes.
2. The nest is treated directly at the entrance. Not sprayed at from a distance, and not treated by removing the nest - the treatment goes where the wasps go in and out.
3. Returning foragers do the rest. Wasps that were away from the nest come back and carry the treatment in with them, which is how the colony rather than just the visible wasps is dealt with.
4. The area is left alone. The nest is not knocked down or removed as a matter of course - there is usually no need, and disturbing it achieves nothing.

The Hour Afterwards

Knowing what to expect here prevents most of the calls we get from people who think a treatment has failed when it has not.

• Activity continues, and often increases briefly. That is returning foragers, and it is the mechanism working.
• Keep people and pets away from the flight line for the rest of the day - not just the nest, but the route to and from it.
• Close the windows on that side of the property for a few hours.
• Do not block the entrance, however tempting once activity drops.
• Do not knock the nest down in the days afterwards.

A nest that is completely silent within the hour would be the surprise rather than the norm. If there is still real activity after a couple of days, that is when to call - and it is what the guarantee is for.

Timing: May Is Easier Than August

The price is the same all season. The job is not.

An early nest is small and the colony is a fraction of its eventual size. By late summer nests are at their largest and wasps are at their most assertive, which is exactly when most people call. If you have found a nest in May, dealing with it then is easier for everybody than dealing with the same nest three months later.

What Does Not Work

• Wasp traps catch foraging workers. They do not touch the colony, and hanging one near a seating area can draw more wasps into it than it removes.
• Smoking a nest out is a genuinely dangerous idea in a roof void, for reasons that have nothing to do with wasps.
• Waiting until autumn. The colony does die off, and in the meantime it is at its largest and most defensive through the weeks you would most like to use the garden.
• Treating an old nest. Nests are never reoccupied. If there is no traffic outside summer, there is nothing to treat.

If It Turns Out to Be Bees

Say so and we will tell you honestly. Bees are not treated as a matter of routine. A honey bee swarm is normally a job for a local beekeeper, who will usually collect it, and sending somebody to treat a swarm that could have been collected is not a service worth selling.

Bumblebee nests are small, short-lived and generally need nothing doing at all - they are finished by late summer on their own.

Stopping It Happening Again

This is the part that gets left off most wasp pages, because it is not a wasp treatment. A new queen chooses a building in spring because of the structure - a gap at a soffit, a missing air brick cover, an opening under a tile - not because of last year's nest.

So the thing that reduces the odds of a nest next year is closing those openings, which is proofing work at £180, up to 1 hour rather than pest control. It is worth doing on a property that has had a nest two years running, and it is worth doing after the season rather than during it.

Wasps Indoors When No Nest Can Be Found

A recurring situation, and it has three explanations worth working through before assuming there is a nest in the structure.

1. They are coming in through an open window and cannot get out. Ordinary in late summer, particularly in a room where the window faces a garden with fallen fruit. One or two a day is not a nest.
2. There is a nest in the roof void and a few are finding their way through. The tell is that it is the same room every time, usually under a roof or against an external wall, and the number is consistent rather than weather-dependent.
3. The nest is in a cavity wall shared with next door. Wasps emerging through a socket, a light fitting or a gap at a skirting point at this. Go outside and look for traffic at an opening on that wall - including next door's frontage.

The distinguishing question is consistency. Wasps that appear on hot days and not on cool ones are coming in from outside. Wasps that appear steadily in one room regardless of the weather are coming from inside the structure.