Wasp nest in ground

[Canal Navvy]

Badgers is what you want .....

.... sweetcorn, chocolate?

[peds]

6 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

They don't reuse nests so they won't come back to that one.

I'm not mad on wasps but if you have got this far through the year with no bother I don't see the need to do anything now, they will be gone soon enough.

Wasps do a great deal more good than harm, they eat an awful lot of pests in the garden. If they just dropped the stingy bit they'd be more popular than bees that just arse about in flowers and sting people.

 

Pipe down, you smelly hippy. 

[GarethM]

 

 

[Peasgood]

11 minutes ago, peds said:

 

Pipe down, you smelly hippy. 

I had a shower this morning and I am bald so wtf are you on?

[sime42]

Peasgood is right of course.

 

But for the sheer fun of it I'd try chucking in a Crow Scarer and then plugging or putting something very heavy on top. Very quickly. Those things are the closest you can get to dynamite.

 

 

[5thelement]

Had wasps in the ground earlier this year, right where we sit down at the BBQ, they had to go. 
Thought about petrol and fire, but memories of a previous experience in my youth, where things didn’t end well, persuaded me to back off. 
I put a large bucket of kiln dry sand over the entrance at night, leaving the bucket on top. 
I could see the wasps trying to excavate an exit but only gaining access to the clear plastic bucket for nearly a week later. 
They died off in the end whilst I managed to cut my grass and ate on the patio without being stung. 

[Steven P]

(Rarely re-use an old nest but they sometimes do, occasionally a new queen will dispatch the old one and move in... nut that is rare)

 

Yup by now the nest should be finished - the last wasps of the year will be dying, hungry and without purpose now the new queens have gone so can get tetchy. The new queens will be out there hibernating till spring - might not be too far away though. We had one nest in the loft, and had a new nest in there for the next 3 or 4 years, that's how far the lazy queens went.

 

I'd rigged up a can of wasp killer spray, on a pole to reach their entrance hole - spray them daily as they are in and out, also they love light so turned loft light on, they pop over to investigate, and a quick spray. However my pest controller - loved the pole squirter - strongly recommended powder - the wasps take it into the nest (as above). Spray, flame thrower, and so on only kill a few, weakens the nest a little but the eggs are still there being looked after... so powder to kill those in the nest.

 

Petrol down the hole kind of worked in another case. You do get angry wasps coming to look for you after though.

 

Not sure, if this is an old animal hole - would it have a rear entrance?

 

 

So for now, I'd leave it if you can. After that wasp powder, and if you can catch it early season better results and fewer angry wasps... if it is not convenient to leave them. I tended to leave mine alone, eat the aphids on the roses and apples, good pollinators (better than bees apparently). 

 

 

 

Ahhh, one I did do, maybe not my greenest moment, the windfall gooseberries, gathered into a baking tray to ferment a little - they loved that one - secret spice of wasp poison added - but it also got a few other insects who were similarly pissed up. They took that mix back to the nest.

 

 

 

 

 

[Anno]

had a piss poor year up here for wasps, between us me and a mate whose out all the time said we had probably not seen a 100 individuals this season between us.

[nepia]

16 hours ago, NJA said:

Anyone got any ideas for getting rid of wasp nest under ground?

I was being nice and letting it stay as I thought it was ground bee's which are pretty harmless and nice creatures.  But a blighter attacked me and my arms swollen up.  

Seems like a larger hole(1"-2") and a constant stream coming and going should have given it away as yellow jackets not bee's. 

Tried foam but not worked yet (maybe I keep trying that?)

Any other ideas that have worked?  Soapy water apparently?  Petrol and a match?  

Dynamite sound good fun and effective but non of the layby pop-up firework cabins sell it😕

Had a similar experience with hornets in the garden; reacted badly to my first sting and I'm told by several people the next one will be worse

The solution?  Keep away from the nest.  So I have

[NJA]

46 minutes ago, nepia said:

Had a similar experience with hornets in the garden; reacted badly to my first sting and I'm told by several people the next one will be worse

The solution?  Keep away from the nest.  So I have

I generally take that view, leave them alone and they'll leave you alone.  But been trying to build a logshed nearby and they keep trying to attack me, the sting on sunday is the last straw my arm still swollen 48hrs later.

Anyway, I've got a drum that i pour any old contaminated/stale fuel and used cooking oil into.

A jug of that mixture followed by a lit firelighter down the hole last night seems to have done the trick. Nothing happening this morning.  More effective than the foam.  Mind you, the foam might be a bit safer if it was a nest near the shed or in the loft!