Wasp nest !

[TArrryan]

I have had two wasp nests in the past few weeks, one was in the top of a camellia bush, the other was buried in a large pile of green waste!!

I had to attack the side of the rubbish pile with a grub axe until I exposed the nest for treatment, boy did it piss them off, it looked like it was a bit bigger than a football in size. I did get stung on the back of the hand, it swelled up like a balloon and I had to get antihistamines from the doctor, took 3 days to stop the swelling. strange thing is I was stung on the other hand a few weeks earlier and after a hour I felt nothing, no swelling no itching... nothing!! I cant figure out why I had two vastly different reactions to two stings

[Ben90]

This reminds me of a site clearance job we did last year, came across a wasp nest in a shrub just above ground. We'd ran out of wasp spray so we set it on fire with a stick that had the end dipped in petrol. Went up nicely.

[TArrryan]

when we encountered ones underground we just poured petrol onto the little wretches!

[felixthelogchopper]

Strimmed a bit close to one at the yard yesterday, resulting in a major sense of humour failure on their part and earning me my second sting this summer. Do wasps actually fulfil any useful purpose?

[raker]

Strimmed a bit close to one at the yard yesterday, resulting in a major sense of humour failure on their part and earning me my second sting this summer. Do wasps actually fulfil any useful purpose?

 

I thought they had no purpose, but in fact they do:they are voracious predators of a lot of `pest` insects like caterpillars etc.

While i was sat in the park next to my lads school waiting for him to come out, i noticed a steady stream of wasps coming from up in a horse chestnut. They were attacking the many crane flies in the grass. After systematically cutting up the fly to leave the thorax(where the wings attach)they carried it back to the nest. I`ve seen them carrying off caterpillars too.

 

Got stung the other day helping a mate out with his gardening job. Thought it was a one off, so carried on cutting this rotten log. Went off for a brew, and came back to find ten or so wasps milling about looking for the entrance i had blocked.

Havent been stung in a long time but the sting gave no reaction apart from a bit of tingling. Planned on burning it out at dusk, but it rained so we packed up and left.