Extremely useful garden insects, we are often too quick to get rid of wasps and hornets from our gardens, however perhaps we should be toler...
When I say hornets, how many of you think tolerance? Brace yourselves, those who fear and loathe hornets. I'm about to urge a policy of general tolerance for hornets and wasps.
So why should these feisty fliers be tolerated? Mainly because they're such effective predators of flies, caterpillars and other pest insects. And truth be told, if kids don't chuck rocks at the tempting, gray, paper "footballs" that some of these insects make – and we adults don't blunder into nesting areas – the wasps usually don't bother us. So try to live with at least the ones that build away from our homes and work and play areas.
In the case of stinging insects, however, tolerance has limits. When the insects hang a nest by the back door, burrow under the kids' sandpit or set up home in a wall void, you're justified in taking action. Your choices are to do it yourself or hire a pest control service.
Do-it-yourselfers need a can of aerosol spray designed for wasp control. Typically these devices spray about 20 feet and can be used for aerial nests, ground nests and nests in wall voids. You do the job at night when the insects are likely to be home and it will be too dark for them to navigate easily and too cool for them to move quickly. However, don't make the mistake of holding the flashlight on the same spot overly long; they may use that beam to find you.
In certain situations, it is possible to remove a colony of wasps yourself with just the use of a vacuum cleaner. If you tie the hoover onto a ladder, high enough so that you can position the vacuum hose right at the hole into the nesting area and leave it on for several hours, then it will suck in every wasp that leaves or enters the hole. By the end of the day, the vac canister will be filled with the lifeless members of the colony. Then all you need to do is seal off the the hole.
Of course, this approach is time-consuming, is not guaranteed to work and may well cost a pretty penny in electricity charges, but might be just the solution for DIY pest controllers.
If you're allergic to wasp venom or for other reasons don't want to control the wasps yourself, contact a pest control company to do the job for you.
SDA Pest Control, "Long Acre",
Bluntisham Road,
Needingworth,
St. Ives,
Cambridgeshire
01480 465684