General Chat

I have known wasps to build their nests in areas around the roots of trees, nasty insects, my gran told me that if a wasp stung you, to cut an onion in half and put it directly on the sting area.

Unfortunately people are only too keen to eliminate wasps.

I hope we don't live to regret it. They eat aphids and blackfly and other things which would be free to devastate crops if there were no wasps.

We had a wasps' nest last week built flat against the side of a shed. I'd never seen one that wasn't round before. It was rectangular and measured about 18 inches by 10 inches. We sent for the terminator and the wasps are no more.

Annie

well I would have apologised had they given me the opportunity but they went for the kill :-D

There was an old cough sweet on the window sill at the head of my bed (domestic goddess!) and a wasp was coming in and out to it.

I did all the effing and blinding and shutting the window bit then I realized that she just wanted to get on with her life and not bother me so I left her to it. All summer she was in and out, gathering sugar and bothering nobody.

Likewise was one who came into the kitchen. I left her a tiny bowl of jam on the sill and she worked all through the summer, leaving me alone and only ever bringing one other wasp with her.

They are not out to sting, just to get on with their lives.
Ask yourself how pleased you would be if somebody went over your house with a big mower.

pretty sure they were wasps - ankle sure is sore now, though I did apply a vinegar soaked pad to it for quite a while and just popped out to buy some sting relief

AnnC wasps are nasty little blighters.

I was stung a couple of years or so back and it knocked me off my feet for a couple of days - really tired and drowsy.

I was also plagued by the beggars for days because the sting releases a pheromone which alerts other wasps that you are a marked "kill" so it is a good idea to buy some repellant.

That is why you should try not to kill wasps because, again, the pheromone is released whilst they are dying and acts as a distress signal to other wasps in the area who will buzz over to help.

We have had several nests like that, they nest in the cracks. nasty things. Easy nests to destroy though.

Hope your ankle soon feels better.

Ouch Ann. Are you ok now. I didn't know that, Not doubting your intelligence but they were wasps and not a type of bee?

did you know that wasps can build their nests in the ground? well they do as I just found out to my cost - mowing the lawn and ran over a wasps nest - boy were they nasty and one stung me on the ankle - what pain - excruciating