I thought we had a ghost.

[frank rabbets]

We experienced loud sighing noises after midnight. Creeping round the house I located that the noise was coming from under the floor boards. Yesterday morning I decided to exorcism was called for. Armed with a clove of garlic and a sawn off shotgun I proceeded to crawl through the space under the floor and found this:-

a giant wasps nest. They must have been fanning their wings in unison to keep the nest cool but I'm guessing. There is an air brick the other side of the nest. That nest is 3 feet across and you can see a pile of earth at the base where they have extended the nest in to the ground.

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Wow Frank thats a surprise to say the least!! Now you know whats your call of action?

 

[Shayne]

What's with the garlic were you planning to pickle the intruders body in it ?

 

[flint]

We had a big one in the loft last year, an amazing bit of construction. I got up there dressed in my overalls, wellies, welding gloves and my old beekeepers hood with all possible gaps sealed with gaffer tape. I got the nest loose, put it in a big plastic bag and carefully took it outside. Even when placed 50 yards away, the wasps started to fly back to the loft, so I reluctantly gave the nest a good soaking in soapy water (using washing up liquid) which did the trick after opening the nest up. I then made sure that all traces of the old nest site were cleaned up (to help stop a rebuild) and hung a brown paper bag there, apparently when the wasps see this they think that there’s another colony already in residence and steer clear, it’s worked so far.

 

[StarCruiser]

Bet you beat a hasty retreat after discovering that Frank! A pall of mine was rewiring a house and as usual poked a hole up through the corner of the airing cupboard and poked the feed cable up through it. On entering the loft space with his lead light he observed a large wasps nest…with a piece of cable sticking up through the middle of it and loads of angry wasps swarming around it!

He almost fell down the ladder in his haste to get out!

 

[Gary820]

That's a big one!!
Don't think I'd be hanging around to take a pic!

 

[SteveJB]

Hey Frank if you have one of them TATA drivers near you like the one in Dervis s picture get him her as clearly they have no sense or taste for that matter but otherwise stay safe

 

[chapel gate]

They will all die off in the next couple of months. Its party time now for them. They go on a bender as all of there work is done. Thats why they are so annoying this time of year. The queen wasp will leave the nest and find a place to lie low until spring. She will lay a ruck of eggs and the whole process will start again.
they dont go back to the old nest.

 

[clivehorridge]

I had one in the shed, but it was only football sized.

3 ft across, jeez, I wouldn't want to go near it.

I think there are fume cans available, lob one close, like a hand grenade and run.

 

[frank rabbets]

In fact the nest is empty. They must have left early this year. I think we had by in the same air brick a few years ago and it looks like they built a new one up against the old one. We often get nests but I just leave them to get on with life.

 

[chapel gate]

In fact the nest is empty. They must have left early this year. I think we had by in the same air brick a few years ago and it looks like they built a new one up against the old one. We often get nests but I just leave them to get on with life.

A nice philosophy In life frank.

 

[grantw]

We had one in the little rear extension which gave the builders a fright. Luckily it was empty so easy enough to remove with a vacuum cleaner.

 

[flint]

Looks like they got the message, this is this years smaller build in an outhouse.
I would have let them be too, but the only reason that I noticed them was that they were coming through into the main part of the house (it’s an old stone place, thick walls with plenty of ways to get through despite much gap and hole filling). With small grandson coming to visit, not a good thing. Our latest visitor is a very small vole who hurtles round the sitting room and then disappears again. I did catch him one evening and put him outside, but he was back the next day. We also have bats (pipistrelles), but I leave them well alone unless they happen to come in through an open window. Mice in the 95 occasionally too, not so caring there I'm afraid.

 

[frank rabbets]

I had to destroy the empty nest as it was quite damp, especially the original part, and was conducting damp from subsoil to the floorboards. No over site concrete when this house was built.

Before retirement I was a property surveyor and valuer and saw many wasps nests in roof spaces, some really huge. I was amazed that you could walk right up to the nest without them defending....I was going to say "attacking". There were very few wasps on the outside of the nest and these appeared to be building the nest larger by spitting out molten paper and making the walls bigger. Torchlight did not disturb them at all. Found evidence of bat colonies in cavity walls which was bat droppings on the window sills and a dirty stain on the bricks where they had landed. They could crawl through a seemingly impossibly small crack between the under side of the window sill and the wall.