Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Puts my little wasp problem into perspective

Back in April I found the beginnings of a wasps nest in my shed. It was quickly dealt with and the Queen did not return, though I'm keeping an eye on things just in case, though the time has long gone for new nest building. I suppose I should count myself lucky, if I hadn't dealt with it, the council would charge me, though in the case of a pub in Southampton, it might be a price worth paying...

Sky.

A pub in Southampton has laid claim to housing the biggest wasps' nest in Britain.

The wasp's nest was the size of a king-sized bed
The size of the wasps' nest was "unprecedented"

The stinging insects had built a home 5ft 3in wide, with the cone height from top to bottom of 4ft 1in.
"It really was a monster," said pest controller Sean Whelan, the unlucky man who was called in to deal with a construction that housed about half a million wasps.
"Nests usually operate from March to September so they're very unlikely to get to be this size," Mr Whelan told Sky News Online.
"The wasps disperse and bury themselves under about six inches of soil until March when they come out and then build the nest for the queen.
"What we think may have happened this time is that, because of the cold winter, the pub kept its heating on so the wasps didn't realise it was time to move on.
"The size of it for the time of year was unprecedented. They just couldn't have made something this big, this quickly."
Mr Whelan used a telescopic pole to crack open the top of the nest and then squirt the colony with a powerful insecticide.
"It was scary as hell but it is what I am trained for," he said.
 Now if only we can get Mr Whelan to turn his attention to the political classes and the Righteous. Then again if only life were so easy, you tend to get rid of one lot only for a new branch to arise.

4 annotations:

Conan the Librarian™ said...

All that protein...

http://anallseeingeye.blogspot.com/2010/08/eat-bugs-to-save-planet.html

nippon wasp nest destroyer said...

I've had two wasp nests this year. One in the garage and one inside the porch roof. The council wanted £35 to remove each one. It's a fair price but I bought a can of ' Nippon wasp nest destroyer foam' for £3.99 and sorted them out myself. If you can see the nest then spray it and it's entrance at dusk when the wasps have settled for the night. In the morning remove the nest and sweep up the dead wasps. Wear gloves and a mask as the foam is toxic. Then seal the entrance hole where the wasps got in. If you can't see the nest then spray the entrance hole at dusk. keep an eye on the entrance for a couple of days and respray if required. When no wasps appear again then seal the entrance. I use the silicon sealant for baths etc as it's good for concentrating the sealant into the entrance.

JuliaM said...

Apparently, it's now ideal breeding conditions for them, according to 'experts' in the 'Daily Mail'...

Anonymous said...

theres this crazy twitter application that allows you to tweet where you have seen wasps, its supposed to help scientists get a better idea of what the winter did to the wasp population. They have a severity scale of 1-10, but I think they they might have to increase it for the pub in Southampton!

http://www.ukwaspwatch.co.uk/