Wasp Guide

Knowing your nests

The following is a brief guide to wasps and how Waspbuster treats them. It is important that you can ensure that you have a wasp nest, and not a bees nest, which we will not remove. We need to find out where the nest is for treatment to take place. If the nest is not on your property and can’t be treated, we will charge a callout of £50.

Nesting Sites

Yellowjackets, baldfaced hornets, and paper wasps make nests from a papery pulp comprised of chewed-up wood fibers mixed with saliva. Yellowjacket and baldfaced hornet nests consist of a series of rounded combs stacked in tiers. These combs are covered by an envelope consisting of several layers of pulp. Paper wasps construct only one comb without any protective envelope. These insects are sometimes known as umbrella wasps because of the shape of their nest.

Yellowjackets, baldfaced hornets, and paper wasps nest in quiet, out of the way places. Unfortunately, in urban areas this may conflict with people and their interests.

Yellowjackets commonly build nests below ground in old rodent burrows or other cavities. They can also build nests in trees, shrubs, under eaves, and inside attics or wall voids. Baldfaced hornets commonly build nests in the open in trees as well as under eaves and along the sides of buildings.Paper wasps build nests under any horizontal surface and are commonly found on limbs, overhangs, eaves of buildings, beams and supports in attics, garages, barns, sheds, and other similar places.

Concealed Wasp Nests

The most challenging nests to control are those that are concealed in voids behind walls or in attics. Often, the only evidence of the nest is wasps flying back and forth through a crack or hole in the home.

Aerosol insecticides usually do not work very well against hidden nests. The best method we use is to apply a small amount of insecticidal dust (The dusts we use are professional strengh and only available to trained controllers). We may need to drill small (about 1/8 inch) hole to deliver the insecticide into the nest area.

When treating wasp nests hidden in building voids, we use the following insecticide dust: Bendiocarb Bayer Ficam D

Old wasp nests

Wasp nests found during winter or early spring are old nests from the previous summer. There are no live wasps in the nest; they have already left the nest or died inside it. The nest can be safely removed and disposed of if desired. Old nests are not reused by wasps, so there is no risk if one is left. However scavengers, such as carpet beetles, are attracted to an old nest and may become a nuisance if the nest is in your home.

Exposed wasp nests

Wasp nests that are visible but are not near your home or areas of human activity do not need to be treated. If they are not disturbed, the wasps won’t bother you.

Nests that are near human activity can pose a potential problem. If there is a concern about stings, you can should eradicate the nest, which we can do for you.

We apply Vulcan P5 into the entrance of the nest during late evening according to label directions. We will then remove the old nest and leave just a small part of the nest with some insectaside to catch any wasps that are remaining.