Questions answered about wasps - Page:5

In the early stages of nest building, a wasp nest will make very little noise. You may hear wasps arriving and leaving the nest.
As the nest grows and the number of wasps increases, the noise produced by the nest will increase as well.
Sometimes when nests get large, you can hear a crackling or popping (ticking or scratching) noise coming from the nest, some people mistake it for dripping water.
The young wasp larvae make this noise; they make this noise to encourage the adult wasps to feed them and also as they move around in their cells. If you hear this crackling or popping sound coming from the nest but cannot see the nest, this would indicate that the nest is large.
Hornets are the same.
If the weather is hot, wasps will bring lots of water into the nest and spray it inside to help cool the nest; they will also sit on the outside of the nest and the nest entrances and fan air into the nest. On occasion, this fanning action can be loud and sound like an electric fan, but the noise is not a "buzzing" sound like bees make. If you can hear a loud buzzing noise, it will most probably be bumble bees. Bumblebees nests also create a high pitch chirping sound.

We charge a flat fee of £45.00 to treat a Wasp or Hornet nest regardless of its location.
We have no hidden extra charges such as VAT or for unnecessary surveys.
Any secondary nests found on your property we charge an additional £10.00 per nest.
All work is guaranteed.
We work WEEKENDS too! So if you have found a nest while out in your garden and it's a Saturday or Sunday, don't worry, give us a call, and we will come straight out.

Wasps use chewed wood to construct their nests, the wasp's strip wood from fence panels or garden sheds. A sign that there is a wasp nest nearby is light marks left on the exterior of shed walls or fence panels. As the number of wasps grows, these strip marks become more visible. They chew this stripped wood and mix it with saliva to make a type of papier mache type material which is then moulded to form the nest.
The nest material is very lightweight and surprisingly waterproof.
The interior of the nest including the hexagonal cells/comb is also made from this wood material, unlike a honeycomb which is made from wax.

The wasp lifecycle starts with a single wasp, the queen. She emerges from hibernation in the spring once the temperature is high enough.
The queen starts to build a brand new nest. Once she has enough cells constructed, she lays eggs in each cell. These eggs hatch into larvae. During this stage, there is only the queen to look after these young wasps (the first brood).
When the larvae are ready, they spin a silk cap over their cell and pupate into adult wasps. When these new adults emerge they take over nest building and nursing/feeding duties. Only the queen lays eggs.
In the late summer/autumn the original queen will lay eggs which hatch as queen and male larvae and go on to pupate into adult queens and males. These then leave the nest and mate, the males die, and the queens hibernate over winter.
Both Wasps and Hornets have the same life cycle.

Large wasps appearing in your home in winter are queen wasps which have been hibernating and for one reason or another have woken too early.
Typically this happens when we have unusually mild winters, and the ambient temperature rises above 10 degrees for some time. Nature signals to queen wasps that spring has arrived, and it is time to wake up. They would typically find their way outside and disappear, but short daylight hours and lights being on in the evening will attract them inside your home.
Wasps are attracted to lights in the same way that moths are. Downlights are a particular problem as they shine upwards into the loft space as well as down into the room. Bedroom and bathroom windows left open in late summer with the lights left on overnight will also attract wasps from nearby nests.