Treating Wasps without Insecticides
In Pests in August, Pests in July, Pests in June, Pests in May, Pests in September, Pests in Spring, Pests in Summer, Wasps
Treating Wasps without Insecticides:
At PEST UK we some times get asked to treat or remove a wasp nest without using insecticides. People (quite rightly so) are very suspicious of insecticides. An example of this is an insecticide used in the 1970’s and early 1980‘s in the UK called Chlordane. This was a potent insecticide used in the UK to treat wasps, ants and other insects. It was applied in an oil based spray. In America it was also used to treat Termites. It was long lasting and thought to be safe to mammals. I worked for the then Wokingham District Council in 1977 – 1978 and we used Chlordane with virtually no PPE. We had no respirators, proper chemical overalls, we were supplied with gloves but rarely used them. It was then found in America that people were dyeing from Chlordane poisoning when they lost weight, usually due to some other illness. The chemical was stored in their body fat and then went to the nervous system one the fat was lost. This insecticide is now banned. Modern insecticides break down in mammals very quickly. There are lots of insecticides with bad reputations: Lindane, Chlordane & DDT.
There is an insecticide free way of treating a wasp nest. The product is called Killgerid and is made of crushed shells. It works by scratching the insects shell or cuticle, which leads to evaporation. This process also makes the insect susceptible to other insecticides so as well as working on it’s own (albeit slowly) it is excellent at speeding up or reducing the need of conventional insecticide treatments.
Some people just don’t trust insecticides and in some instances (such as very near a pond) it is not desirable to use insecticides, in this cases we have successfully used Killgerid on it’s own. The draw backs are that it may take more than one application so increasing the cost and also that it at the very least doubles the time the treatment takes to work.
To book a pest control treatment or free advice then please call us at PEST UK: 0330 100 2811 (local rate) or 0800 026 0308 (free from land lines & some mobiles).
