Wasps in the Autumn

In Pests

Wasps and wasp nests are most troublesome in the Autumn. More people get stung, the treatments take much longer to work in the Autumn and the wasps start to feed on fruit and more of their time is spent doing this as they no longer need to collect high protein food in the forms of caterpillars, flies and other insects as grub production has now ceased. This leaves the workers more time to forage which in turn brings them into contact with humans.

Autumn days are shorter and this has two effects on wasp behaviour. First they are busier during the shorter daylight hours. They spend more of the daylight hours feeding outside and less in the nest feeding grubs or maintaining the nest (at this stage the original Queen has died so the nest has no ‘direction’ and functions as a less disciplined unit), the other effect is that they can be attracted to artificial light. This also effects hornets.

At PEST UK we get dozens of calls in the Autumn from customers saying they are finding hornets or wasps that are ‘dozy’ in rooms that they think are completely sealed. What happens is that wasps or hornets see light and try to head for it. The light may be sealing through into cavity walls or lofts and the wasps try to follow this eventually emerging through cracks in the walls or skirting boards into the rooms.

The temperature is another factor that effects wasps. Any insecticide treatments take longer in the Autumn because the lower temperatures slow the metabolism of the insects meaning death may take longer. To give an example of this, a nest treated in July can take less than an hour to die off with a few stragglers around for the rest of the day but the vast majority dead within an hour. In September/October it can take up to 20 days for a wasp nest to die off completely

Whatever the wasp problem PEST UK can help, phone 0300 100 2811.
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