Wasps In December
We are still treating wasps nests in late November (29/11/14) and have wasp jobs booked for December. Wasps in December are not unusual but the volume of of wasps nests we are treating and have enquiries about is unprecedented. This is probably due to the warm weather in October, November and forecasted for the first week in December. There are problems with treating wasp nests at this time of year. A colleague of mine treated a wasp nest at one of my pest control contracts, I had to visit the contract on a scheduled visit a few days later. The nest that was treated seemed to be dead fro th outside, ie there were no wasps flying in and out of the nest from the outside. The person who treated the nest had treated the nest from the outside by injecting the entrance of the nest with a biodegradable insecticide dust (called Ficam D) under pressure. This dust circulated around the nest and killed the occupants but when I inspected the nest from the loft (where I could see this large nest from the loft) there were dozens of Queen wasps on the outside of the nest. The reason for this is that the Queens are due to leave the nest once the nest naturally dies out in the Winter so after an insecticide treatment at the time that nests normally naturally die out they start to leave where as if the nest had been treated a few weeks earlier there instinct would have made them go back into the nest and come into contact with the insecticide and die. If wasps are are a problem at this time of year then it is beneficial to do a fogging and /or a residual insecticide treatment to a wide area rather than just the nest itself (if the nest is still active).
Understanding the habits and lifecycle of wasps is important if they are to be treated successfully.
