Wasp Nest Removal | Get Rid of Wasps - PEST UK

Providing pest control services in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, London, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, West Midlands, West Sussex, Wiltshire. Est. 1985.

Wasps and Wasp Nest Removal

Prices from £75 +VAT

To get rid of wasps and wasp nests from your home or business premises call 0800 026 0308

How much does it cost to get rid of a wasp nest?

Wasp nest removal from £75 +VAT

Additional services

Misting/fogging a loft space from £90 +VAT

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Guarantee

We guarantee that a treated nest will never be used again and the actual location of the treated nest will not be reused by other wasps for the remainder of the calendar year.

Wasps are aggressive and will sting readily if they think the nest is in danger. Every year there are approximately four deaths from wasp stings. A wasp can sting repeatedly and when they feel threatened they release a pheromone that brings other wasps to help them. A wasp sting is very painful and even people not allergic to wasp stings, after being stung by a dozen of them repeatedly, can experience serious health issues.

Although they do some good by feeding on flies, caterpillars and other insects which damage crops, the wasp numbers are probably artificially high because buildings supply unlimited nest sites which in purely natural conditions would be restricted to caves, hollow trees and other natural cavities. They cause massive amount of damage to fruits in the autumn.

Preparation you must undertake prior to treatment

Don’t be tempted to block the entrance hole up as this will make the wasps angry and aggressive but it won’t kill the nest and they’ll find another entrance.

Aftercare

After treatment the nest will remain in a hyperactive state for up to 3-hours but usually wasp activity ceases much sooner. Keep people and pets away from the area until activity has ceased. Close windows and warn neighbours to keep away.

The main points to remember are:

  • A treated nest can’t ever be reused.
  • A wasp nest can’t move its location, once started it is there for the duration of its life (7-8 months), nor can wasps move from one nest to another.
  • All nests start in the spring, never later than May but the expanding populations are not often noticed until much later in the year. The population expands from 1, when the nest is started by the queen in the spring, to around 10,000 wasps in the autumn.

The nest itself is made of a substance similar to papier-mâché which will not rot or smell, so it is quite safe and hygienic to leave where it is. If the nest is accessible and you do decide to remove it, wait for at least 4-weeks as this will ensure that no one will get stung by any larvae that have hatched out after the queen has died. Occasionally scratching may be heard from the nest during this period but as long as outside activity has ceased, don’t worry as this will soon die out.

If you remove the nest immediately after treatment then the wasps that were out foraging would return, find no nest and attempt to rebuild it. When they return and find a treated nest they either get contaminated by the insecticide or exhaust themselves by flying around the nest in a state of panic.

If the nest is treated in the autumn dying wasps, queens and drones may still appear for up to 20-days after treatment. Never block the entrance to a nest unless you are quite sure the nest is dead.

How our treatment works

The entrance to the nest or the nest itself will be treated using a modern biodegradable insecticide that is not highly toxic to mammals, but is extremely so to wasps.

Products we use

The technician will state which insecticide has been used on the report they give you after they have completed the treatment. Click each product to access its safety data sheet. All insecticides are biodegradable, almost odourless, non-tainting and do not corrode or stain, as well as being completely harmless to mammals.

Insecticide sprays
Insecticide powder
Insecticide fogging

Why should a wasp nest be treated?

If you don’t treat a wasp nest it will eventually die out but before this happens the nest will produce approximately 100 fertile queens that will hibernate and start nests the following year. A nest will get larger until the autumn and it is the autumn and early winter when they are at their most aggressive and dopey. This is when they are likely to sting people. The workers have finished their job of nest maintenance and collecting food for  grubs and now are feeding on rotting fruit (this makes them drunk and more aggressive).

Wasp nests can stain ceilings and even eat through them in some instances.

What are the signs of a wasp nest?

If you see wasps entering and leaving a hole in the ground, a wall, roof or any other part of a building between May and November then you probably have a wasp nest. You may be getting ‘unexplained’ wasps inside a room which may indicate a nest nearby. In the autumn as the days get shorter wasps get attracted to lights inside buildings which they confuse with sunrise.

Do not be tempted to block the hole up as this will make them angry and aggressive but it will not kill the nest, they will find another entrance and may even come inside the house. Some species of wasps will build outside in bushes and trees.

Wasp nests come in many shapes and sizes. Made from chewed wood and saliva which produces a papier-mâché type material they are grey or brown structures which are lightweight, durable and waterproof. After a queen has created the initial nest in the spring, the worker drones maintain and expand the nest. During peak activity in summer a nest can contain up to 10,000 wasps.

Additional services we offer

Misting/fogging for wasps

You may need a misting treatment to ensure that queens and future queens are not hibernating or hiding in the insulation within a loft. This will reduce the probability of future nests in the loft.

How can I stop wasps being a nuisance?

Wasps are more of a nuisance in autumn as they’re more likely to sting people. This is because their nests are beginning to die off so they have no reason to be inside the nest and spend more time outside foraging for food. A particular favourite of wasps is rotten fruit which has fallen from the trees and started to ferment. This makes them drunk and they appear to be dozy, however they can be more aggressive if provoked. They tend to find their way inside buildings more often as the days get shorter because they are attracted to the lights which they confuse with sunrise.

Wasp traps can relieve, but not solve, the problem. A reusable trap will need to be filled with liquid bait and emptied regularly to remove the dead wasps.

To keep the number of wasps to a minimum in public places, golf courses, hotels, rubbish tips, polo clubs, pubs, restaurants etc., have wasp traps installed and serviced weekly at this time of the year.

Buy wasp traps, liquid bait and wasp bags from our online shop

 

Buy reusable AF Wasp & Fly Traps from our online shop
Price for a pack of x6 AF Wasp & Fly Traps £61.56 including VAT +£10 shipping/postage

 

 

 

 

Buy an AF Disposable Wasp Bag from our online shop
Price for x1 AF Disposable Wasp Bag £8.28 including VAT +£10 shipping/postage

 

 

 

 

Buy AF Wasp & Fly Bait from our online shop
Price for x1 litre AF Wasp & Fly Bait £25.20 including VAT +£10 shipping/postage
Price for x5 litres AF Wasp & Fly Bait £84.60 including VAT +£10 shipping/postage

 

 

 

Buy a WaspBane Wasp Trap from our online shop
Price for x1 WaspBane Trap £47.88 including VAT + £10 Shipping

 

 

 

Facts about wasps

Wasps belong to the order of insects called Hymenoptera which also includes bees and ants. The type of wasps usually found in the UK are the Common Wasp which has a brownish/creamy colour nest with whirls and the German Wasp which has a grey nest.

Wasp life cycle

The queen wasp (somewhat larger than the worker), emerges from hibernation in the spring and build a round nest 2-3 ins. in diameter from chewed wood pulp which is obtained from dead trees, fences, etc. This nest will contain a small number of cells into which the queen lays her eggs, one per cell. The eggs hatch into larvae and are fed by the queen fragments of insects (the queen herself feeds on nectar). The cells hang downwards and the larvae are prevented from falling out by keeping part of their bodies in the egg cavity which was glued to the ceiling of the cell when laid by the queen. After pupation workers (sterile females) emerge and take over the running of the nest from the queen who devotes the rest of her life to egg laying. This occurs late June to early July. The nest can grow considerably during this time and may at its peak, contain 10-15,000 wasps.

Towards the end of the summer, special larger cells are constructed to provide drones and queens for the next season. In these are reared drones (males) and the queens (fertile females). They fly outside and mate (usually with drones/queens from other nests), the drones, workers and original Queen die off with the approach of colder weather, the new queens seek out sites for hibernation. It is not hibernation as in the mammals sense as this can take place as early as September when the weather is still quite warm.

The wasp community resembles that of the bumble bee in being annual and never producing swarms. Nests are never recolonised the following year, but a special favourable site may be used again and new nest built each year.

Populations of wasps tend to be low in years when the weather is cold and wet in May and June. This is attributed to queens being unable to forage frequently enough to sustain themselves and the brood, their small abandoned nests are a common site in lofts. Lofts are ideal places for nests to thrive. A natural controlling factor before man built buildings would have been the number of dry cavities available for wasp nests to be built. Along came man and the availability of these sites is now almost unlimited.

Food

Unlike bees, wasps do not store food (honey) and so need to forage daily in order to meet the dietary requirements of the colony. Whereas the grubs require a largely protein diet to maintain healthy growth, the intensely active workers need mainly energy foods i.e., carbohydrates. It must be remembered that wasps do not grow once they have emerged from the pupa stage and their size is often determined by food type and amount of food fed to the grubs by the workers.

The food of the workers consists of the nectar of certain flowers, e.g. cotoneaster and ivy, and a variety of other sweet substances including fresh and processed fruits. It is when seeking for sweet foodstuffs that wasps into close contact with man and become a problem.

Very young grubs are fed the sweet carbohydrate diet to start with then onto a diet mainly of other insects, portions of which are first masticated by the workers, but fresh and decaying meat and fish are also used. Workers will also kill the grubs of other nests for food especially towards the end of the year when some nests die out before others leaving them unprotected. There is also an exchange of foods between the grubs and the workers feeding them, as the grubs secrete a sweet fluid which is eaten by the workers. This exchange may help to ensure that the workers tend the brood adequately.

The queens, when confined to the nest, are fed by the workers on a liquid mixture of nectar, fruit and meat juices. Males in the nest also obtain food from the workers but once outside, probably feed only on plant juices.

Wasps change their eating habits in August. The workers normally collect protein, such as flies, and take it back to feed the larvae in the nest. The larvae secrete a carbohydrate which the workers eat. In late August, the queen stops producing larvae and the workers start looking for sugar outside the nest, so it is usually at this time that wasps are of the greatest nuisance, when their numbers are at their peak and searching for sugary food.
They (the workers) have time on their hands and are consuming rotting fruit which can lead to more aggressive behaviour. The time spent in the nest is less as there are no grubs to feed. In the Autumn the nest starts to die out.