Identifying Wasps

Wasps found the United Kingdom are very similar in appearance and deniably unmistakable, especially the sting.

The Hornet is the only variation to be found in the UK and should be treated differently as they are more aggressive and cause more damage than the common wasp.

The wasp has black and yellow bands on their bodies and two pairs of wings.

Wasp Habitats

The site for a Wasps Nest could be any hole in the ground, hollow tree, shed, Loft Space or Wall Cavities.

This can cause major problems in houses because the number of wasps living in a wasps nest can be thousands and having them in your loft can prove a dangerous nuisance.

In spring, the fertilised Wasp Queen leaves her hibernating quarters to seek sites for a new wasps nest. The queen starts to build a wasps nest with a papery material that she makes by chewing wood mixed with saliva; this is known as Wasp Paper.

She will raise the first few workers who will then enlarge the wasps nest and care for the immature wasps. Nest construction starts in spring and will reach its maximum size in September, when up to 10,000 workers may be present.

Wasps Diet

Wasps are not all bad, however. Their diet consists of insects, mainly and they do eat a wide variety of garden insects, which are mainly Household Pests themselves, that kill plants and cause a general nuisance. They also feed on dustbin waste and animal carcasses as well as some fruits.

How Wasps Can be a Pest

Wasps become a nuisance to humans mainly in late summer as the weather gets cooler when they become more likely to sting.

A wasp, unlike a bee, can sting many times. Although the Wasp Sting is not normally serious, it can be very painful, and in certain cases can cause a severe reaction.

Dealing with Wasps

Wasps nest located in areas away from human contact can be left untreated. It should be remembered that wasps have a beneficial aspect as they kill many Garden Insect Pests.

However, if it is necessary to destroy the wasps nest, it is easy to do so. Wasps are generally easy to control if the wasps nest is destroyed by applying a Residual Insecticide.

This will be in either a dust or liquid form and is applied to the wasps nest entrance or nearby so that wasps entering the nest are contaminated.

Bee Facts

Bees are not considered to be pests because of the fact that they rarely sting (dying after doing so) and they are an important benefit to the environment by pollinating plants and trees allowing for reproduction. The most common species of bee in the UK are the Honeybee, Bumblebee and Masonry Bee.

Bee Colonies consist of a queen, a small number of males or drones and a large number of worker bees. The workers feed the queen who produces up to 2,000 eggs per day. A queen bee will leave a colony when a new one emerges. A number of the colony's workers accompany her, forming what is known as a swarm, which then forms a new colony.