Wasps

This Facebook thread was inspired by an article about wasps and how ecologically useful and important they are, as this is the time of year when they get a bit “radgy.”

9 August 2019 at 09.01

My Grandma used to put an unwashed jamjar with an inch or so of water in the bottom on the outside kitchen window sill.  A circle of greaseproof paper held by a rubber band as a lid, with a wasp sized hole in.  Wasps fly in, eat sugary stuff, drown, suffering over.  You can do the same sort of thing with a Coke, or other sugary soft drink bottle (they have no interest in diet drinks).   

She also used to say "If you kill a wasp six more come to its funeral"

Fester's tip “If you have a wasp in the house, turn off all the lights and open the window.  The wasp will go towards the sunlight.”

If you happen to have a feather duster you could use that to waft the wasp towards the window.  If you’re lucky (and persistent) you can get the wasp to grab hold of the duster and then shake it out of the window.  This also works with bees.

The good thing about the feather duster method is you're a good three foot away from the wasp (six if it's an extendable one)

The velux in our kitchen roof is an excellent insect trap so we've become quite adept at escorting them out of the window.

Miss Doozer  I'd possibly have more sympathy if one hadn't landed on my leggings as I walked past its nest on my way to the bus stop, then proceeded to repeatedly sting me through the material. I smacked it with a folder, cursing it to high heaven, then realized there was a group of school kids walking past who can now add "vicious stripy f*&king b&stard f#!Ker" to their vocabulary.

Bentonbag  The only time I was stung by a wasp was through leggings, must be something about the material that attracts and/or traps them. Vinegar is supposed to help calm wasp stings.

Miss Doozer  More research is needed. Just not on me.

Dr E  We use scrumpy in plastic bottles as wasp traps they love it. We tried using woodpecker cider and the wasps ignored it.

POST SCRIPT

Fester has made me much more wasp friendly.   

They had a nest near the back gate when I was pregnant with Thunderthighs.   

One morning eating breakfast at the dining table, which looked out over the back garden, I noticed wasps flying away from the nest carrying stuff.

“I can understand them carrying food and stuff into the nest” I said to Fester “But why are they carrying stuff away?”

“It’s shit” he replied “they’re cleaning the nest.”

I was quite impressed at this idea and decided the nest could stay as they were causing no nuisance.

Until Thunderthighs was a couple of weeks old and I was out hanging babygrows etc on the whirligig washing line.   

A wasp landed on and got caught in my leggings and stung me in its effort to escape.  

I could not risk this happening to toddler Ferretfingers or baby Thunderthighs so went off to B&Q for poison.   

That evening, scattering the powder around the entrance to the nest so that they would carry it inside, I felt like a latter day Lucretia Borgia.