With Spring almost here, many of us will soon be throwing open our doors and windows and enjoying the warmer days and longer evenings. However, it’s also the time when wasps start looking for a suitable place to build their new nests. If you don’t fancy being plagued by these unwanted pests and having to contact a wasp nest removal company this summer it’s best to be on your guard.
The wasp’s lifecycle starts in the Spring, when the queen comes out of her winter hibernation. At this time of year there are no active nests, just queens looking for a place to build their home for the summer.
Be vigilant and watch for queens trying to gain access to tight crawl spaces – lofts, sheds and garages are typically places where nests are built. If you spot a wasp buzzing around these areas it’s likely that they’ve chosen a site, so preventing access to these crawl spaces is your first line of defense against wasps making your home their home.
If you are unlucky not to spot it early, once the queen has chosen a nest location she will start hunting for garden debris and stripping wood from fence panels and shed walls to build it. Make sure that the areas surrounding your home or business are free from paper products – especially cardboard.
Once the first part of the nest is built, which will usually be around the size of a golf ball, the queen will lay her eggs inside the nest and will feed them until they hatch out as adults. Once these first worker wasps have hatched, they then take over the tasks of enlarging the nest and providing food for the developing eggs.
By the end of the summer the nest will have grown considerably and can be anything from football-sized to several feet wide. An average nest will contain between 3,000 and 5,000 wasps by this stage, but not all of these will be adults. However, it can become dangerous if you try to remove the nest yourself – so don’t!
So how do you know if you have a nest? You may be able to see the nest itself; they are normally a grey or yellow color, approximately round in shape with a small hole at the bottom. Unfortunately, often the nest is not visible at all and the only indication that there is one is a constant stream of wasps flying in and out of a particular place.
In order to get rid of wasps quickly and safely it’s worth contacting a pest control company who can remove the nest for you – this will ensure the problem is fully eradicated and helps avoid re-infestation.
About the author: Alex Burrell is Online Marketing Executive at NBC Bird & Pest Solutions Ltd, the UK’s leading independent pest and bird control services provider. NBC provides pest control and pest prevention services for every type of pest imaginable – from rodents and insects to nuisance wildlife such as rabbits or foxes.