Knowing the difference between Wasps and Bees is very important. Bees are good for our planet and ecosystem. If your property has Bees that are causing a problem please contact a beekeeper (www.bbka.org.uk) in your area who will be happy to help.
Social wasps are predators and as such they also play a vital ecological role, controlling the numbers of potential pests like greenfly.
Life Cycle of wasps
The queen hibernates over winter having been fertilised by males before hibernation. Once the weather starts warming up, the queen will come out of hibernation and find a suitable place to build her nest. The queen starts the nest off by attaching the first part of the nest to something sturdy – commonly in lofts, porches and sheds. She builds a centre stalk called a petiole. Around this centre stalk she adds cells.
The queen will start to lay eggs in these cells, and, once they have hatched, she will forage for food to feed the larvae. While in this initial stage she continues to build more cells. The larvae grow quickly due to their protein-rich insect food diet. The nest continues to grow over the summer period.
As the nest reaches its maximum size, towards the end of summer/beginning of autumn, the queen will lay queen eggs and drone (unfertilized) eggs. Each nest will produce around 1000/1500 new queens. Once these eggs have been laid, the existing queen will not lay any further eggs. These eggs hatch, and when they have pupated, they turn into virgin queens and male drone wasps. They leave the nest and navigate to particular mating areas. Once mating has taken place, the now fertilised queens find somewhere to hibernate over the winter months, and the drones die.
Whilst all the above is happening, we don’t notice the nests/wasps as they are too busy going about their business. We only notice them if the nest is built in an area close to us ie: shed, porch, in an attic that is used regularly etc. When the drones are dying off, they start looking for food to keep them alive. This is when they start buzzing around sugary drinks, picnics, bbq’s etc. Generally end August/early September.
Costings
Costs for treating wasp nests vary depending upon ease of access. Please call 0117 9041756 for a quotation or use our contact page to leave us a message to call you back.
