Signs of wasp nests

If there is a high volume of wasps in your home or garden there is likely to be a nest nearby. A mature nest in summer can contain thousands of wasps. It is important to treat a wasp nest early to reduce the threat of a wasp sting, which can be very painful and even cause an allergic reaction.

It is advised not to attempt to remove a wasp nest if you have a sensitivity to stings. Disturbing a nest will provoke the wasps to attack resulting in stinging as their form of defence.

At Rentokil, we offer a professional wasp nest treatment service to protect you from harmful stings by eliminating the nest.

Wasps make their nests from chewed wood pulp and saliva, giving them distinctive papery walls. Nests are usually built in sheltered spots with easy access to the outside. You can often find wasp nests in wall cavities, roof spaces, under eaves, in bird boxes, sheds or garages.

To locate a wasp nest, carefully watch the flight path of the returning worker wasps to your property or garden. This is much easier during the summer months as wasp numbers increase. 

At first, a wasp nest will start off very small, around the size of a golf ball or a walnut, when the Queen wasp begins to build a nest in the spring. During the summer months the nest will grow as the number of wasps increases. The nest can grow to the size of a football or larger.

It is best to treat a wasp nest earlier in the year before numbers increase and the wasps become more aggressive in late Summer.

There are steps you can take which can help prevent wasps building a nest in your property or garden:

• Regular maintenance to ensure all cracks and potential entry points are sealed
• Fly screens on doors and windows prevent wasps entering your property
• Make sure external rubbish bins have securely fitted lids, so worker wasps can not feed on any food scraps
• Wasp traps (also known as wasp pots) in your garden that can be purchased from a local DIY store or online. You can make one yourself by using a empty bottle with water and sugar solution.

However, the best course of wasp nest removal is by using a professional pest control treatment to effectively eliminate the nest.

The Common or Social Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and the German wasp (Vespula germanica) are the wasps you are most likely to see in your home or business. Other wasp species are also considered pests but are far less common in the UK.

It is possible to confuse bees and wasps. Bees nest will only be removed if there is a threat of nearby people. At Rentokil, we only treat bee nests as a last resort and only after contacting a qualified bee keeper.

Wasp nest treatments are common and can be carried out professionally by our Rentokil technicians.