Friday 15 August 2008

Queen Wasp?

Husband is an anaphylactic and at this time of year carries an 'Epipen' around with him - perhaps I should correct myself - he should be carrying an Epipen but forgets. There is no wasp's nest in our house, garage or garden, but I am sure there is one somewhere. To keep the wasps' attention focused away from the house we have hung three of these traps at the end of our garden filled with sweet liquid. They like wine dregs the best! However it is my job, obviously, to look after these traps. Last evening they were completly full of wasps and when I was emptying them I had at least four wasps crawling over my hands. Tonight I shall wear gloves and empty the three traps into the road gutter rather than tramping over the field to the hedge avoiding cowpats.

Last night when I came to empty one of the traps a very very large wasp was hovering and eventually became caught. She must have been a young queen, hatched and ready to go. I think she was three times the size of the others. This photo was taken this morning just after I had poured in the liquid - by this evening I should think there will be over 200 dead wasps in that trap.

8 comments:

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

You are getting a lot and aren't they a pest. My grandaughter has a playhouse in the garden, new for her birthday in April. A few weeks ago my daughter discovered a wasps nest being constructed there. Fortunately the pest control man came the next day and did the necessary. It was only quite small but he said that within a week it would have been very large. He got rid of it completely because of where it was but apparently it is better to leave the 'dead' nest as it puts future 'scouts' off building in the area. That explains why we have a small forsaken nest in a shrub at the bottom of our garden.

Take care though. A x

Lane Mathias said...

That's quite a responsiblity you have!

Wasps built a nest in our bird table last year and although none of us is anaphylactic(sp?), I wasn't keen on having them quite so close to the house:-(

Anonymous said...

Could also have been a hornet.. why do you have wine dregs by the way? You wouldnt have if I came by...

Gill - That British Woman said...

Touch wood we have been lucky over here, as the last couple of years we have had a couple of wasps nests.

Gill in Canada

Lindsay said...

Mutley - I think you are right. Later on in the day I saw lots of very large 'wasps' so, I am thinking, they must be hornets. We had contact with the person who now owns our old house, he is a BBC Wildlife Film Producer and fairly recently made a film about hornets, so whilst on the phone I was able to ascertain that they were indeed hornets!

cheshire wife said...

Two years ago, mortar bees made a nest in our chimney. My husband decided that lighting a fire might smoke them out. So on the warmest day of the year we had a log fire which did absolutely nothing. The next day we had to pay some pest control man about £130 to remove them. Those traps look like a good idea but be careful with them.

Liz Hinds said...

What a horrid job to have. I hope husband is suitably grateful! And gives you big kisses!

Linda said...

Yes, what a horrible job to have to deal with. I hate getting stung by those things.