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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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    • CommentAuthorRex
    • CommentTimeJan 2nd 2019
     
    What ho one and all,

    Happy New Year.

    We had a wasp nest near the back door during the year and now they have gone, I would also like to destroy it and vacuum the dust. But even with a endoscope, I am unable to find it in the roof cavity.

    So the plan is to leave it and seal the access.

    However, SWMBO, in chatting with a neighbour who used to live in a very rural house, says that the queen may be hibernating inside and it is best to fumigate to kill everything before sealing.

    This this correct? From what I have read on Mr Google, the queen (s) have flown off to distant shores.

    Thanks and toodle pip

    Rex
  1.  
    Wasps (and Hornets) die of at the approach of winter, including the queen. Mated young queens survive by hibernating somewhere, all others die. The queens will leave the nest in the autumn to find somewhere to over winter, this may be close to the old nest or not. Come spring the mated queens wake up and start to find a new nest site, build a nest, lay eggs and continue the cycle. They don't return to an old (previous) nest or reuse another.

    So if you just seal the access another queen can not build a nest in the roof cavity via that route. Of course there may be other routes in to the loft but the nest of 2018 is history and won't be reused so there is no need to search it out and destroy it.

    What I do is to destroy a nest when I can get access to it otherwise block up the flight holes as and when they appear.
    • CommentAuthorphiledge
    • CommentTimeJan 3rd 2019
     
    As a GREEN building forum we shouldnt be talking about killing off wasps- theyre great. Bit of a pain in late summer when the colony starts to breakup, but not necessarily in the locale of the nest. Rest of the time they just get on with keeping garden pests in check.
    • CommentAuthorRex
    • CommentTimeJan 3rd 2019
     
    Gentlemen,

    Thanks; pretty much what I thought.

    And I am not in favour of killing them at all. They live their life, we live ours; we are all creatures on this planet and have a right to life. That is why I left them, now it is time to prevent them returning.
  2.  
    I don't kill them all, just when there is a hornets nest the size of a football or bigger and the flight hole(s) are next to the door and the fruit is being distroyed by them something has to be done. Wasps are less of an issue but too many in the garden with young children can be a problem.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeJan 4th 2019
     
    Most creatures are now in precipitous decline, accelerating over the last few years. There are far fewer of all kinds of insects around, than there were a century, a decade, or just two years ago. Humans are killing them off. Think twice before exterminating anything just because it's doing its pestiferous thing.
  3.  
    OK but wasps and hornets nests by the front door for me come in the category as woodworms in my roof timbers - nimby as far as I'm concerned
    • CommentAuthorphiledge
    • CommentTimeJan 4th 2019
     
    No comparison between wasps and woodworm- ones wrecking your house, the others just lodging for a few months.
    • CommentAuthorbarney
    • CommentTimeJan 4th 2019
     
    I find a number of presumably overwintering queens in the woodstore on a regular basis - when I do see them they just get brushed back into the stack in the vague hope that they survive - there are probably a few that end up in the stove though

    They never seem to form a nest in the woodstore - although I have had a few start building nests under the eaves of another garden building

    As long as they don't appear to be looking to nest in the house, I leave them alone basically - unlike my neighbour who seems to physically attack every wasp within her garden with bloody permethrin powder

    Regards

    Barney
    • CommentAuthorgyrogear
    • CommentTimeJan 4th 2019 edited
     
    In defence of the poor wasp...

    https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/in-defence-of-wasps-why-squashing-them-comes-with-a-sting-in-the-tale-a7144306.html

    gg
  4.  
    Posted By: philedgeNo comparison between wasps and woodworm- ones wrecking your house, the others just lodging for a few months.

    No comparison is correct - I have a friend who needed blue lights and sirens after one wasp sting and only just survived. I've never seen woodworm do that!
    My point is that where insects are a menace or a danger I remove them otherwise they are left alone.
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