November 25: Wasps are still active. Sitting having my morning coffee last weekend, looking out the back door to the bush at the side of the garden, I noticed it was a-buzz with activity. In the rare glimpse of winter sun the wasps were taking full advantage of the lack of rain and were flying in large numbers. Given that it’s late November, and they should all be dead or dying at this stage it was in its own way quite a pleasant surprise. I watched them for an hour, coming and going before the rain came back and they disappeared.
At this time of year wasps are more aggressive as the colony begins to die out, except for the queen wasp who should be fertilized and tucked up in her new studio nest-for-one, waiting for the winter to pass and spring to come so she can go forth and fulfill her life’s ambition and rule the new hive she creates.
But it would seem I’m not alone in late nest activities and wasps are still active, as a lot of calls this week seem to be about wasp nests. Wasps are social insects that live in colonies with many thousands of members. They construct their nests in many different locations, out of pulped wood and bark, which they gnaw, chew up and turn into a pulp by mixing it with their saliva. Although the amount of material that can be provided by the efforts of one wasp is obviously very small, the whole community work together to build the nest and do so ceaselessly over a period of weeks.
If you think you may have an active or dead wasp nest in your eaves, shed or garden, we recommend you get it sorted now. If left untreated a new hive could take it over next spring and make the current nest twice as big. However, once it’s treated it will be uninhabitable to another colony next year.
Call us today on 01-4511795 for a free quote Or if you just have a few questions about any sort of pest not just wasps we would be more than happy to answer.