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Are wasps a problem?

jamesholtjamesholt Posts: 593
in Problem solving
I don't know very much about wasps?  Should I just leave them alone?  They  are under the eve of my house and don't seem to bother anyone
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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    If no one in your family is allergic to their sting I’d leave them alone … they’re the gardeners friend … they eat aphids 😃 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • BiljeBilje Posts: 811
    I had a wasp nest, quite large, in my loft a few years ago. Took advice and left them to get on with it as they only use the nest for one year.
  • Songbird-2Songbird-2 Posts: 2,349
    edited July 2023
    .
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    I have been painfully stung several times.  Yes, they are a problem.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Balgay.HillBalgay.Hill Posts: 1,089
    I wonder if wasps read comments on the forum?  o:)
    Sunny Dundee
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    If they're under your eaves [ a popular location  :)] and not bothering anyone, then they're fine @jamesholt. The nests are stunning. I kept the one I had a couple of years ago when they were nesting in a purpose built box - made for the bees which had inhabited somewhere else instead! 

    Different from our 'usual' ones here. Are those your most common type in Texas?
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    They are not a problem unless you are allergic to their sting, we let them get on with it here unless they want to build nests in our rattan garden furniture which I do take exception to when I'm having my coffee!
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    They are a problem if they are nesting somewhere which means that you can’t leave them in peace. My OH was attacked just passing close by whilst using a strimmer. Obviously they thought he was attacking them. Also, they do get bad tempered at the end of summer. We have to avoid our fruit trees, and lose most of the crop, if a wasps nest is close by, because at apple-harvest time, they won’t tolerate us near the trees. A large nest of wasps can eat an awful lot of apples.
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    At the end of the season they are starving that is why sweet foods are so appealing.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • Bee witchedBee witched Posts: 1,295
    At the end of the summer they try and get a "free lunch" by getting into our beehives.
     
    If a hive is weak there will not be enough bees to be able to defend themselves, and the wasps take over and eat everything the bees have stored for winter. The hive is then doomed.
    So we help the hives by reducing the size of the entrance making it easier for the guard bees to defend. They can easily see off a few wasps, but it's a different story if the wasps bring all their mates.

    Bee x
    Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders  

    A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
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