You should have seen what they did to my friends beehives last year...then you may not be such a great fan. Insects have a purpose in life and if the wasp population is good and that means it is good for other insects too then that is fine..but think we can do without wasps....and if you happen to to be allergic to their sting then ......no I think we could possibly do without them.
Like Margo's husband I do everything to avoid wasps as they have put me in hospital twice with allergic reactions and I have to carry an epipen everywhere. As luck would have it I have had 3 wasps nests in my garden - last year in the kitchen roof which was scary. Last year I had bumble bees nesting in one of my bird boxes which the blue tits had vacated
Good to see the positive comments on wasps, I thought I might have stirred up a hornets' nest of disapproval with this blog.
Sandymea's comment reminds me to offer one word of caution. Wasps do eat 'meat' and are regular visitors to carrion. I remember watching them hollow out a dead rat in a Forest Hill garden some years ago. So if you do let them nibble jam off of your fingers or watch them on your cream tea plate, remember not to eat the food they may have contaminated.
Caroline, they will not demolish your balcony, just graze it lightly.
I'm allergic to wasp stings, but ok with bees. Any wasp coming in my greenhouse can expect a very short life at the end of my aerosol, but I do everything I can to help bees escape at the end of the day.
Hi I too am very allergic to wasps, last year was nearly MY last. I'm sorry to say that I do not encourage them to stay around and use wasp traps. I know they do good work but................!
We have wasps nests every year in the school garden. I tell the kids to leave them alone and only one person has ever been stung - me! A wasp got stuck down my welly. The effects of the sting lasted for over a month. However it is fascinating to see them taking all the caterpillars from our cabbages. Also their nests are in holes in the ground which I did not realise.
We have had a wasps' nest somewhere in the garden for the last 5 years or more. Last year they made one in our hedge and this year they appear to have made one in the stone wall of our shed, I spotted them going in and out of a small hole in the masonry.
They've never bothered me, even when I cut the hedge last year. The sting can be painful for a while, but I find the nettles at the edge of our garden deliver a longer-lasting effect than that of a wasp sting.
As another beekeeper, my heart sinks when I see wasps around. They really do play havoc at the hive, killing bees and robbing the larvae and honey. I've set up several jam jar traps to thin them out again this year - oddly enough the traps kill plenty of wasps, but only the odd bee. Bees must be a bit quicker on the uptake!
Wasps don't just eat 'meat' they are cannibals. When a wasp tried to drink my Cider while I was sitting in the garden that was just too much. I drowned it with a water spray and it stayed down. A few minutes later several of its 'chums' were investigating the body. Withing an hour there was barely anything left, so whoever called them dustbins was indeed correct.
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You should have seen what they did to my friends beehives last year...then you may not be such a great fan. Insects have a purpose in life and if the wasp population is good and that means it is good for other insects too then that is fine..but think we can do without wasps....and if you happen to to be allergic to their sting then ......no I think we could possibly do without them.
Sandymea's comment reminds me to offer one word of caution. Wasps do eat 'meat' and are regular visitors to carrion. I remember watching them hollow out a dead rat in a Forest Hill garden some years ago. So if you do let them nibble jam off of your fingers or watch them on your cream tea plate, remember not to eat the food they may have contaminated.
Caroline, they will not demolish your balcony, just graze it lightly.
They've never bothered me, even when I cut the hedge last year. The sting can be painful for a while, but I find the nettles at the edge of our garden deliver a longer-lasting effect than that of a wasp sting.
Most of the negative aspects of wasps revolve around the redundant workers at the end of the year when they crave sweet things.
Do honeybees not have a strategy to deal with wasps involving overheating them? As honeybees are non-native I'm not surprised they might struggle.