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Post by NellyDee on Oct 6, 2018 9:06:00 GMT
For a couple of months now, nearly weekly, there have been three or four dead wasps together in various places around the house, upstairs and down stairs. we have done searches to try and find where they are actually coming into the house, including the loft for possible nests. The only place we can think of is down the chimney in the central hallway, with stairs leading to the upstairs rooms. What is puzzling me is why are they dead and why have we not seen them flying about - they seem to appear overnight?
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Post by Tringa on Oct 6, 2018 18:22:18 GMT
I think towards the autumn some wasps, that have been very active during the late spring and summer, die. We have found a few (about 10-15 over about six weeks) in our bedroom. We found there was a nest(or rather we seen wasps going in) under some guttering.
Dave
PS Anyone else think wasps are great?
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Post by rowanberry on Oct 6, 2018 20:10:39 GMT
Having been stung as a child I'm still very wary of them, but some of them are wonderful colours- and their engineering abilities are impressive!
I saw this one on a Bird of Paradise in Greece two years ago, and thought it was lovely.
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Post by aeshna5 on Oct 7, 2018 4:43:23 GMT
Yes it is a beauty- looks good on the Strelitzia.
I do admire them + they do control a lot of insect pests.
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Post by ianr on Oct 7, 2018 7:20:43 GMT
Dave PS Anyone else think wasps are great? I try to leave them to there own devices nowadays but as a youngster about 8 or 9 I put my foot over an entrance to a wasps nest thinking get out of that  of course they have more than one entrance must have been three weeks before I could get my shoe on again  ian |
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Post by duncan74 on Oct 7, 2018 16:04:28 GMT
I think wasps are underrated, they are brilliant architects, the nests they make are strong yet light and warm, made from a variety of materials, there are 9 pictures of wasp faces in my book, Insects of Britain and Western Europe - Michael Chinery it covers a variety of insects, moths, bees, wasps, butterflies, Damselflies and Dragonflies and a host more, go on line to Amazon, you may be able to get a good second hand one for pennies plus £2.80p P&P
Duncan
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2018 8:14:42 GMT
as a youngster about 8 or 9 I put my foot over an entrance to a wasps nest thinking get out of that That was brave! |
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Post by Tringa on Oct 8, 2018 8:57:29 GMT
Ian is the brave one, not me. My experience of wasps might be untypical but I've only been stung once and that understandable - I pulled on a gardening glove that a wasp was using at the time. Left alone I have never had a problem with wasps.
Dave
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Post by ianr on Oct 8, 2018 10:19:10 GMT
Brave??? dopey I'd say and yet I wouldn't say I learnt from it, many things have bitten and stung me since  though my favourite would have to be a pipistrelle bat I used to catch them as a kid  'no nets' ian |
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Post by rowanberry on Oct 8, 2018 11:22:41 GMT
How on earth did you manage to catch a bat without a net??
The most exotic thing I've ever been bitten by was a grass snake when I was about ten years old.
In our science class there were several snakes and lizards in terrariums, (the head of the dept. was keen on reptiles- there used to be two iguanas who were exceptional escape artists!) and one day for a dare I teased the smallest snake until it got fed up and bit me on the back of the hand.
I wanted to be able to say I'd been snake-bit but to be honest I've had much more painful nips from horses! (and dogs, for that matter.)
Sorry, Helen... we've completely derailed your thread! Have you figured out yet where your wasps are coming from?
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Post by NellyDee on Oct 8, 2018 12:29:37 GMT
No. Think it must be Chimney. Still on changed thread. I have been stung a couple of times by wasps, and far worse. However, Daughter and her cousin as youngsters were out paying in a field and found a large wasps nests on a tree, so they got a stick and prodded it, releasing the wasps, they came screaming back to the house, having dived into a pond, looking like they had full blown measles. Both had to be taken to hospital - very frightening all round. Both now in their 50s still have a paranoia about wasps, but have at least learnt to stay stock still and not wave their arms about.
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Post by ianr on Oct 9, 2018 10:22:14 GMT
They used to roost in holes in trees rowanberry so catch them as there about to jump out or stick your hand in  I remember when I was 3 or 4 trying to catch birds with a stick a piece of string and a dustbin lid a little bread for bait don't recall ever being successful  ian |
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though my favourite would have to be a pipistrelle bat I used to catch them as a kid 
'no nets' 
