The Best Way of Dealing With Wasps

We are all very familiar with these unwanted garden guests at our barbeques this time of year, but what should you do if you discover an unwanted nest of them on your property? Besides being a huge annoyance, wasps can pose great risk to those with allergies, young children and the elderly. It is best to take action sooner rather than later as wasps don’t tend to be overly aggressive in June and July unless they feel that the nest is under threat. After the queen has left the hive in August/September the drones will become more aggressive and stray further from their nest in search of food. Instead of calling out a pest controller it can actually be very quick and easy to treat these nests yourself with the right equipment.

How to control wasps?

The most effective way of controlling wasps is to use a powder based product such as Ficam D applied via a duster. The formulation is ‘dusted’ directly into the nest and does not trouble or agitate the wasps. Only 3 or 4 good puffs of the product is required to treat the hive as wasps are social hive insects and will all be moving and working together within the nest, this spreads the dust around to the entire population of up to 6000 wasps, including the Queen.

The best time to treat the nest is early in the morning or late in the evening when the wasps will mostly be dormant. This ensures that you are applying the product to as many wasps as possible and this is when they are at their most docile, making them far less likely to become aggressive. The dust is applied by handheld applicators such as the AR8 duster which has an extensive reach of 8m making it perfect for Pest Control professionals or those in business…staying at safe distances and reaching to high up places from the ground. For nests accessible from lower height and/or in tight spaces the easy-use Polminor duster is ideal. Another option for treating nests is to use a foam based applicator such as Digrain Wasp and Hornet Destroyer. This can be applied via a high powered jet from up to 3m away and should be applied around the entrance to the nest first, and then all over the whole nest.

It is strongly recommended to wear protective clothing, to protect yourself from any stray wasps that may become agitated and also to protect yourself from any foam or dust – a UC-P3V facemask and eye protection is especially important when working with insecticide dusts and spray!

After treatment it should only take 15 minutes or so for the product to work, however it is advisable to leave the area immediately and stay away for a good few hours. You should notice that there is no more activity when you return and it is at this point you can remove the nest. This is recommended as bees have been known to colonise old wasps nest the following year and this then cause damage to the bees.

All the mentioned products for treating wasps are also very effective against ants, which are another very common uninvited guest in the summer!