Wasp Nests
13th of June, 2022
Each wasp nest consists of horizontal combs completely surrounded by a paper thin envelope with coordinated markings. Initially, a solitary queen has to forage for food, construct the brood cells and when the wasp nest is about the size of a golf ball, she then lays her eggs, feeds the developing larvae and protects her nest. When the offspring emerge as adults they assume all tasks with the exception of egg laying.
These female wasps are called workers and are noticeably smaller than the queen. The queen devotes the remainder of her lifecycle to laying eggs will remain within the nest for remainder of season. It is imperative that if you see any signs of a wasp activity that you act quickly to treat and remove this before it becomes a major problem.
The nest grows to a size somewhere between a football and a beach ball and can contain up to 40,000 individuals by the end of the season dependant on climate and feeding availability in your area. Each worker tends to carry out a given task, such as nest building or feeding larvae, for a given period, but may change tasks if the need arises. In early autumn, larger cells are built by workers for the arrival of new queens and larvae, these cells receive more food than those in normal cells. The queen begins to lay unfertilized eggs at this time in different cells that develop into males. After the males emergence, the new queens mate and then seek shelter for the winter. The old founder queen, workers and males all die off.
Wasp stings can be extremely painful and occasionally lethal. If you are too close to an active wasp nest then you will be attacked and stung by multiple wasps at the same time. A professional wasp control pest technician from Pest-Master should be employed as our staff have the experience and correct protective clothing. We will usually treat the heart of the nest, or the entrance they are flying into, with an insecticidal powder applied with a special applicator. We also have specialist tools to access nest entrance points at height and in difficult or awkward positions.
The entire nest will normally die off fairly quickly, however if our treatment has not worked within three days a free revisit call will be given.
Call Pest-Master for a quotation and get those wasps treated quickly.
