Wasps! brr...

[Captain Jack]

Ever since I moved to London to live with my better half, our shiny new flat seems to have an infestation of wasps in our bathroom. Almost every day, there will be one flying around the bathroom but die very quickly. I've found more dead wasps one the window sill than live ones. Thankfully, none have stung any of us yet.

The problem is, I don't know where they are bloody coming from! I thought it was from the hole for the light but I blocked that and they are still coming in (it's top - 3rd - floor appartment). There's no ventilator to the outside so they can't be coming from that and I can't see where else they could appear from.

I thought that by end of October they would have died off, wherever they are coming from, but I guess warmer than usual autumn isn't helping. It was +18 in London today! I have an insect aerosol spray thing that I use to treat the flat on a weekly basis but it's really annoying. Will they come back in the spring? We should move back to Somerset/Wiltshire next August/September but until then, I am not looking forward to another wasp filled year!

[teamster1975]

I sympathise Alex, we had a wasps nest in the loft last year and they were finding their way in past gaps in the ceiling from the pipes where we had central heating installed.
They will die off eventually and the Queen won't use the same nest twice
Until then, RAID is your friend!
(Or one of those tennis racket shaped bug zappers )

[Captain Jack]

Thanks Matt. I do hope they all bugger off as they've been buzzing around for far too long.

It's good that you know where yours were coming from - I have no idea, so I can't even close up the gap if I wanted to.

[teamster1975]

Check around the bath panel (if you've got a bath!) and around the basin pedestal; the pipes probably won't be boxed in & if they're dropping from above they may be in the wall cavity.
I hate the bastards, one got inside my shirt collar & stung me on the neck, another sod stung me twice when I ventured into the loft
The last straw was when Ben (our eldest) got stung, then I declared mass extermination.

[steve_earwig]

I'd imagine you could get something like ant killer for them, something they take back for the queen to try (Maybe http://www.totallyhome.co.uk/show-produ ... 880&ref=fr#)

I always found a tin of WD and a fag lighter to be quite efficacious but that's probably not the thing for indoors.

Count your blessings, it could be hornets (one sting and it's hospital time). The buggers decided to make a nest in one of my upstairs window rolette boxes and I could hear them trying to chew through the wood to get into my house. All I had to hand was one of those tins woodworm killer with a tube for squirting down flight holes, so I drilled a small hole from the inside and squirted them - you should have heard the noise! A couple of applications later and all activity ceased. When I was next cleaning out my gutters I noticed they'd tried to build a new nest one the outside of the window - from dead hornets. The year after I had all my windows replaced, the nest had been MASSIVE.

[mjb]

I had ant issues in my last house. They made themselves a nest under the bathroom (which was a poorly made extension off the back of the house) and a couple of times I woke up and got to the bathroom to find literally hundreds of winged ants on the walls, floor, ceiling, in the bathtub, sink and loo... everywhere. Raid killed 'em off. I used to use the bait stuff but they got wise to it and it became ineffectual after a couple of years

[teamster1975]

Oh yes, wd40 & a lighter is always good for revenge!

[mjb]

Lynx and a lighter is safer to use indoors

[teamster1975]

The Lynx effect!

[highlander]

Lynx is called "Axe" in most countries - more appropriate a name, considering the topic.

As for stinging things - I have an actual phobia of flying insects, particularly bees, wasps and hornets. Little bastards. Torch the lot of them

[Captain Jack]

Wow! Looks like I am getting off lightly! Have only ever been stung by wasps in my life so not really bothered about bees (my dad keeps several hives in his garden - yummy honey!).

I'd torch the buggers if I knew where they were coming from! Will tape up every crevice around the bath, sink etc. and see what happens!

[turbolag]

I recently moved into a new house which had been empty for a while. There was a wasp infestation in the conservatory so I clad myself from head to toe in heavy clothing and a motorbike helmet and went after them all with the vacuum cleaner. Half hour later they were all sucked safely up, and I gave the place a heavy spray and scrub with bleach and sealed up every tiny nook and cranny with silicone.

A few days later they were all dead and it was safe to empty the Dyson at the end of the garden. Me great white hunter!

[Doggy]

I had a wasps nest in the loft of my garage extension - with no loft access. They were getting in and out between the wall and the fascia board. I sprayed the gap with masses of Raid, (until it the entire area was covered with a layer of 'foam' half an inch thick). They carried this into the nest with them....
Next day I counted over 200 casualties on the path below their bolt hole
...They didn't do it again either

[Captain Jack]

Farking things! Last night, one sat on my missus in the middle on the night. Two more found in the kitchen dying.... Grrr... Wish I could burn the fkkers!