A New Tinder (for me)

[Toddy]

As I understand it; ....gave up writing on this, copy pasted from google.....

"The lifecycle of a wasp colony is closely tied to the seasons. After hibernating through the winter, queen wasps emerge in spring to build new nests and lay the first batch of eggs. By early summer, the colony starts to grow rapidly, with hundreds — sometimes thousands — of worker wasps helping to feed the young and expand the nest.

By late summer, however, the dynamic shifts. The queen stops laying eggs, and the workers have fewer tasks to occupy them. With their natural food source drying up, they begin foraging more aggressively for sweet, sugary substances — which is why they’re suddenly everywhere: around your drinks, your bins, your barbecues, and even indoors.

This is also when wasps are most likely to sting. Without their usual role in the colony, they become irritable and territorial. A sudden movement or accidental swat can quickly provoke an attack."

That last phrase is very much our experience here.

 

[PoppyD]

Hi Toddy. It is a bit old and repetitious information that’s not been updated. Like T rex lip info and Nanotyrannus etc.

At this time. Nests are shutting down and new queens and all the grubs are achieving adulthood and they are stocking up for overwintering to be ready for establishing new colonies and just surviving winter. So there are more about. They aren’t more aggressive. It’s just that they’re targeting the same foragable food that we are. Blackberries, apples, pears. So we are more likely to encounter them and get annoyed that they are buzzing at our faces trying to get the same food. In fact they are likely to be less aggressive as they haven’t got a colony to protect. But are on their own and just looking to survive.

 

[JonathanD]

T rex lip debate. How on earth have you managed to bring that into a wasp conversation. That’s a whole other debatable nightmare. Let’s not start that here.

 

[Toddy]

I do take your point, but from the reality of a street full of young children (there are over thirty of them now) and their pets, all of whom have become uncomfortably familiar enough with wasp stings that there is no, "do not swipe at them", no, "less aggressive".....it's all out war.
They know that one dead or injured wasp gives off scent enough to attract others fired up enough to attack, so the kids are armed now with supersoakers and wash away any dead ones straight down the nearest stank (road drain).

 

[Nice65]

Wasps around our old orchards were aggressive because they were drunk, also pub gardens. And @PoppyD can correct this if I'm wrong, the queen stops releasing the pheromones that keep the workers under her control because they've completed their work. So they hit the pub Friday afternoon

 

[demented dale]

I have been stung loads by wasps and always in the same place and about this time. I lived in a plum orchard and I always believed they got drunk on fermenting fruit and became agressive. Is there any truth in this? After the third sting in a week I destroyed the nest which was in my caravan ceiling. xxx

 

[JonathanD]

Yeah. It is true. They do get wasted. It’s the most fun they’re ever going to have before their arrses are swatted through their heads. Give them a break. Sorry Pops.

Seriously though, I rescued a wasp that had been in mead for ages. I pulled it out as I had done at least ten times that same day. But it was in there a while and drinking away. And utterly pi$$ed. It stung me and was so drunk it couldn’t extract the stinger. It fell on its side still attached to me with its body pumping away filling my finger with venom. I couldn’t push it off with
out killing it. So @CLEM had to scrape it off with a knife. Sadly it did kill it as the wasp was utterly mullered.

But it’s not aggression. They’re just utterly drunk and can’t control themselves as they haven’t the cognitive ability we have to discern what’s happening to them.

 

[PoppyD]

I do take your point, but from the reality of a street full of young children (there are over thirty of them now) and their pets, all of whom have become uncomfortably familiar enough with wasp stings that there is no, "do not swipe at them", no, "less aggressive".....it's all out war.
They know that one dead or injured wasp gives off scent enough to attract others fired up enough to attack, so the kids are armed now with supersoakers and wash away any dead ones straight down the nearest stank (road drain).

The only way to deal with that is for a wasp biologist to come into the street and show how cool they are. I know that flies are cool and necessary as well but I get right mad if they land on me and my food constantly.

 

[PoppyD]

Wasps around our old orchards were aggressive because they were drunk, also pub gardens. And @PoppyD can correct this if I'm wrong, the queen stops releasing the pheromones that keep the workers under her control because they've completed their work. So they hit the pub Friday afternoon

This is 100% they’re cut loose and out to survive as long as they can against all odds.

 

[Toddy]

Synchronicity can be wonderfully apt, and at sometimes most annoying.

I've just been to the loo, but Son2 had been in the bathroom half an hour earlier for his shower before he left for work, so the window was open.
I'm literally on the loo, and a blasted wasp came in and started dancing around my head.

Not a happy egg at that point


I quietly reassure the local kids that if they don't flap around and annoy them the wasps will just fly away and leave them alone. Right now though, kids out playing, scranning fruit or just even with sweeties, and the wasps let off their queens leashes, and it only needs one kid stung before they all know that wasps are trouble.

 

[Falstaff]

I'd call it more a fight for survival, due to seasonal change. As it gets colder they need more calories and get more determined to get it from the fruit, anything knocking them away from that they'll potentially sting. They're also keener to get thrown out bee grubs/dead bees from around the hive.
Bees will also get more defensive for the same reason, trying hard to build up colony stocks for the winter. They will get in your face more if you open or mess with the hive (even if you are really giving them syrup food).
I've sprayed my small apples and pears/trees with an organic boiled garlic water to deter the wasps - seems to work..

 

[Chris]

Probably a good thing to note for fire safety, having something that goes up so easily in a shed or the loft might be worth keeping in mind.

I’ve been stung unprovoked multiple times by wasps in my life, so I don’t buy the ‘just leave them alone and they won’t sting you’ thing personally, but I also don’t kill them because a sting doesn’t really hurt much in the scheme of things and I accept they are a valuable part of the ecosystem. Perhaps more understandable for those with severe allergies who would die from a sting, but my reaction is usually a “Ow, you little b*****d!” and brushing them off.

 

[Pattree]

We sometimes get an underground nest in the grass area I laughingly call a “lawn”. We just put a marker around it to warn grandchildren. We show them the wasps going in and out of the hole.
We’ve also shown them wasps chewing up a fence post in early Summer.

I’ve never been stung by a passing wasp. I’ve been stung many times but always my fault.

Cutting bracken in a young plantation in Matlock I would hit wasps nest three or four times ina season with my sickle. One time motorists on the A6 were treated to view of me dropping my jeans as 14 little soldiers raised lumps on my nether regions.

The standing instruction was to keep hold of your sickle and back away. I never once achieved that!!!

Now I keep a stainless steel cup and a post card for catching them indoors and evicting them. There are vastly fewer these days than there used to be. It’s more than alarming!

 

[John Fenna]

We have five wasp nests within 50 yards of each other, along our back lane - all have been dug up and attacked by (I assume from the evidence) badgers. Good luck and good hunting to these masked avengers!

 

[Broch]

Could you tell me more about that please. Has it always been bad or has it gotten worse. How many times have you been stung and what species. If you know. And you seem like someone that does or has a good idea.

I can't remember reacting badly when I was a kid but, certainly over the last 20 years, the three times I have been stung I have had impressive swelling and the pain is like a red hot needle being pushed deep into my flesh

The last time my hand immediately started swelling and within half an hour looked like a Marigold glove that you'd blown air into. The time before, strimming the bank, I was stung on the side of the neck but, luckily, it didn't have time to inject fully before I swiped it away - I could feel my neck tightening up so I took half a packet of anti-histamines and lay down for an hour - all was fine.

In both those cases it was Vespula germanica and in both cases I had disturbed the nest.

A good friend of mine is the wasp and bee Vice County recorder for Montgomeryshire - spending time in the field with her is an education every time.

 

[crlthrn]

Well this has opened a can of wasps. Well done Andy. If there’s a trio of things that’ll get Pops triggered, it’s guitars, cheese and wasps.

Queens can and do overwinter in nests if it’s a viable location that can carry on for future years. Young queens can also take over the abandoned nest if the original queen leaves.

Wasps don’t get angry. It’s not an emotion that they are capable of. It’s defence. You try and kill one, they will defend themselves. I find attitudes are shifting. For the worse. Kids now. Don’t know nature. They’re scared of everything. Flies, wasps, bees, even butterflies. If it’s around you and it flies. Kill it. Absolute panic if you’re in a pub garden and a wasp or bee or hover fly gets within a metre of anyone. Stand up dance around screaming whilst flapping your arms around like you’re on acid at a rave. Best way to get stung. And trigger everyone else in the vicinity.

Just treat them as if they’re butterfly’s. Let them land on your hand. Softly brush them away from your face. Wipe them onto your finger gently if they’re on your glass or shirt. Bring them up to yore face and watch them clean themselves of the sticky liquid. The odds of getting stung are minuscule. If I had a kid that was interested in nature, I’d pass the wasp from my finger to theirs. And a whole world might be opened.


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Are you the wasp whisperer?

 

[Nice65]

Maybe this guy too.

Thread 'Smock, Windproof, 1942 Pattern (the original 'SAS smock'), but made in Ventile in 2026!'
https://bushcraftuk.com/community/t...sas-smock-but-made-in-ventile-in-2026.170071/

John Fenna won’t have a website, but he’s a member here and his work is in the link.

I reckon if your dad sent his new coat off to @Sooty22 to measure up, there’d be a lovely gift from Santa under the tree for you at Christmas.

Obviously he’d have to wear something else for a few weeks, but hey ho.

 

[JonathanD]

Are you the wasp whisperer?

Im a snake whisperer. although they never hear me. PoppyD is the wasp whisperer.

 

[Silverclaws2]

We call that a wasps byke. No idea why, just what it's named.
I live next to woodland, and we have an annual cull of bykes from rafters and sheds. Usually we just put a paper bag over them and tie a bit of string around the stalk (how they fasten them onto the rafters) and then cut that off with the bread knife.
We throw the paper bag of incipient *aaaaarrrgggh* into the woods. Most of our neighbours use fly spray.
If we find the byke before it goes bigger than a tennis ball we count it as a win.
I found one we'd missed when I cleared out the shed that I keep Kilner jars, the wax and soap stuff, in...hidden in the back corner at the roof. It was dead though, no idea why, but that shed roof gets awfully hot in Summer, and the byke had broken up into curves like a broken up enormous pinecone.
It did take a spark really quickly, and I wondered if it were waxy the way bees ones can be.

Byke is derived from middle Scots that apparently means ' hive ' or 'nest' and is fairly common to be found spoken in Northern Britain.

Also it is said that wasps don't re-use nests so feel to torch the things as wasps don't want them after they have finished with them.

Interesting how they make them by chewing wood fibres to create a papier mache like material from well chewed wood and saliva.

 

[Longstrider]

At the risk of offending PoppyD I am happy to state that I hate the ruddy things with a vengeance. I grew up in High St sweet shop and was stung every single year of my life (Usually multiple times) until we moved out when I was 11.
I once inadvertently disturbed a nest in a straw-barn at dusk on a wet Winters evening, rearranging bales to make a seat for shooting from. In the gloom of the barn I didn't see them at first, but I certainly felt them !
By the time I realised what was going on and ran out into the rain I had 27 stings. Many around the collar, a few on my hands, but mostly on my face including 3 on my right eye-lid. I had to shelter from the rain behind a big oak for an hour to let them settle so I could rush back into the barn and retrieve my rifle and bag.

Whilst working on 'ground prep' for the then CLA Gamefair, 3 of us were tasked with clearing an area to be used for the gundog 'Scurry'. Carrying a felled tree trunk on our shoulders, all in line like little Indians, we paused while the lad at the front negotiated a style. Being at the back of the log I had a ringside seat when poor ol' Mickey in the middle started to Riverdance like Flatley on acid. He'd stopped with his boot an inch from and underground nest entrance ... in loose jeans. They got him all the way up his leg and inside (or through) his boxers ! We all got stung but 2 of us felt very sorry for Mick. That nest was dealt with via the careful application of 2 litres of petrol applied after dusk and the correct application of a burning rag on a long stick. Not out of revenge but as a preventative measure, considering the number of dogs and handlers who would be walking the same path a couple of days later.

Wasps .. you can keep 'em Poppy