Nests in Awkward Places

In the ground

A Hole With Traffic and Nothing to See

An underground nest looks like almost nothing: a hole the width of a coin, in a lawn, a bank, a border or under a shed base, with a steady stream in and out.

They are nearly always found by a mower or a strimmer, which is the worst possible way to find one, and they can get large because nothing limits the cavity as the colony digs it out.

Treatment is the same principle as everywhere: the dust goes in at the entrance and the wasps carry it down. What matters is what you do not do — nothing poured down the hole reaches a nest that may be half a metre back, and petrol and boiling water are both traditional, both useless and both genuinely dangerous.

Mark the spot from a safe distance and keep off that part of the garden until it is done.

Images on this page are illustrations only.

In a hedge or shrub

Usually Found by the Person Cutting It

Dense evergreen hedging — conifer especially — is a good nest site: sheltered, hidden, and undisturbed from spring until somebody decides to cut it.

A nest in a hedge is invisible until you are within a metre of it, which is exactly the distance at which a hedge trimmer becomes a problem. If you are cutting anything dense in July, August or September, stand and watch it for a minute first. That one minute is worth more than any advice on this page.

The same applies to overgrown ivy, which is a popular site and equally hard to see into.

In the garden furniture

The June Surprises

A specific category, and it produces a rush of calls every June: things that have been shut since autumn and get opened for the first time on a warm weekend.

• A rolled-up parasol. Opened, at head height, over a table.
• A barbecue cover, or the barbecue itself.
• Stacked or covered garden furniture.
• A bird box nothing nested in this year.
• A plant pot stack, a water butt, an empty compost bin.

All of these are at the height and distance where a defending colony is immediately a problem, and all of them are opened by somebody with both hands full. The nests are usually small in June, which is the one mercy.

If something has been closed since last year and it is now warm, open it slowly and from the side.

Images on this page are illustrations only.

In the shed or outbuilding

The Roof Apex, Nearly Always

Sheds, summer houses, garages, stables and workshops share a pattern: the nest is in the apex of the roof, hanging from the ridge board or the underside of the boarding, and the wasps are entering at a gap in the cladding or under the eaves.

The difficulty with an outbuilding is that people tend to keep using it. A nest in a shed roof means every trip for a spade is a trip past a colony, and the colony learns nothing from repetition — it defends every time.

Treated normally, at the normal price. If the shed is somewhere you need that day, say so when you ring.

In a bin store or bin

Sheltered, and Next to the Food

A bin store combines everything a wasp wants: a sheltered dry cavity to nest in and, from August, a permanent sugar supply a metre away. In a block of flats or a commercial yard it is also a place people have to use several times a day.

Worth separating two problems. A nest in the bin store is a treatment. Wasps at the bins in late summer, with no nest anywhere, is a housekeeping problem — lids shut, bins rinsed, sugary waste bagged — and no treatment will fix it, because the wasps are coming from somewhere else.

The test is the same as always: steady two-way traffic to one fixed point means a nest. Wasps milling around the bins themselves means the bins.

Short answers

Wasp Questions

Going further

Wasp Guides