Found a Wasp Nest in Your Loft in Scarcroft? Here's What to Do
Many people assume a wasp nest in the roof is a seasonal nuisance that will fix itself. It will, eventually, but not before it has grown considerably.
The mistake: waiting for the nest to die off
It is true that a wasp colony does not survive the winter. In autumn the nest declines, the old queen dies and the workers disperse. That leads many households to put up with a loft nest, reasoning that it will be over by October anyway. The reasoning has a flaw. Between the day you notice the nest and the day it declines, the colony keeps growing, and the period when it is largest is also the period when wasps are most irritable and most likely to wander into the living space.
Someone in Scarcroft who spots a few wasps on a June morning may be looking at a nest with a few hundred workers. By August, the same nest can hold thousands. Waiting gives it time to outgrow its original gap, to chew through plasterboard and to make its presence felt in every room with a ceiling light.
There is also the question of what a dead nest leaves behind. Nests do not vanish: the paper stays, and it can attract other insects looking for a sheltered corner.
For these reasons, the sensible time to act is as soon as you are confident there is a nest.
A checklist for deciding it cannot wait
Use these questions to judge whether the situation has moved beyond a nuisance.
- Are wasps appearing indoors on more than one day?
- Is anyone in the household allergic to stings, or are there young children or a pet that spends time in the affected rooms?
- Can you hear activity in the ceiling when the house is quiet?
- Has a brown stain or a soft patch appeared on the ceiling below the loft?
- Are wasps entering through a gap that you pass on the way in or out of the house, such as near a front door, garage or washing line?
- Is it before late summer, meaning the nest still has weeks of growth ahead?
A yes to any of these is enough reason to book. A yes to two or more means you should not leave it until the weekend, the next payday or the holidays. Wasp nests are best dealt with while they are smaller and while the entrance is still easy to identify.
What to do in the meantime
While you arrange the visit, keep things simple and quiet. Leave the loft hatch shut and do not open it for any reason, including to check whether the nest has gone. Keep the household's movements around the landing to a minimum, and avoid using a vacuum cleaner or power tools in the rooms immediately below, since vibration can disturb the nest.
Do not attempt to smoke the wasps out, pour anything into the gap or block the entrance. Each of those is likely to send wasps into the building, and none of them will deal with the nest.
If you must walk through a room where wasps are appearing, do so slowly and calmly. Wasps tend to sting when they feel trapped or when they are swatted at, not when someone passes quietly. If one lands on you, stay still or brush it gently away, rather than slapping at it.
Why the timing matters through the season
Wasps start building their nests from late April, depending on the weather and how mild the spring is. At first a queen works alone, and the nest is small. As workers hatch, the colony grows and the nest expands, reaching a peak in August, when it can hold 2,000 to 10,000 or more wasps.
Late in the season, with fewer new wasps being produced, the colony's behaviour changes. Workers become more restless and more inclined to enter houses looking for sugar, which is why autumn can feel like the worst time of year for stings even though the nest is already past its best.
In practical terms, that means a June booking and an August booking are both worth making, but the earlier one is generally calmer for everyone, because there are fewer wasps flying around the property.
The signs that a nest has grown
If you have already been living with the nest for a few weeks, you may have started to notice changes. These are worth writing down, because they show how fast the colony is developing.
- The number of wasps leaving the entrance at one time has gone from one or two to a steady stream.
- The sound from the ceiling has become more constant, rather than something you hear only on warm afternoons.
- Wasps are turning up in rooms further from the hatch, such as kitchens or bathrooms with extractor fans.
- You have found wasps crawling on the inside of windows in rooms that were previously clear.
None of these is a reason to panic, but each is a reason to call sooner rather than later. A colony that has doubled in activity since last week will keep doing so until the season turns. Describing the pattern on the phone helps us book you in with the right expectation, and you can simply keep the household calm and away from the loft until the technician arrives.
Booking, price and afterwards
When you phone 0113 347 0014, we agree the price with you before the technician visits, and no work is carried out until you are happy. Treatment is a fixed £90 per nest, there is no call-out charge, and an additional nest on the same property is £35. A trained, fully insured technician carries out the work, and we handle both domestic and commercial properties, seven days a week, with same-day service. You can also book through the form on the contact page.
After the visit, keep the hatch closed for a short while and expect to see some dead wasps. Sweep them up with gloves and a brush and bin them. If you would like to know whether the empty nest can be removed, ask when you book. If anyone at home has a wasp sting allergy, tell us when you call.
Wasps on your property in Scarcroft?
Fixed price £90 per nest, no call-out charge, same-day service available.