Why Are Wasps Flying Into Your Wothersome Home? Common Causes and Solutions
Leaving doors propped and windows wide on a warm day is the most common way wasps get in, and a few small changes keep most of them out.
The mistake: opening everything and hoping
A warm day arrives and the house gets opened up. The back door is wedged, every window is ajar, and the kitchen is flooded with fresh air. Unfortunately it is also flooded with whatever is flying past, including wasps.
Wasps are strongly drawn to light and warmth, and a doorway with a view of the garden looks like an exit to them as much as an entrance. Once they are inside they head for glass, and then they bump around trying to leave. The result is a house with wasps on the windows and a household that cannot work out how they got there.
The solution is not to live behind closed doors all summer. It is to make the openings less attractive, and to know when the volume of wasps suggests something more than passing traffic.
There is also a habit worth building: when you carry food or drinks out to the garden, close the door behind you rather than leaving it open for the next trip. It sounds trivial, but it removes the single most common route by which a wasp follows the smell of a meal into the house.
Doors: the checklist
- Fit a fly screen or beaded curtain to a back door that is often kept open.
- Do not leave a food bowl or drinks by the threshold.
- Move bins away from the doorstep, and keep the lids shut.
- Close the door behind you when carrying food outside.
- Keep a tea towel handy to guide a wasp toward the exit, without swatting.
A tidy window sill matters, too. Dead insects, sticky fingerprints and spilt drinks on the sill can attract wasps to the frame, and once a wasp is at the glass it is likely to find a way through any small gap in the seal. A quick wipe each day in the warm months costs nothing.
Windows: the checklist
- Fit fine mesh to windows you open often, particularly in kitchens and bedrooms.
- Open windows on the shady side of the house in the hottest hours, since wasps are less drawn there.
- Close a window when a wasp is on the sill outside and moving about.
- Check trickle vents, loose seals and old window frames for small gaps.
- If a wasp is on the inside of the glass, open the window wide and leave the room for a while.
Wasps do not usually settle indoors for long. They keep moving until they find the light, so giving them a clear route out is the quickest way to end a visit.
Take particular care with children’s bedrooms and anywhere you sleep. If wasps are getting upstairs, shut the windows in those rooms during the day and check them again before bed. If you hear a buzzing or rasping noise from a wall or ceiling, move on to the nest checks straight away.
Other openings that people forget
Doors and windows get the attention, but wasps can also use quieter routes. Check each of these once, on a day when you have no wasps indoors, so you can fix them calmly.
- The loft hatch, if the loft is open to the eaves.
- Chimneys and flues that are not in use.
- Gaps around soil pipes, cables, extractor fans and boiler flues.
- Cat flaps, which can stay open for long periods.
- Garage doors and shed doors that sit ajar.
- Conservatory roof vents and door seals.
A tradesperson can help with permanent repairs. If you suspect wasps are using one of these openings as their route to a nest, do not seal it until the nest has been treated.
If you cannot find the cause, try noting down which door or window the wasps seem to use. Over a few days a pattern emerges, perhaps one window that is always open, or one door that is always propped. That is a better starting point than guessing, and it takes only a note on the fridge.
When screens are not enough
Screens cut the number of strays, but they do not explain a steady supply of wasps. If you have fitted mesh, cleared food, and wasps are still appearing in the same few rooms, it suggests a nest very close, or even inside the structure.
Look outside at the roofline above those rooms, at the wall below, and at the ground along that side of the property. A line of wasps to one point is conclusive. If you cannot see anything, mention the rooms and times to the technician when you ring, because the pattern can help narrow down the position.
Remember that a nest can sit in a bush, tree or hole in the ground, and not only in the building.
Think about the household’s habits as well as the fabric of the house. A door that is always open for the cat, a window that is always open for the washing line, a gap left for the dog: these are the openings wasps use, because they are used by everyone. Name them, fix the worst, and the number of visitors usually drops.
Commercial premises have the same issue on a bigger scale. Delivery doors, shop entrances and kitchen vents are all routes in, and a strip curtain or mesh screen is often a sensible low-cost answer while the nest is dealt with.
Booking a visit
Our trained, fully insured technician covers Wothersome, in the Leeds area, and the villages around it, for domestic and commercial work. A nest is a fixed £90 to treat, with £35 for a second nest on the same property, and no call-out charge. The price is confirmed on the phone ahead of any visit, and nothing is done without your agreement.
Ring 0113 347 0014, or use the booking form on the contact page. Bookings are taken every day of the week, with same-day service available. If someone in the household is allergic to wasp stings, tell us when booking. Should a sting lead to swelling of the face or throat, difficulty breathing, dizziness or a widespread rash, call 999 straight away.
Wasps on your property in Wothersome?
Fixed price £90 per nest, no call-out charge, same-day service available.