Wasp nest on my plot!

[LittleSausage]

Well, I've been digging for a couple of hours and feel quite accomplished. I went home because I'd forgotten my gloves and am starting to get blisters and, by the time I got back, I noticed I have an underground wasp nest. The day is warming up so I think this has brought them out.

For now I will be giving it a wide berth and will continue to dig around it. How do I get rid of it, though? I'm terrified of the blighters, mainly because I'm a little bit allergic.

Any advice would be most welcome!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Continue to give it a wide berth - they'll die off in the colder weather anyway. They won't go out their way to sting you, and we have precious few pollinators as it is. I'd keep some antihistamines handy just in case though.

[Chris11]

Sounds like one of the Digger wasp species. They're 'solitary' wasps rather than 'social' wasps, and I don't think they are likely to sting you if you can leave them alone.

They also have a role in controlling other species of insects like fleas and aphids, so maybe you could think about leaving them undisturbed?

https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs-and-...s/digger-wasps

[DannyK]

I disturbed a nest in a sack of paper I was feeding into my compost. It wasn't that painful but my hand puffed up and itched like hell for days. Haven't run that fast for years!

If you've got to get rid of them there's loads of killers you can apply. I'm leaving mine to die in the winter as there's no obvious nest entrance and I don't want to blitz area with pesticide.

[LittleSausage]

Roger!

Thanks, all, for the replies. This is definitely not a solitary wasp, there are hundreds of them. I will, however, leave it to die off over winter and I'm pretty sure the Queen will find a new home when her workers have gone.

[purplekat]

Common wasps will nest underground, but as others say, they've probably only got a month or so before they all die (apart from the new queens, who will hibernate somewhere else). They can get a little aggressive at this time of year when they have no babies to feed, but are normally more of a problem for fruit trees and around food than randomly stinging.

[snakeshack]

They will die off as stated above so probably best avoided until the frost kills the nest off for the winter .wasps tend to suffer from bad PR. For most of the year they perform a useful service by eating thousands of caterpillars which they chew up and feed to their larvae ,which produce a sweet substance that the adults feed on. At the end of the year there are no larvae and the adults have no sweet seeds relations to feed on and are therefore a problem to us as they try to eke out their last few weeks .

[Scarlet]

One year I had a wasps nest hanging in my tree just 2ft away from my garden path that I use umpteen times a day. I was never bothered with them and the nest was empty by ŵinter.it was beautiful to look at up close.

[w33blegurl]

I have nothing useful to add to this at all other than this gave me the heebies. Having been stung on 3 separate occasions last year by the evil little so and so's (yes I know they also do good stuff in the garden...) they are seriously on the hit list....That being said last year seemed to be an especially bad year for them - our garden was overrun all year as there was a huge nest in a neighbours hedge and I've not been bothered by them at all (with the exception of daring to try and eat outside....sigh) this year!

[Aberdeenplotter]

Personally I would nuke the little sods. I was cutting a customers hedge earlier this year when I felt a sharp pain on my right heel. Stopped what I was doing and pulled up my trouser leg to find a wasp. Brushed it off before it could sting again and made for a chair to check out the damage. Half way there, got a sharp pain on my left heel. Yes, another wasp which also got brushed off. There was a wasps nest in the ground in the middle of the hedge.

I had pain followed by itch for more than a week.

I accept that the noise and vibration from my hedgetrimmer had upset them but wasps can and do sting just for the hell of it.

[ESBkevin]

several weeks ago I found/disturbed a wasps nest in an old trunk when cutting the hedge at the back of the house. It was where children play and others access all the time. I was annoyed because the wasps seem to have driven out the bumble bees that were a couple of feet away under the compost bin. I waited until late evening and blew ant powder into the wasp nest opening and retired. By morning all was quite.
Up on the plot Sunday and lifting potatoes I disturbed another nest in the ground. I have left it unmolested because I can work around it (they are angry though). They are right beside the new pig manure storage site I have earmarked so no long term hinderence.