Help wasp nest at the lottie

[lainey lou]

first of all hello all, I've not been here for ages, its great to see we finally have a bee section!

I,ve discovered I have wasps nesting under a patio slab which is part of a path I,ve made to edge one of my veg beds.
That section of the bed is sitting empty at the moment coz I don't fancy diturbing the wasps.
Not really sure what to do, I don't want to harm the wasps, and I'm hoping while they're there they might eat up some of my caterpillars however I don't really fancy them as long term tenants! Also I'm worried about digging into that bed incase they're actually under the bed and not the slab.
Has any one had this problem or got any advice please?

[Aberdeenplotter]

Safety first. Nuke them. They won't think twice about attacking you for no reason.

[Tam]

I have always had wasp nests in the garden, except one year which was a disaster as I had lots of nasties I had never seen before. The last time I was stung was when I was seven years of age and I grabbed a flower and a wasp. I don't bother them and they don't bother me, but they do help my work in the garden. When they start dying off later on in the year they can ruin some fruit, but I always think that they've earned some pleasure after their hard work.

[Hillwalker]

Not to sure about the "benefits" of our UK species of garden wasp. I'll have to try and track down any useful articles. I do agree with AP though, they are far more likely to sting than the benign bee.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Hillwalker,

they eat the caterpillar of the cabbage white, seen that happening but they can't cope with the miriads we get. I suppose a mouthful is enough.

[Tam]

Biodiverse Gardens: Benefits of Wasps

[Hillwalker]

Thanks for the link, Tam. I've looked into this subject before and found the information on life cycles and habits varied considerably, depending the the species of wasp, with some being of more benefit to humans than others. As yet, I've found nothing relating to our common, UK garden wasp. Most of the information I could find, like your link, tends to be US based.

[OverWyreGrower]

We had a wasp nest in the veg patch 3 years ago.

The wasps attacked anyone who came within about 10-15ft of the nest, even if they were doing something unrelated.

The last straw came when I was attacked by the whole swarm, leaving me with over 30 stings on my face and head; plus leaving Mr OWG with a broken foot (from running out to help me).
The pest controller came to next day and removed the nest, which wasn't even the size of a football.

[50010MONARCH]

When I had some wasps under the base of an old greenhouse I hung a brown paper back in the shape of a ball overhead, to mimic another wasps nest, on the advice of someone at work. I think I used a McDonalds take out bag (I know, I know!!), and it worked, after a week they had gone.

[Tam]

Our common wasp is found all over the world and in the United States it is called the "yellowjacket". It is the same species, with the same lifestyle.

[binley100]

One of our guys at the lottie got stung on the head today, we didn't realise there was a nest and he leant some planks of wood against a wall and one just zoomed down and stung him..........

[Aberdeenplotter]

It clearly wasn't on for a board meeting