Insect invasion

[88v8]

So - have you noticed how every sentence nowadays has to begin with So - So, yesterday, went into the West bedroom, and the sill of a window we haven't opened since autumn because I double-glazed, was alive with ants. Flying ants and ground-based variety.
So, I took down the secondary dg and opened the window, the airborne troops took flight, their ground partners were suckered into taking a ride into an air current leading to our vacuum bag. Today, some Nippon has been noshed, all pretty much quiet.

So today there I am walking through the sitting room, bzzzzzz, in the front window a dozen or so wasps, which on closer inspection turned out to be bees. Very nice, except that they were inside the window. So I'm standing there thinking ??? and bzzzz from the fireplace.
Now, last year, I drilled four 1" vent holes in the side of the stack at the top, to let out any trapped heat and to create an air current to get rid of damp, and, peering up with the binos yes, a bunch of bees has decided that this constitutes a great place to set up shop.
So, you'll be wondering, how do they get from there to the fireplace when there must be a register plate?
Ahh, reason is that in order to create aforesaid air current, I left a nice gap at the back of the register plate, maybe a wonky half inch between the plate and the wall. So, now I'm stuffing bubble wrap into the gap, letting the bees out of the window, insectolating those that won't co-operate.
So I decide I need to chase them out of the stack, light the fire!!
But over the summer, the kindling has become damp. And the bees are also coming down the flue. So, not easy to light. Eventually get it going.
Now the bees are buzzing around the stack, some fall onto the register plate or continue to come down the flue, hsst, hsst.

And it's getting pretty warm in there and I can't open the window. And I wonder whether they'll just move back in when I let the fire go.

Yesterday, had the renewal letter for the house insurance. More fuss about the thatch. One of the 'helpful suggestions' is to drill a hole in the stack to prevent heat building up against the thatch. That seemed a good idea, I was pondering drilling the other stack. Somewhat changed my mind now.

And outside the sitting room door in the pyracantha, wasps are building a lovely nest. So I thought. But now there are more wasps. And the nest is getting bigger. Bad word like bigger. Swat to do...
Nature... wonderful. So they say.

Ivor

 

[Zebra]

Oh dear Ivor. An amusing tale, but a distressing number of infestations to deal with!

 

[Keith Bowman]

Flying ants are, I believe, simply ordinary ants who have decided to get away from it all. Round here, once the ants start flying, seagulls appear and behave like swallows, catching ants on the wing. A wonder to behold

 

[88v8]

And then... next day, in the veggie field, by the side of the strawberry bed, wasps. A hole in the ground, waspopolis.
There are 110 species of ground-nesting wasps in the UK, as I reluctantly learn. They can dig down a foot.
The little-used armoury in our shed. Some ancient powder.
No more wasps.

And then, as I sit here putting the world to rights, BZZZZZ, a hornet has come to kibbitz. An inch and a half of disgruntlement, unfamiliar with the concept of glass.
Jam jar, eviction.
It buzzes off.

I await the next invader.

Ivor

 

[88v8]

The wasps in the pyracantha are becoming more numerous. The nest now is about 4" dia, they are adding an extra layer almost daily. They are making it at least in part from the rotting ends of our thatch straw, a wonderful recycling exercise. Post some pruning, not the pyracantha I hasten to add, I swept the terrace which prompted some dive-bombing. Hmmmm.

This week a new nest started up at the opposite end of the house. Smaller wasps with different stripes, entering through a tiny hole at the junction of two beams. We could hear them munching inside the thatch in the bedroom. Visualising them munching right though and appearing in the house I regretfully puffed the entrance with powder in the evening, and that was that.

Then the hornet reappeared. In the garage, around the compost heap, in through the bedroom window prompting a rapid evacuation. Is it foraging to support a nest, or seeking a prime location to create one.
I suppose I should be glad that we are proving a rich environment that supports so many insects, I just wish they would choose less inconvenient places to live.

Then this evening, a bee. A few weeks ago my wife picked up an odd glove in the lane, and for some reason chose to hang it up outside the east door under the thatch. And yes, a bee has decided to nest in it. Only one bee, so far.
Nature, wonderful.

Ivor

 

[worms]

I'd set the sprinkler up on the pyracantha and get the incipient nest as wet as possible, they might start a new damp thread on PPUK but they will move on rather than fix the problem.

 

[xanthe]

Is there a local beekeeper who could remove them for you?

 

[88v8]

The nest in the pyracantha is now 5" or so. They are adding gothic curlicues around the outside.

And under the pantile roof of the lean-to, the badly laid one with the membrane showing through, there is........... yet another wasp nest. That makes four so far. Initially they seemed to be under just one tile, but now it's spread to two, and there are a lot of wasps. By and large not a problem, albeit they are quite near an outside water tap.
Day before yesterday when it was in the 80s, there were several waspies standing at the entrance fanning furiously trying to keep it cool, and the whole nest was making such a noise I could hear it inside the lean-to. Now it's cooler, silence has resumed.

The bee is still enjoying his hanging glove. I managed to move it a few inches away from the adjacent coat hook without him noticing, or if he did he hasn't commented. Every evening he returns home while we're having dinner. Not sure if there is a Mrs Bee.. "'hello dear have you had a good day?" or he's on his tod.

In the veggie field, a mole has tunnelled under one of the beds, as my wife discovered when she tried transplanting some leeks and the dibber vanished into the tunnel followed by the leek. At least he's not yet invaded the strawberries, which have been hugely productive 'oh not strawberries and cream again'....

Oh well, it's nice to know we're providing a home where nature can flourish.
I think.

Ivor

 

[DJH]

Nice description Ivor.

Talking of insects I posted this yesterday in the Mouse Topic by mistake.

Anyone notice a spider on here? Google [Bot] appears as a registered user at the moment... :?:

Hmm...I've frightened it off talking about it.... :roll:

What was it up to?

Doug

 

[Keithj]

Google Bot (Spider) is a crawler that meanders over forums and websites picking up stuff to index for the search engine. Try searching for any slightly unusual sequence of words that have appeared on here recently...

 

[88v8]

Unnnnbelievable :shock:

Munching noises in the bedroom wall. No, it's not me and a peanut butter sandwich. Wasps are coming in under a small area of tiles, ambling 2ft along inside the wall past the ruins of last year's nest, and busying themselves in extending their empire.
So much for the idea that they don't return to old sites. Which worries me, as there is a huge old nest at the far end of one of our attics.

That makes five nests, so far this year. Three active, two insecticuted.
Not sure whether to terminate this one, or even whether I can given that all I can do is puff powder on an entrance 2ft from the actual nest. Last year's efforts in this nest - the wasps' efforts not mine - left a nice stain inside the plaster, I presume where the honey has dripped. They are such messy eaters.

Ivor

 

[Keith Bowman]

Unnnnbelievable :shock:

....... Last year's efforts in this nest - the wasps' efforts not mine - left a nice stain inside the plaster, I presume where the honey has dripped. They are such messy eaters.

Ivor

I understood that wasps don't store honey, they only use the nests for nesting. The stain could still be from the wasps though!

 

[Zebra]

Many years ago when he was a calf, Giraffe came up with an idea for getting rid of a wasps nest, and it apparently worked a treat. He put a vacuum cleaner tube right next to the nest entrance at dusk when they were all coming home, and left it running for several hours, then tipped out all the bodies in the morning. Might be worth a try.

 

[formerly known as]

do children still set 'wasp traps' - jam jars with remnants of jam and lots of water for the wasp to drown in?

 

[88v8]

Hell's bells.
The nest by the west door that I zapped, has been re-occuppied.

And above the nest below the bedroom window, which I powdered last night, a new nest has started with an entrance between the thatch and the frame. So that's five active sites now.

I just repowdered both the bedroom nests, the wasps are zooming around looking upset.

The nest in the pyracantha has grown to about 6". The workforce has expanded, and new layers are being piled on new layers. Not worried about that nest, as I can terminate it any time with the CO2 extinguisher.

But I do wish they'd find someone else's house to nest in. Wonder if they're all waiting for the plums to ripen. Oooer.

Might take some pics tomorrow.

Ivor

 

[mardinor]

Hell's bells.
The nest by the west door that I zapped, has been re-occuppied.

And above the nest below the bedroom window, which I powdered last night, a new nest has started

I wonder if the wasps are enjoying their period property or wondering how to avoid the new extension being a horrible pastiche?

 

[Toby Newell]

Why don't you visit Vinci in Tuscany? Absolutely beautiful.

You could stay at my friends Agritourismo place in the middle of olive groves and vineyards overlooking medieval historic Vinci, absolutely magnificent.

Except for the insects.

Then you would realise what a wonderful wonderful place Gloucester really is.