Kitchen Garden Forum

This one is in the leaf mould bin (a chicken wire enclosure, so open to air)

I can just leave it until winter but do I need to worry about it when I want to use some of the leaf mould? If my reading is correct then their nests are only used for a single year, so can I dig stuff out in winter?

Afternoon Stephen, as far as i’m aware, the new Queens leave the nest and find new homes, then the old nest gets abandoned.

Don't try removing them, I have the scars to prove that is not a good idea.............

They must like leafmould piles, I got stung a couple of years ago disturbing a nest quite late on when I was combining the contents of two builders' bags.

I got stung when I found the nest by accident. It took about a fortnight for the mark to heal.

In the depths of winter I'll dig or at least turn the contents of the bin. I'm certainly not going to try to remove the wasps, they aren't a nuisance. We can put the new fallen leaves in other bins.

Urgh!

This reminded me of living in India. My driver Krishnan had very important news to impart.

"Madam, the bees have built a house on your backside."

Oh, I hadn't noticed.

But I suppose I''d better investigate to find out what he's trying to tell me.
It turned out that we had a wasps' nest on the back of the house. I don't remember the details but I think it was just a case of putting up with it until they moved on rather than trying to remove it.