Kitchen Garden Forum

At the end of term, I placed most of the schools gardening stuff in to the shed which has a lock on it, leaving only the bare minimum in the Polytunnel for ease of access. My thinking was that the less times I had to open it, the less chance opportunists would have of catching a glimpse of what was inside - not that there is anything valuable , just loads of child height hoes, spades, forks, brooms etc, some insect netting and a few collapsable wheel barrows.

After the heavy rains of Monday night (the first in nearly 3 weeks), I decided that it may be a good idea to sprinkle a few slug pellets around the 3 nicely developing pumpkins that had taken hold in the veg patch as a precautionary measure. That's when I remembered that I had put the slug pellets in the shed during term to keep them safely out of reach of the younger pupils

This wasn't a problem seeings how I had the key and so I unlocked the door, opened it and then ran!!!!!!! Unbeknownst to me, a wasp colony had set up camp in the shed and had built themselves a nice not so little house on the framework of one of the collapsable wheelbarrows A welcoming party of some 2 dozen wasps encouraged me to make a hasty retreat and dozens more flitted about making their displeasure at my intrusion very clear

After letting them calm down for a few minutes, I was able to dash back and get the door shut and the bolt home before another squadron of wasps appeared. Another short wait and I got the padlock in place and a few minutes after that I was able to lock the padlock which, thankfully, for once decided not to be tricky and locked first time.

Once home, a quick phonecall and a strong coffee later and the pest control man was booked. I've often found it hard to find a valid reason for wasps but I had believed that they are effective predators for various pests in the garden and so tolerate them (but not nests of them) for the sake of my veg. However, the pest man says this isn't so. He says that the only thing a wasp does is eat fallen, rotting fruit and deal with the odd insect and they serve no other purpose. One of the vagories of Ma Nature I suppose

VPM
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Once colder weather arrives that is the case, but as the nest starts with just the queen in the spring and rotting fruit is uncommon until August, I think your pest man is upping the threat to get future business.

Solitary wasp species are much more of a hunter type.

peter wrote:Once colder weather arrives that is the case, but as the nest starts with just the queen in the spring and rotting fruit is uncommon until August, I think your pest man is upping the threat to get future business.

Lol, he'll be disappointed then because the school is paying for this visit and my OH deals with wasp nests on the rare occassion they pop up in our garden

VPM
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VPM, I think your pest control man paints a too negative picture of wasps. A few years ago we had a wasps nest in a bird box in full view of our kitchen window and they were certainly carrying in masses of caterpillars and other small livestock to feed their larvae.

Luckily, the box was well above our heads (on a much used garden path) and the wasps never bothered us. At the end of the season, we took the large nest out (it was attached to the top lid of the bird box) and took to our village school for the children to see.

I can see that, in your case, you had to get rid of it!!

I got a smallish wasp nest in the hut where I keep my hen food and gardening things. I was attacked every time I opened the door, so bought some of that spray that you can spray from about 6 ft away and it totally coats the nest and wasps so they can't get you! I'm usually quite tolerant of them so long as they don't get aggressive as they do quite a good job collecting the caterpillars off the brassicas.

Well the nest has been 'dealt' with and now I can safely look in the shed, I have and the nest is HUGE!!!!! Over a foot in length and 3/4 of a foot wide (I kid you not)

Hundreds of dead wasps all over the shed so next job is to clear the shed out and sweep up the bodies.

VPM
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Your pest control man is completely wrong. Wasps have a very important role in any ecology. For most of the growing season they are purposefully preying on other invertebrates, many of which are significant garden pests. They do so with such efficiency and speed that we do not notice them doing so. It is at this time of the year that the nest starts to disintegrate and it is now that the disenfranchised workers purposelessly subsist on rotting fruit for energy. They get drunk, they are weak and aimless and do not live for long. It is these individual which tend to sting whereas a nest can usually be approached without being molested. I have done so many times. Wasps are compelling and fascinating creatures, to me anyway, and much maligned. I have been stung by them many times but this has not in any way diminished my respect for them.
A full-sized wasp nest is quite something to behold. The dead grubs make excellent fishing bait, better than any maggots. What subject do you teach, vegpatchmum? If it was me, I'd take the nest in for the nature table.

FelixLeiter wrote:What subject do you teach, vegpatchmum? If it was me, I'd take the nest in for the nature table.

I'm not a teacher Felix, I am the Volunteer (apparently ) Parent Organiser for the veg patch and gardening club.

Unfortunately due to the pesticide used, we have been advised that the nest is not suitable for use in the classroom, however, the pest guy did give me a portion of another nest which the staff can use in class.

I will be taking copious photos as I remove the nest from the shed though, so that at least the kids will be able to see what it looked like

VPM
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Ok guys, I've finally removed the now defunct nest from the shed and here are some pictures of it both insitu and once removed. It was much firmer than expected and came out in one piece but I broke a section away to show the honeycombed interior.

It's dimensions were as follows:

Length: 14 inches
Width: 10 inches at widest point
Depth: 8 inches

It was a really remarkable sight with a multicoloured 'paper' construction, caused, I am told, by the different wood individual wasps will have chewed.







VPM
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