The biggest European wasp nest I've dealt with was in a wall cavity in Bulli, behind the weatherboards under a bathroom window. The owner rang in March because the traffic in and out had got loud enough to hear from inside the house. By then the nest filled most of the cavity between two studs. He'd first noticed wasps around that window in October and assumed they were bees minding their own business.
That's the shape of nearly every wasp job. Five months of quiet build-up, then a phone call.
I'm writing this in July, which is the least wasp-y month of the year around here, and that's deliberate. Right now the nests from last season are dead. The mated queens are tucked up somewhere, in a shed, under bark, in the fold of a tarp, waiting. Come September each one of those starts a golf-ball-sized nest on her own. If you catch it then it's a five-minute job. If you catch it in March it's a wall cavity in Bulli.
Which wasp you've actually got
Three turn up regularly between Helensburgh and Nowra, and they behave differently enough that it changes what you do.
European wasps are the ones to take seriously. Bright yellow and black, chunkier than a bee, and they fly straight and fast rather than hovering. They nest out of sight: wall cavities, roof voids, retaining walls, holes in the ground, under the edge of a concrete slab. You almost never see the nest, you see the flight path, a steady stream of wasps in and out of one small hole. They're scavengers, so they're the ones at your barbecue and in the dog bowl and drowning in the beer can. Unlike a bee, one wasp can sting you repeatedly, and disturbing the nest brings a lot of them at once. The Australian Museum's rundown on European wasps is worth two minutes if you want to be sure that's what you're looking at.
Paper wasps build the open nest you can see, that grey papery umbrella hanging off a stem under the eaves, the pergola, inside the letterbox, in a bush right beside the front path. Slimmer, longer legs trailing in flight, more orange-brown. They're not aggressive at any distance, but they defend the nest hard within about a metre of it. Most of the stings I hear about come from someone pruning a shrub and not seeing the nest until they've already grabbed it.
Mud daubers make those little clay tubes on brickwork, under the veranda, on the side of the meter box. They're solitary and they'll basically never sting you. Ugly, harmless, scrape them off when you like.
Bees are a separate conversation and we don't treat honey bees if there's another option. A swarm hanging in a tree usually moves on within a day or two on its own. An established hive in a wall wants a beekeeper, not a chemical.
What goes wrong when people handle it themselves
The pattern's always the same, and it's usually a bloke with a broom or a can at dusk.
Knocking a paper nest down works for about a day. The survivors rebuild within a couple of metres of the original spot, often somewhere harder to reach, and now they're wound up. Supermarket surface sprays don't have the reach for it either, you get within a metre and a half to make the spray count, which is exactly the distance where they come at you.
European wasps in a cavity are worse. Spray the entrance and you kill the couriers, not the nest. The rest come out the way you'd expect. And nobody knows they're allergic until they've been stung six times in ten seconds, which is a very poor time to find out. If someone in the house has ever reacted badly to a sting, don't go near it at all.
The other one I get called to fix is the DIY foam job on a roof-void nest. Foam in the entry hole seals it, the wasps chew a new one, usually into the ceiling, and then they're in the hallway.
Doing it properly
A wasp job comes down to finding the actual nest rather than the wasps you can see. On a cavity nest I'll sit and watch the flight line for a while, which looks like doing nothing but is most of the work. Get the entry point wrong and you've treated a gap that goes nowhere.
Then it's a dust or a residual straight into the nest entrance, in protective gear, and the foragers carry it in on themselves. European wasps in a wall usually go quiet within a day, with stragglers coming home for a couple more. Paper nests we treat and then physically remove so nothing gets rebuilt on the same anchor point.
Timing: early morning or after dark, when everyone's home and the nest is at its calmest. Middle of a warm afternoon is the worst possible moment and it's also when most people ring, because that's when they've noticed.
Whoever applies the chemical needs a pest management technician licence from the NSW EPA. It's issued to the person, not the business, so you're entitled to ask to see it.
Between now and spring
Two things worth doing while it's cold, because they're easier than dealing with a nest in February.
Walk the outside of the house and look for the gaps: weep holes without covers, a gap where the eave meets the wall, torn flyscreen on a roof vent, the space behind the meter box lid. That's the same exercise as rodent-proofing an older Illawarra home, and the older weatherboard and fibro places along the coast tend to have plenty of options.
Then, from about September, keep an eye out for small nests while they're small. A queen starting out is working alone and the nest is the size of a walnut. Under eaves, in the barbecue, in the shed, inside an outdoor light fitting, in the wheel arch of a caravan that hasn't moved. That's the cheap version of this job.
Anything already active near a door, a kids' play area or the clothesline wants dealing with now rather than waiting out. Don't get up close to investigate it either. Ring us, tell us roughly where they're going in and out, and we'll sort it. Start with what wasp and bee removal involves, or have a look at where we work across the Illawarra if you're not sure we come out your way.
Need a hand with this in your home? Get a free quote or call 0430 007 651.