to want to know just WTAF is going on in our house today?

[SpaghettiTwirlerAndProud]

Two MAHOOOOOSIVE wasps I've killed today. Both had a few whacks with a trainer before they actually died. Not soft ones either! Really hoping there isn't a nest as they both appeared in the front room! Where the hell are they coming from?! And why are they suddenly around in chuffing november?

There were lots at Westonbirt Arboretum today as well. Mad.

masonary wasps - living in your cavity walls? or maybe they are homing wasps - maybe they just like you

They are queen wasps, looking for somewhere to hibanate before the frosts come.

We had one buzz our car when we were in a queue in a city centre today

It's fucking NOVEMBER!

sure they are not mice in fancy dress?

Errrr I think you'll find they were Queen wasps Seabright

We had this about 2 weeks ago -they were huge, massive and very angry.

This was over a few days and then we haven't seen them since.

Do you have a woodburning stove? I ask because we have had ginormous wasps ricocheting around our sittingroom in the middle of winter and it turned out they were queen wasps who had been innocently hibernating in our woodpile outside, only to wake up when the logs were brought into the warm house, and want to stretch their wings a bit. They do look a bit different from the ordinary worker wasps (who I would have thought would all be dead by now ...)

Oops - x-post with everyone else!

holy shit. We have a stove and an open fire, and a garage full to the ceiling with wood and logs. Fuckity fuck.

There you go, then.

we have an ancient butterfly net we trap 'em up in and sling 'em outside [they still die, unfortunately, but you don't have to wait for them to land on a convenient surface]. If it's any consolation, we had loads one year, one or two the following year, and hardly any ever since.

Oh fuck cruella, you have just completely put me off getting a woodburner. And there I was romantisizing about my lovely pretty woodpile by the front door.... Sob

Ah, sorry sorry BLNN - it is still worth it, honestly - I wouldn't be without mine.

yeah, we've got them too, but they're so drowsy, you can squash them easily in a bit of kitchen roll.

DS1 got stung by one in the palm of his hand last week whilst he was playing in a rockpool WTF was one doing there?

i don't wait for them to land on a convenient surface either. they buzz around the landing light after they emerge from the loft. I hoover them from the air.