AIBU to think its ok to kill wasps...as long as someone else does it properly and doesn't do a half arsed job of it...

[HoveringKestrel]

...and it jumps up half alive and stings the wrong person?

I want those little bleeders dead.

Sorry. Wasp chaos today!

[DoJo]

hiddenhome Please tell me your husband had a suitably gruesome name for the wasp head! How long did you keep it for? I'm kind of intrigued and horrified all at once. Do you have a photo?

[Tanith]

I was bitten by a horsefly as a baby and my mum said it was far worse than a wasp sting. So if wasps do kill them, I will grudgingly concede they have a legitimate reason to live.

Old wives cure for wasp stings:
Insert stung area in flour. The flour soaks up the venom. I didn't believe it until one of the mindees was stung, but I can now confirm it really works!

[peeriebear]

If there were no wasps we would be up to our eyes in garden pests. They are voracious hunters. Buy a fake nest, they work.

[thenightsky]

The separated living head thing reminds of that novel 'The Wasp Factory'. one of the weirdest books I've ever read.

[hiddenhome]

It lived for about three days before I insisted he killed it. I don't have a photo I'm afraid. I don't know how it survived

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I have a fake wasps nest. I have the bottles. I have the fake nest on the house and the bottles further away because someone told me not to attract them with the sugar water IYSWIM.

I HATE THEM.

We moved into our beautiful, bright yellow, wooden house. It turns out that wasps LOVE yellow and like to hide in wooden houses. I essentially live in a wasps nest.

[Ladame]

We have hornets here. Giant nasty f*kers that are the size of your thumb and if one of them gets you, you generally have to go to hospital. If there is a swarm of them they can kill a cow. We had a nest of them in a barrel in the garden and there is a lookout hornet, he always has a bright yellow face and guards the nest. Until we had the nest sorted out (think spaceman outfit with fumigator thingy on back), the little bstard would watch me while I was doing the weeding, waiting to unleash hornet hell on me if I got too close. The dog got stung once, was ill for a week. We check all our clothes and shoes very very carefully in the autumn, when they are at their fattest and nastiest, drunk on rotten fruit. Hideous things (and they kill the bees - lovely bees). Hate them and wasps and all the stinging nasties (love spiders though - lovely spiders).

[LightAFire]

Hornets are vile. Knew a French family where the little girl was walking down a country road and a swarm of them just flew out and attacked her. She was in hospital for ages and utterly traumatised.

I only kill wasps if they are bothering us. We had three wasp nests two years ago in the loft (one after the other) and they were getting into my DD's bedroom (5 at the time) and buzzing around bumping off her head and terrified her. She still won't sleep without a net! Called exterminator and was glad to see the back of them - particularly since your child could have a fatal allergy to stings and you wouldn't know until too late. Small chance yes but one I am not willing to take for the sake of an insect!

Let them out if possible - if not splat it is!

[SamuelWestsMistress]

Evil evil evil fuckers.

[BigGreenFrog]

This thread is a sad reflection on people today. It amazes me that people can get so wound up about MILS, P&C parking, kids birthday parties etc, yet gleefully encourage killing animals.

Unless this is all a light hearted joke, in which case I take it all back.

[LadyBeagleEyes]

So what do you think about flies BigGreenFrogs.
Do you just let them be when they get in your house?

[SirChenjin]

A reflection on people today?! I can't recall my Granny (b. 1913) ever welcoming in wasps or flies

[BigGreenFrog]

No LadyBeagle, I would open the doors / window and try to usher them out. Don't get me wrong, I don't particularly like flies (!) and I realise that some animals - like flies, rats etc can harbour germs and disease, but I'd always rather try to get them out alive. So if that means opening the door and leaving the room for 10 mins, so be it. It's the almost bragging nature of this thread that has bothered me (I am much more of a lurker than a poster).

I just believe we are all animals on this planet, and wasps have as much right as us to get on with their daily business.

[SirChenjin]

And if you can't get them to leave the room of their own volition, then what?

[BigGreenFrog]

I think what saddens me most, is that there are loads of posters here agreeing that it's OK to kill a wasp - I am definitely in the minority. I'm sure you are all nice normal people, so it just makes me wonder how people can think that it's OK.

[ICBINEG]

Why would it not be okay ?

[LightAFire]

BigGreenFrog may I just ask are you also a vegan? Just curious.

I also dislike unnecessary killing of animals so I do know what you mean - I will always try to let wasps, flies, spiders out if it's possible. But what would you do if (like me) you had a terrified child waking up to a room full of wasps?

[digerd]

We had a hornets nest near where i was pruning our early flowering beautiful clematis. I was a bit hysterical, but DH said they would not come near you if you leave them alone. They were at the side of the patio, but DH was right, they did not come near us like wasps do

One year in Germany, they had a plague of them < and seemed much larger than ours>, and one was cheeky enough to land on his friends lips to lick at his beer.
Don't know how he didn't panic, but he didn't and kept still until it flew away, with his lip unstung.

[digerd]

ps.
plague of wasps.

[thenightsky]

Where do you stand on headlice and bed bugs bigGreenFrog

[LazarussLozenge]

' LightAFire Fri 03-May-13 14:41:00

But what would you do if (like me) you had a terrified child waking up to a room full of wasps?'

Ask the kid, respectfully, to 'man up, wet pants'.

My little'un has no drama with insects, we've ensured that she's always had a measured response to an insect incursion. My wife is terrified of wasps and bees (for no rational reason) but she does her best if the tiddler is around, and calls me if necessary.

My little'un was also the ONLY person in nursery (inc adults) to hold a bearded dragon recently... admittedly she had held one before. And a snake, spider and skunk.

[LightAFire]

Ask the kid, respectfully, to 'man up, wet pants'. Really? To a child with a phobia? Nice. Most adults would be pretty upset to wake up and find their room filled with wasps, and to a five year old it was really scary.

There are many issues over which I would cheerfully tell her to get over it, but on this occasion I thought she had fair reason to be scared. (And she's always had a measured response from us too.) She has also held snakes, stick insects, lizards, and thoroughly enjoyed our three pet rats - wet pants she is not.

Let's hope your children never experience anything that terrifies them, since if that's your attitude when you don't agree a fear is valid then they can look forward to counselling in years to come. Or are people who attend counselling also "wet pants"?

[WhoeverHeardOfAWormskinRug]

BigGreenFrog - what about cat and dog fleas? Do you agree with using flea treatments? Just curious

I hate wasps, but if they leave me alone - I leave them alone!

[lashingsofbingeinghere]

My experience of wasps is:

3 unprovoked attacks and stings, one on my neck when I was driving!

Result: I hit them first, hard and fast. Fly swatter/rolled up newspaper/bug spray. No mercy, Extreme prejudice.

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

If a wasp had the chance, they'd kill you and everyone you care about.