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AIBU?

Neighbour thinks im even for exterminating a wasps nest

39 replies

PinkBump2022 · 28/07/2022 15:14

My neighbour is elderly and lives alone. She said there was hundreds of baby wasps coming into her bathroom covered in white powder dying. She asked what the man was doing in my garden. I explained we had a wasps nest and the wasps were coming out of their nest an attacking us, I have a disabled 5 year old and the garden is his safe place and he spends most of his waking hours out there, so I couldn’t have these wasps ruining our whole summer holiday and not allowing my 5 year old son to play in his own garden. So I called someone to come and take care it.
now my neighbour thinks that’s evil that I killed hundreds of baby wasps instead of keeping my child indoors for the summer until the wasps had gone….

i honestly don’t see what I have done wrong!! If they were not bothering us then I would have left them but as soon as we came out of our back door they were flying up to us trying to sting.

was I “evil” to have a wasp nest removed from my garden ?

OP posts:
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Am I being unreasonable?

215 votes. Final results.

POLL
You are being unreasonable
13%
You are NOT being unreasonable
87%
Roselilly36 · 28/07/2022 17:48

YANBU OP, I had to do this when we had a wasp nest, I had a toddler and a 7 mths old baby at the time, I was scared to go in the garden. You have done the right thing.

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Runwalkskijump · 28/07/2022 17:49

Discovereads · 28/07/2022 15:16

YANBU to have the wasps exterminated, but you should have forewarned your neighbour so she could have closed her windows. It’s not nice to have to put up with hundreds of dying wasps covered in poison flying in your bathroom window.

This.

Why on earth didn't you warn your neighbours?

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MissyB1 · 28/07/2022 17:49

I’ve had pest control out to do the same at my house today.

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gatehouseoffleet · 28/07/2022 17:49

NeedMoreMilk · 28/07/2022 17:44

Also just remember wasps only sting if they feel threatened or protecting their colony.

I think wasps themselves have subtly spread this misinformation as

Grin
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WhenISnappedAndFarted · 28/07/2022 17:52

yanbu to get rid of them yabu not to have warned her

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Proudboomer · 28/07/2022 17:53

I have a wasps nest under the eves of my house by the bathroom window where they are going in and out. As long as I keep that window shut they are not bothersome so I will leave them be until after September then just remove the nest but then I don’t have young children to worry about.

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shootfromthehip145 · 28/07/2022 18:14

NeedMoreMilk · 28/07/2022 17:44

Also just remember wasps only sting if they feel threatened or protecting their colony.

I think wasps themselves have subtly spread this misinformation as

Actually scientific research has shown that bees and wasps have the ability to recognise human faces. It is thought this assists them in learning where to go, and more importantly where not to go and aids them in their day to day lives.
So this may explain why some go near nests and individuals and experience no problems, while others are stung without provoking them at all.

This is the same for Corvids such as crows and jackdaws that can identify individual humans that they have had bad interactions with and share this knowledge with the whole colony.

So may be show them a bit of respect and you wont get stung😊

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IcakethereforeIam · 28/07/2022 18:22

They're not baby wasps, if they're flying their adult wasps. The babies are grubs. I suspect your neighbour was either exaggerating about hundreds of wasps or the pest controller was rubbish. The insecticide I've seen used rarely causes much disturbance to the nests and wasps can be very tolerant of activity near their nests. Actually, touching the nest will provoke them but the activity dies down fairly quickly once the disturbance ceases. If the nest was picked up and punted down the garden, okay then they'd have been pissed off.

It's not like the wasps know they'd been poisoned and were out for revenge.

I like wasps, except at the end of the season when the little stripy bastards become sugar junkies. Then they can fuck right off.

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Againstmachine · 28/07/2022 18:47

I had wasps coming my bedroom, I don't know how they were getting in but it was the window, so my windowsill was covered in as much powder to get me on a episode of Narcos, I no way felt guilty as those fuckers strong me and triggered celutitis.

You kill a nest it's not going to make a huge difference in pollination, as there are millions of nests in woods etc.

I see they myth about the bees and us dieing is been put on here, there is thousands of other polinators and many plants don't even need insects at all and are self polinators.

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entropynow · 28/07/2022 18:50

gnilliwdog · 28/07/2022 15:44

We do need pollinators, otherwise we all die. I would be worried the poison would spread to bees, birds, butterflies etc too. I did hear wasps get grumpy in late summer as they are hungry and coming to the end of their lives. We put sugar water out which I think keeps them calm and allows them to die happy. I can see why you would want to move them on, wish you had some other option besides spreading poison, though.

Typical wasp poison does not spread, it acts fast then chemically degrades.

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PurpleMarie · 28/07/2022 18:50

You're not even, though you do seem a little odd.

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mam0918 · 28/07/2022 18:57

our roofers apparently removed a 'wasps nest' when fixing the roof... didnt even ask just did it.

I dont think it is a wasps nest but rather a bee hive as every year we get a few bees come through the vent and get stuck in the bathroom, they where completely harmless and we lives along side them for 10 years.

I find work men do stuff without asking often under the guise of 'being helpful', last time they cut down my bloody tree because it was near a pipe thing is its still near the pipe and will continue to grow they only cut the branches which where the 'pretty' bits.

Im still irratated by that one as now there a dead tree (they killed it but didnt remove it, its going to cost me money to have it collected and removed) and an ugly empty space where the tree was (the tree use to bloom with pretty purple flowers so now it looks crap).

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AnnaMagnani · 28/07/2022 18:57

I've had wasps' nests exterminated a couple of times and it's never resulted in poison coated wasps flying about and dying in front of us or the neighbours.

They just die in the nest and eventually the nest disintegrates - not fun when it is directly over your loft hatch and you have forgotten about it.

So either your pest controller was rubbish or your neighbour is massively exaggerating.

Also as other people have said, these were not baby wasps but just wasps.

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NeedMoreMilk · 29/07/2022 20:30

shootfromthehip145 · 28/07/2022 18:14

Actually scientific research has shown that bees and wasps have the ability to recognise human faces. It is thought this assists them in learning where to go, and more importantly where not to go and aids them in their day to day lives.
So this may explain why some go near nests and individuals and experience no problems, while others are stung without provoking them at all.

This is the same for Corvids such as crows and jackdaws that can identify individual humans that they have had bad interactions with and share this knowledge with the whole colony.

So may be show them a bit of respect and you wont get stung😊

I used to be very good as a child and just stood very still because I was told by liars adults that they don’t sting you if you leave them alone. After watching one fly up to my mum (when she was stood still) land on her boob, sting her and then bugger off I now know this is incorrect.

I do show them respect though. I don’t ever hurt them and I fish them out of my drink and leave them somewhere sunny to dry when they try and steal a bit of my G&T.

I am taking the moral high ground 😉

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