I hate the thought of klling these wasps but ....

[ColinFirthsGirth]

We have a wasps next in a hole in the soil in our garden. I accidentally disturbed the nest the other day and I got stung ten times. I was went shakey and sweaty and I was in alot of pain over night and the next day. I have two children - one of whixh is scared to play in gthe garden now. None of us are allergic as far as I know. I can't stand the thought of killing them but I don't want my kids getting stung like I did.

How long will the wasps stay there if I leave it there? Or have I got little choice but to kill them. I don't kill anything normally - not ants or wasps or anything. I feel awful at the thought.

Any suggestions please?

wasps and bees like dry soil to nest in so try keeping the area wet and they should move on. You dont need to drown them just water the area of soil around the nest.

Wasps aren't bees. They are aggressive and you don't need that round your children. Get a pest controller in to destroy the nest.

If they are nesting in your lawn they are most probably Yellow jacket wasps who will naturally die off over winter leaving their nest to be colonized by bees as they never return to an old nest.
Wasp are just as important as bees as they eat aphids that can destroy crops and also are cross pollinators.
They are more aggressive than bees and can sting multiply times but tend to only be aggressive in defence of their nest so if you leave them alone they will leave you alone. Can you block off access to the area to stop anyone getting near it? If you can leave the nest alone to october time you will find by then all the worker wasps will have started to die off and the queen will have left to find somewhere warm to hibernate over winter and your problem will have solved itself without the need to kill hundreds of wasps.

Thankyou for the replies.
Cantspel - yes I am probably going to just leave them there until winter. I would hate to kill them off as I totally believe they have an important place in the ecosystem. They only stung me because I unknowingly stood on their nest. The kids know to keep away from that part of the garden.

Good for you.