Wasp nest in compost bin

[jelliestfish]

Clearly I let my compost get too dry as I discovered a golf ball sized wasp nest in my plastic compost bin today.

I can make do without use of the bin this year, but it's only a couple of metres away from my kids' swings. Should I leave the nest alone or might they get aggressive when the kids start spending more time playing in the garden in close proximity to them?

And would removing the compost lid achieve anything beyond making the wasps wet and grumpy?

I'd definitely kill them off asap!!!

Are there wasps going in and out of it? I‘d have thought it was a bit early for a wasps nest. They build new ones every year then abandon them in winter. If you can’t see any going in and out then it’s last year’s.

having said that it’s worth removing if it’s a live nest. I usually get attacked if i go within a couple of metres of the many nests i have found in my garden.

It's definitely new as it's on top of recent garden clippings and I could see a wasp or two on it. I nearly missed it as it's fairly small.

It sounds like I'm going to need to get rid of it. Any tips?

As it is early early in the year, would exposing it to the elements be enough to move them on?

The council will have a pest control person. Doing it yourself with wasp killer is very dangerous, enraged wasps will attack you. You can’t just leave it, a colony gets very numerous very quickly and your DC could be badly stung.

Ah. Well, now’s the time to deal with it then, before you have thousands of the things. I don’t think rain alone will do the job. I’ve had success with going out at night, putting ant powder on ground nests and covering them over with a plant pot. i think that would work for yours, but would also contaminate your compost heap.

you could suit up, go out at night, get the nest in a thick binbag quickly, then pour a load of ant powder or wasp poison in and seal it up.

or get a professional (safer). I’d probably give the first option a go, though.

the binbag option mean

Gah. The binbag option, i mean

Just spoken to a friend who is a beekeeper and she thinks the only live adult wasp at the moment will be the Queen, which should make it much simpler to get rid of.

My plan is:

• cover myself up, avoiding black or dark colours
• remove lid and prod bin to check for any live wasps
• using leather gauntlet gloves, retrieve nest and drop into bucket of boiling water to kill larval stage worker wasps

Wish me luck!

• using leather gauntlet gloves, retrieve nest and drop into bucket of boiling water to kill larval stage worker wasps Can you not relocate it to somewhere it will do less harm? Wasps are valuable pollinators and controllers of pests

I was hoping I could just leave the wasps to go about their business undisturbed, but from advice here and elsewhere, it became clear that they would pose a risk in a small garden used by young children.

It is still early enough in the year that the queen can build a new nest somewhere more suitable. The aim of disturbing the nest was to get her to fly away, which is what happened.

It was a very small and new nest. I have tried to add a photo, but I got locked out of my account and set up a new one in order to post so assume I can't add photos yet.

Don't mess with wasps.
Get someone in. Try council first, if they don't have a pest controller pay one.

Glad you manage it op.

I spotted a wasp building a next in my shed last year. I only noticed because she kept chasing me out when I was trying to get the mower. She was vicious.

I had previously been admiring this little wasp chewing down the length of fence panel to get wood pulp to build her nest. I actually heard her chewing! It was fascinating to watch her, it was only later I realised she was in my shed. Had to knock her nest off with a rake and leg it.

I had this a couple of years ago, didn’t realise and went to turn the compost. That day I learnt wasps don’t like having a spade crashing into their home, it was brutal.

I spotted a wasp building a next in my shed last year. I only noticed because she kept chasing me out when I was trying to get the mower. She was vicious. I found a nest in the garage, a disused last-season one. I must have had a whole season of getting the mower out just beneath it!

I wonder if it was because she was busy building it that she chased me out. If yours was a complete nest, built before you went in to first get the mower, maybe they were settled and felt secure?