A huge wasp nest in the rafters

[dilemma456]

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Fuck me that's big!
I don't think they return to the same place. But if they do then I'd move out.
How long have you lived there?

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This is a total guess, but I think that bees will take over an old nest (in order to reuse the honey), and wasps don't.

I had a wasps' nest in the garage roof this summer and someone from the council's pest control department told me that they wouldn't come back to the same nest again. Most of the wasps die off and the queen finds a new place apparently.

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My mum had one in the loft and the council came and gassed them all. Then months later she asked me to put something in the loft for her, I opened the hatch and all these dead wasps rained down on me. It was like something from I'm A Celeb. I'm not normally into girly screaming but I had a good go that day!

Sounds incredible, they are amazing structures. We've had nests, dismantled them and they haven't returned. But then we have found and killed a few queens. They surface dozily when you get a few hot days.

Tell your builders to look out for a big mamma and give them a swatter.

if you were local to me dh would come round and get it for fishing bait! sell it to a fishing tackle shop!

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definitly - you will have a freind for life

No they don't come back, we had a similar one in our eaves and I hope it's true!

That is a big one! We had several football sized ones but not that big. Are you sure it was not a bees nest. I heard builders found a bees nest about as big as that one in the rafters of a house near us. The bees had died an the honey had started to rot and liquify and was dropping trough the ceiling.

GrendelsMum is right. Wasps never reuse their nest because bacteria build up. However, at the end of the summer the fertilised Queen flies off and creates a Queen Cell which is usually high up in the rafters and about the size of a golf ball.

She stay there all winter then comes out and starts buildig a new nest and laying eggs.

That sounds horrific!

A couple of years ago when we got the Christmas decs down from the loft 2 HUGE and very slow moving wasps emerged form one of the boxes. I think we may have had a nest that year (although I have never found it), because I do remember being surprised at still seeing some wasps around the ivy in early November. We didn't have the same the next year, so can only assume they had moved on.

They dont return to the same nest but can build a new one nearby.