Wasps

[Staffy1 54]

Rehomed some bumble bees for a customer who was pulling an old shed down yesterday, hope they do well in their new home , one wasp nest lined up for after lock down, lots of "wasp" call outs which turn out to be solitary bees which we dont treat, just educate

Bees in my van about to go to new home 

[Dirksdonuts 79]

Calls just starting to trickle in a bit now 1 or 2 a day since last week

[DIDO.1 22,844]

Iv see a few nest about but only done 1. Plus 2 tiny queen nests early on 

[comanche 3,038]

I had my first one at thexend of April. It was tennis ball size . It was a broom and stamp job.

Ive done a dozen or more  proper nests over the last two or three weeks but feel it could get reasonably busy when the Sun comes back. 

 

[comanche 3,038]

I had an interesting wasp job today. An elderly  farmer l do work for had always been proud of his conservation credentials but over the last couple of years has commendably  embraced an even more fundamentalist attitude. 

       Even he found a bird box full of wasps by his back door a bit too much to bear though. Knowing how anti insecticed he is we hatched a plan to move the bird box,complete with inhabitants into the woods.

After suiting-up l placed a short ladder against the wall . This is when l had a moment of doubt regarding the wisdom of the venture, the wasps became a bit perturbed and the farmer wisely retreated.  I waited a while for them to calm down and equipped with a bit of rag to stuff in the hole and a screwdriver l climbed the ladder. 

I must have trapped all the prickly sentries inside because even though l was quickly surrounded by returning wasps l was completely unmolested. 

The box was carried in a bin liner (l was taking no chances) to the woods and fixed to a dead  tree orientated in the same direction as it had been on the house.

When the rag was removed nothing happened for a second . Then one by one the wasps emerged and formed a perfect circle round the entrance to the bird box. They looked a bit confused but it wasn"t long before a few brave souls started taking short orientation flights and l made my retreat.

I've just recieved a call telling me that they seem to accepted the move and are busily flighting to and fro. Any wasps that straggled back to find their home missing from the original site have to be considered collateral damage but overall a successful outcome.

The wasps at my next job weren't so lucky.

Edited June 15, 2020 by comanche

[DIDO.1 22,844]

How we all getting on? 

Im getting more honey bee calls than ever before. 4 today 

Flying ant calls as well 

Edited June 25, 2020 by DIDO.1

[gnipper 6,508]

Proper honey bees would be gladly collected by a local bee keeper wouldn't they?

[Outofnowhere 93]

Yes gnipper if you look on the bbka website it will list beekeepers who will collect them for free.

[DIDO.1 22,844]

Yes swarms are always passed to bee keepers. Problem is once they get inside a building or chimney then bee keepers aren't interested. I think there are alot of honey bees around. Most bee keepers seem to be full up at the minute, they will still pick em up but they arnt fighting for em like a few years back 

22 hours ago, gnipper said:

Proper honey bees would be gladly collected by a local bee keeper wouldn't they?

 

[Pirate 9000 676]

Been very slow on the wasps this year up until this morning, called to caravan park, only been open aweek said she had 9 nests to do, finished up doing 23 just packing up local farmer pulled up asked me to get rid of 1 in bailer, hope it Carrie's on like this.

[LuckOrJudgement 437]

Wasps are steady here in north essex but won't be paying off the mortgage.

Moles on the other hand have gone mental- must have been a good breeding season.

[Pirate 9000 676]

Yes been getting quite a few calls for mole's I will do them in a garden but farm's I try to put them off till October, and by then I hope they forget, don't mind trapping anything but mole's just get on my tits.

[Ratmanwan3 86]

Wasps coming in steady but not breaking any records in the Midlands, done 50 so far. 

[DIDO.1 22,844]

Done 35

[Nicepix 5,650]

On 09/07/2020 at 11:54, LuckOrJudgement said:

Wasps are steady here in north essex but won't be paying off the mortgage.

Moles on the other hand have gone mental- must have been a good breeding season.

Same over here in France. It's gone crazy on the moles.

Funny thing is I'm looking to retire in a couple of years time and so have stopped taking on any new business. I haven't advertised for over 18 months either but new enquiries are still finding me. I've declined 9 since the start of June. If only I were younger