I think I have a problem . . .

I have a nest behind some bricks of the house in a cavity… Haven’t really wanted to fork out the $200 to get it exterminated and tried wasp spray twice bu they kept re-building.

They go in and out of it all day and there is about 20-30 of them. There’s minimal activity early morning and after the sun has set.

My motorbike is parked 2 metres from the nest and I haven’t had a problem with aggressiveness.

I had Phil remove a nest for me yesterday (sorry Thumper, didn’t cost me)

Who’s this Phil dude, and whats hit contact numbers V Twin?

try feeding your cats real cat food instead.

Why, what do you feed you cats proofpositive? Somehow I think we won’t get a response to your idiotic point!

In my defence, proofpositive, I feed my cats a range of things, usually on a bed of cat biscuits.

This gives my cats teeth a bit of a clean and provides a snack for the extensive other wild- and feral-life that seem to enjoy catty leftovers (this includes other cats, dogs, currawongs, magpies and now European wasps.

I thought I’d probably have to find the nest before calling the experts in. Following insects back to ther nest as night is falling seems a bit difficult, is all.

In my experience they seem to mind their own business unless you have a go at them. Then, they get all angry and start looking for things to sting. Problem is, they don’t sting just once. They keep going and going and going.

Contact the European wasp hotline. I had Phil remove a nest for me yesterday (sorry Thumper, didn’t cost me). He is a hell of a nice guy, professional and he takes the nest away for study. He even gave little venom a run down on how they make their nests and left him a bit of it and some literature to take to show at school.

The wasps had been around for many weeks but caused us and our pets no grief at all.

I had some last year, got rid of them myself with bugspray, wire and fire. Not what i would recommend to most people, but in that situation it worked just fine.

We’ve had them at bbqs a few times this summer. They really do get excited about that sort of fare, and generally won’t bugger off either.

I’m given to understand that this time of year these wasps diet is predominantly meat or meat based, so its not surprising to see them having a go at pet food.

The one European wasp nest I have found was under ground. I was a hole about 5cm across and could only really be located by watching where the wasps were going. I’m told that they can get pretty agressive around the nest so it’s a good ida to get a professional pest exterminator in to deal with one if you do find it.

cat food

noun
food prepared for cats

cat food. (n.d.). WordNet® 3.0. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cat food

Per the dictionary, Friskies™ is real cat food.

try feeding your cats real cat food instead.

A simple trap for European wasps is to put a jam jar (with some jam residue still left in it) near the transit route of the insects. Poke a few small holes in the jam jar lid with a knife or fork. Just sit it down and the trap is set.

It won’t kill the hive but you can perhaps use the jar to track where they are coming from and the jam inside will be more of a lure than your pet food or kids.

I seasol’d and powerfed (liquid fertiliser) a whole heap of my plants last Sunday and these pricks came from all angles. Hundreds of them buzzing around my back yard. Had to take the indoor plants back in via the front door.

The other day we had some fruit salad and they were buzzing around the open back door too.

I was tempted to post back here asking a similar question. I am 99% sure they aren’t on my property, but on the reserve we back onto.

Two things I have heard, but am happy to be corrected on:

They are constantly heading to and from the nest. (this seems at odds with thumper above?)
They will be buzzing about withing a relatively short distance from the nest (couple hundred meters?)

I was tempted to start some triangulation techniques involving either undiluted seasol or pineapples, but if anyone has a better idea, let me know. I’d love to find the pricks and get ACT Gov to come burn em out…

Move your pet food bowl inside, you do not want rover or moggy to eat one of these suckers.

Yep, its a European wasp. Pet food is one of the main attractants of these pests.