(not) a Queen wasp, apparently.

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danfaulknor

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#240917 2-Oct-2018 15:10

Titled edited from "Is this a queen wasp?"

Was working up in our roof space, left the manhole open for a couple of days when I ran out of time, then came in the night before last to see a wasp sitting on the window.

I pumped a bunch of fly spray into the area and shut the door. Next morning I found not one, but three dead wasps, so either I'm exceptionally unlucky and roused 3 queen wasps from their slumber, or I have a very, very early nest.

This is one of the dead wasps. The other two, well, one fell in the toilet and the other I didn't think to get a photo of... Sorry about the crap photo... Can anyone tell me if it looks big enough to be a queen, or do I need to get pest control in?

I'm not super keen to go back up there until I know what's going on, and I left a bunch of my tools behind! :(

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#2100134 2-Oct-2018 15:15

dam daniel, did you send the poor thing for a spin too?

it looks like a normal wasp to me...

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danfaulknor

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#2100136 2-Oct-2018 15:18

hahaha. Nope, it got sucked up into the vacuum cleaner shortly after the photo.

If it's a normal wasp, I get to go hunting for a nest I suppose. Hopefully, I can spot them coming and going from outside as getting up there with them sounds like a bad time

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Coil

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#2100148 2-Oct-2018 15:40

It doesn't look defined enough to be a yellow jacket or any wasp from colour..
I'd say honey bee from that......

danfaulknor

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#2100149 2-Oct-2018 15:43

Hmm, perhaps you're right. Not sure why three honey bees would come inside together

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Coil

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#2100150 2-Oct-2018 15:44

danielfaulknor:

Hmm, perhaps you're right. Not sure why three honey bees would come inside together

They general work together to get the best results. The society of bee's is very interesting. Something in that would be the reason why.
Generally it is not the best idea to be some super hasty bug exterminator running around with Raid all day.
I recall growing up and people who had clean freak mums would spray the junk every 5 minutes or have an auto one and their houses smelt like toxic crap. Still recall the smell till this day. Tea towel or being non threatening goes a long way.

danfaulknor

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#2100152 2-Oct-2018 15:45

This is it zoomed in...

I can't remember if the other two looked the same or not.

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Coil

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#2100158 2-Oct-2018 15:54

danielfaulknor:

This is it zoomed in...

I can't remember if the other two looked the same or not.

I can't say without more resolution.

Cheers

danfaulknor

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#2100161 2-Oct-2018 15:57

Best I've got I'm afraid!

I guess I'll just wait and see if any more creatures show up

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blackjack17

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#2100165 2-Oct-2018 15:57

We get wasps in our ceiling cavity and they pop through where i have removed the scotia board when we regibbed the walls (haven't gotten around to the ceiling yet, it's been 3 years will get to it one day).

I throw a can of bug bomb up each spring when i notice wasps coming through the tiles and that seems to kill them.

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dazhann

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#2100175 2-Oct-2018 16:04

That looks like a wasp to me, now you have blown it up. Honey bee wings are a lot smaller than that. Also even though honey bees can have some yellow, wasp tend to have a more vivid yellow colour like that one.

I keep bees a good wasp is a dead wasp.

MikeAqua

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#2100207 2-Oct-2018 16:48

That's a wasp (german or common). If you have some near you look into Vespex. It's a bait that wipes the little s out in short order. You have to become an approved user but you can do thta online (video and test). A few of us in our street in Nelson (bad for wasps) did it and wasp numbers have simply plummeted. They used to be a real nuisance while having a BBQ or eating outside. I barely saw one last summer/autumn.

https://www.merchento.com/vespex.html

It doesn't work on paper wasps but it's lethal on german/common wasps.

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#2100244 2-Oct-2018 18:10

Vespex isn't really suitable to be used at this time of year.

Can I use Vespex® to target queens and very young nests in the spring?

Trials have shown that attempting to control wasps using a protein bait too early in the season is largely unsuccessful. Queens and early-season wasp nests have low requirements for protein, so the attractants in Vespex® are not particularly effective until the nests are at a critical stage in their development.

Great stuff for using in peak wasp season - when you observe wasps foraging for protein. But adult wasps of this type can't digest protein directly, they forage for it and take it back to the colony where they feed it to the larvae which can digest it, the larvae then regurgitate a pre-digested food to feed the adult wasps. That's how Vespex works so effectively - by nuking the breeding colony. The workers can carry it back safely - 'cause they don't eat the bait themselves.

IIRC DOC initial trials with Vespex had something like >95% reduction in wasp numbers.

At this time of the year, the workers are mainly foraging sugar-rich nectar, honeydew etc. About mid-January, they hunt for protein and ignore sweet baits.

If there's a nest in the attic, I'd probably whack a couple of those automatic pest killing sprays up there for now. It's probably still a pretty small nest, if you nuke the workers and it'll starve the colony - even if the spray doesn't get inside the nest and kill the queen.

That photo looks to me like an ordinary worker (not a queen) German wasp. The queens are a little bigger, but particularly have a longer abdomen - though it's a bit hard to tell from that photo.

danfaulknor

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#2100266 2-Oct-2018 19:15

Fred99:

If there's a nest in the attic, I'd probably whack a couple of those automatic pest killing sprays up there for now. It's probably still a pretty small nest, if you nuke the workers and it'll starve the colony - even if the spray doesn't get inside the nest and kill the queen.

That photo looks to me like an ordinary worker (not a queen) German wasp. The queens are a little bigger, but particularly have a longer abdomen - though it's a bit hard to tell from that photo.

That was my thought too, but then I have to go up there! It's quite an acrobatic act to get in/out, which I'm not entirely sure I could perform without injury (or damage!) if I was under pursuit...

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Fred99

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#2100274 2-Oct-2018 19:27

danielfaulknor:

Fred99:

If there's a nest in the attic, I'd probably whack a couple of those automatic pest killing sprays up there for now. It's probably still a pretty small nest, if you nuke the workers and it'll starve the colony - even if the spray doesn't get inside the nest and kill the queen.

That photo looks to me like an ordinary worker (not a queen) German wasp. The queens are a little bigger, but particularly have a longer abdomen - though it's a bit hard to tell from that photo.

That was my thought too, but then I have to go up there! It's quite an acrobatic act to get in/out, which I'm not entirely sure I could perform without injury (or damage!) if I was under pursuit...

They should do the trick if you set them on maximum (they'll keep spaying for a few weeks) and put them on the level (they'll not operate if they fall over). I'd just poke my head up and set them on top of a ceiling joist near the manhole if you don't want to risk entering the den of the wasps.

danfaulknor

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#2100319 2-Oct-2018 19:52

That I can do.

And this being Geekzone, I might put an IP camera up there too to monitor things...

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