A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Wasps or Hornet Problems

I love insects. I know their beneficial to my garden and ofcourse I worry about the honey bees dying off so now I'm in a odd situation. For the last few days, my mom has been encountering wasps or hornets, she not sure which, dancing/mating and possible chewing or ripping out tiny pieces of roof tiles. Now we are afraid their building a nest.

I have only seen them twice but there seems to be an average of five or six of them, nor have I seen any type of nest. There are along the top of the sun room and some hide in the small crevices by the door. My mom wants to kill them all and I want a non kill solution, because I'm afraid the honey bees that visit my garden will be killed as well, with whatever my mom plans to do, which in the past has been exterminators.

The bees also don't seem to live in the crevices because by late afternnon their gone and no where to be seen, unless their hidding in a crevice.

Is there something natural I can spray to scare them away from the sunroom? but can still visit my garden.

Is five or six of these creatures the normal amount to build a nest to begin with?

And why the hell are they chewing up roof tiles? I have nice sunflowers comming up soon for them....I didn't think they ate roof tiles........

Thanks,
Earth

Oh my, if they chewing roof tiles or wood, they are building a nest or adding to the nest they already have. They turn it into a paper mache type material for building.

You could try discourage them from chewing the wood and building materials of fences and buildings by applying a fresh coat of paint, varnish or wood preservative....usually you have to locate and destroy the nest.

Be careful, there can be thousands in a nest...you might want to call in a specialist if the nest has already been formed.

I remember you could get a spray before called "Cyonara" not sure on the exact spelling but you could use it to spray on areas and it left a residue, here we use 'Hornet Raid' spray(not sure if it's just a Canadian product or not) bad thing is it's hard to spray only for one type of insect, bees can die..you can also get a spray for hornets and wasps that shoots up to 15 ft for direct contact.

Hope someone else can help you as well.

chrysanthuem oil.......mixed and sprayed with water works well in repelling wasps ....visit your natural foods store ....it leaces a residue that wasps hate ......

I understand... they are in my grapes! I hope they are not nesting.