Before anything else
Keep children and pets away from the nest and don't spray, block or knock it. If someone stung has trouble breathing, or swelling of the face or throat, call 000 straight away.
Which wasp is it?
Two kinds cause most of the calls. Paper wasps build an open, grey comb that hangs from the eaves, a pergola or a branch, and you can usually see the cells. European wasps are yellow and black and hide their nests: in the ground, in a wall cavity or in the roof, with wasps flying in and out of one gap.
European wasp colonies are started in spring by a single queen, and the nest grows through summer until new queens and males hatch in autumn. Victoria's Department of Health says a nest can keep growing over several seasons in a warm climate, reaching more than 100,000 wasps. That's why a nest you notice in late summer is often much bigger than it looks from the entrance.
In Western Australia, report European wasps
European wasps are a declared pest in WA, and the state agriculture department (DPIRD) wants every sighting reported, then deals with the nest itself. DPIRD says most nests it finds are hidden underground. If you're in WA and the wasps are yellow and black with a hidden nest, report it rather than booking a treatment; paper wasp nests are a normal job everywhere.
What the pest business will ask
- Where the nest is: in the ground, in a wall or roof, or hanging from the eaves or a tree.
- How close it is to doors, play areas and where people walk.
- Whether anyone in the house has reacted badly to a sting before.
- How they'll reach it, and whether they need to come back once the wasps are gone.
What you can do while you wait
You can
- Keep doors and windows near the nest closed.
- Keep food and sweet drinks covered outside.
- Note where the wasps fly in and out, from a safe distance.
- Take a photo from well back, for the pest business.
Leave to a pest business
- Treating or removing the nest, especially inside a wall or roof.
- Nests in the ground, where you can't see how big they are.
- Anything at height, near power lines or above a doorway.
Questions worth asking before they start
- Which product will you use, and can I have its full name?
- How long should we keep people and pets away afterwards?
- Will the nest come down afterwards, or stay once the colony is dead?
- What happens if wasps are still active a few days later?
Where we'd start with wasp nest removal
We'd keep everyone well back, take one photo from a distance, and tap A wasp nest with where it is. Leave the can of fly spray in the cupboard: it rarely reaches the colony and it tends to stir up the wasps.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
