Monday 22 October 2012

Hornets


Probably not good to read this if you have a thing about things that creep...

Funny how things are connected.. some weeks ago after heavy rain, noticed water coming through a flat roof into upstairs room and on a rainy dark night we needed to put a tarpoline over our roof.

Some weeks went by and noticed few huge noisy wasps in other room upstairs but thought they were coming in from outside. Looked them up and thought they were wood wasps and didnt worry. Then more and more of the wasps were filling the room even though we were getting them out the window and more kept arriving. Almost a swarm especially early evening when the lights went on. Read up a bit more about wood wasps and started to worry they might be eating up the loft.

Noticed new ones in the room even though the windows were shut. Hair on back of my neck prickling just thinking about it


Spent some time looking for holes where they could get in - in the ceiling and the floor - then noticed one of them popping out of a hole in the ceiling, that wasnt there earlier. Instinct to run out of the room screaming

Lots of chats later and photographs sent to Defra experts and seems they are hornets but Europian ones - Told they are Gentle Giants who dont want to attack unless they feel threatened and probably have been living in our loft since the spring but when the roof sprang a leak and we tarpolined it and blocked their exit - we upset the status quo and so they munched their way through into upstairs room to get to an exit. Visions of 300 hornets munching away our ceiling. Seems the hornets that were filling the room could be the male ones looking for a way to get out and look for nectar who would go back to the nest by a route they knew - so would be congregating back on the tarpoline - feeling miffed.



Thinking about it remember hearing a little scratching noise from the ceiling - back in the spring but thought it might be a mouse and too scared to go in the loft to find it.

Advice to block up the hole and used a cd and tape, then read the one thing you should never do - with wasps or hornets is block up the entrance to their nest as they panic and gnaw through just about anything to find another way out. That sounds about right.

Been told not to go in the loft until January - when the nest has died and we can remove it and see what has happened up there. Not sure if i want to.

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