Wasp Pest Control
Wasp Nest Removal in Poole, Bournemouth and the surrounding areas.
BMS Pest Control offers a fast, effective and professional service at affordable prices to rid your home or business of wasps.
Our treatments are safe, clean and are carried out at a time that is convenient to you. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have and to offer help and advice.
Get Rid of Wasps
There are a number of wasp species in the UK but the two most common are the common and german wasp. Both species can inflict a painful, potentially dangerous sting and can be very aggressive in defending their nests.
Nests can contain up to 7000 wasps and can be built nearly anywhere - houses and outbuildings, voids, underground or hanging in trees and bushes.
In urban areas, the most common location for a nest is in the roof, soffits or just a hole in the ground.
Wasp Nest Control - What We Do
Treatment
Most wasp nests are treated in the same way - a residual insecticide dust is injected either directly into the nest or through the entry hole. We do not need to see the nest itself to be able to treat it, in fact the majority of nests are like this.
After treatment, the wasps will become hyperactive so the area should be avoided for a few hours. The nest will be dead within 24 hours.
As nests typically take a few hours to die, we generally do not physically remove the nest, except in certain circumstances. Dead nests can be left as they will never be reused but for peace of mind we can return and remove it at a later date, though this would incur an additional charge.
Please note that for inaccessible nests in cavities, voids or holes in the ground, it will not be possible to remove them.
Wasps in Your Home or Business?
About Wasps
Common Wasp (vespula vulgaris) & German Wasp (vespula germanica)
Characteristics
Worker Wasps
10-20mm in size.
Yellow and black banding on body.
Markings vary by species.
Narrow waist.
Queen Wasps
Larger in size than a worker. Queens will usually only be seen either early or late in the nesting season.Life Cycle & Habitat
A queen wasp will emerge from hibernation in early spring and construct a small, golf ball sized nest. The nest is made of a paper-like substance made from mixing saliva with chewed wood. She will lay eggs in this nest and feed the emerging workers with small insects. These workers then take over the construction and food gathering duties while the queen concentrates on laying more eggs. The nest will continue to be enlarged over the course of the summer.
In autumn the queen will produce new queens and male wasps which will then mate. The queens will leave the nest and seek somewhere to hibernate for the winter for the cycle to continue again next year.
By winter, the old queen, males and workers will all die off - a nest will only last a single season and will never be reused.
Advice
Don’t ignore a wasp nest in your roof in the summer just because they aren’t bothering you. The nest will only get larger and as it starts to get colder, they will start coming indoors, often dropping down through light fixtures into bedrooms and bathrooms.
It’s much better to get the nest treated early than have a house full of wasps later in the year!
Identifying a Wasp Nest
What to look for
A constant stream of wasps coming and going from a single point.
Wasps buzzing around windows or guttering.
Visible nests in roofs, sheds or in trees.
Where to look on the house
Gaps between brickwork and fascia boards.
Under roof tiles or lead flashing on the sides of dormers.
Holes in brickwork or fascias.
In airbricks, flues or overflow pipes.
Where to look in the garden
Holes in the ground, concrete or lawn.
In the base or roots of bushes and trees. Pampas grass and bamboo are particualrly common
In sheds, outbuildings and plastic garden storage containers.
In old bags or garden waste or compost bins/heaps.
Need Advice?
Get in TouchIn a Loft
Hanging in a Tree
Hole in the Ground
Foraging Wasps
Seeing a large number of wasps in you garden doesn’t necessarily mean you have a wasp nest.
In early summer the worker wasps feed on a sweet, sugary substance secreted by their own grubs. From late summer onwards, the grubs are gone and the workers are left to fend for themselves and look for their own food. This is when wasps become a nuisance while you’re trying to eat in the garden.
Wasps will be attracted to sugary or alcoholic drinks, rotten fruit and certain plants but are particularly attracted to a substance called honeydew. This is a secretion from aphids such as blackfly that is found on or under trees and bushes. Finding hundreds of wasps on the ground under a tree (or even cars parked under trees) is almost certainly due to them feeding on honeydew.
Hornets
Much larger than wasps and said to have a more painful sting, hornets are generally less aggressive than wasps but will still attack when threatened. They are easily distinguished from wasps by their size and orange/brown colouration.
Uncommon in urban areas unless surrounded by woodland, they only eat other insects so do not come into contact with humans as often as wasps. Hornets hunt day and night and are attracted to lights so living in proximity to a nest can lead to them flying into the windows or even coming indoors at night time.
Despite their intimidating appearance, their nests are treated in exactly the same way as wasps so we do not charge extra for their treatment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Wasps & Hornets
The cost for treatment of a nest is £72.00 (including VAT).
When treated on the same visit, each additional nest after the first is an extra £20.00. So 2 nests is £92.00, 3 nests is £112.00 etc...
The majority of the nests that we treat are like this. Common locations for wasp nests are under roof tiles, in soffits and even underground. We treat these by injecting the insecticide into the entrance hole. This is just as effective an injecting it directly into the nest.
Sometimes, though the majority nests in roof spaces can be treated from the outside.
Our applicator tool has long extension lances which mean that most high up nests can be treated from the ground. This is much safer than using ladders.
No. Once all the wasps are dead the nest is completely harmless and can left alone to degrade naturally (the nests are constructed of a paper like substance). If the nest is in a conspicuous area (such as in a shed) you can put the nest into a bag and put it in the dustbin. We recommend leaving the nest for a week after treatment before removing it to ensure there are no live wasps remaining. If you really don't want to handle the nest yourself we can remove it a day after treatment for an additional charge.
Following treatment we recommend keeping away from the nest for at least a few hours. Immediately after treatment the wasps in the nest will become hyperactive and wasps that are out foraging for food will return to the nest. This means that for an hour or two the numbers of wasps flying around the nest can significantly increase.
If you are still seeing wasps around the nest 24 hours after treatment, give us a call or email us and we will return and treat it again, free of charge.
Yes, in the early summer, wasps are a good garden pest controller, eating all sorts of garden pests. They are also good pollinators and eat rotten fallen fruit in the autumn.
Bees
Bees are a beneficial insect so we generally avoid treating them. Therefore it is important to correctly identify wasps or hornets before calling us out to deal with them. The types of bees commonly mistaken for wasps or hornets are honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees.
Honey Bees
Similar in size to a wasp but more of a dull brown colour. Honey bees are most frequently encountered in the early summer when they swarm.
A swarm is a large group of bees clustered together around a queen. They can often form in trees or the side of a house but this is only temporary and they will leave to form a new nest within a day or two. If the swarm is in a problematic location, we recommend contacting a beekeeper who will remove them to be rehomed.
You can find a beekeeper in your area by contacting the British Bee Keepers Association
Bumblebees
Larger, rounder and furrier than honey bees, bumblebees are usually quite docile and will not sting unless the nest is threatened. While they are not a protected species, they are endangered so we will not destroy their nests unless they pose a direct risk to people or animals.
Bumblebee nests consist of a number of loosely connected cocoons, usually found underground, in compost heaps and in bird boxes, though they do occasionally nest in lofts.
Solitary Bees
Solitary bees consist of over 100 different types of bees found in the UK but the most frequently encountered are mining bees and masonry bees. ‘Solitary’ refers to the fact that each bee builds an individual nest rather than a communal hive. However these nests can be build close together so solitary bees can actually be found in significant numbers.
Masonry bees nest in small holes in mortar and brickwork and mining bees nest in the ground or lawns (see video, below). They are often seen in the early summer.
Solitary bees are harmless and do not sting.
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Areas Covered Include:
Blandford, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Dorchester, Poole, Ringwood, Salisbury, Swanage, The New Forest, Verwood, Wareham, Weymouth, Wimborne and other Dorset and Hampshire Areas.
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