Over the last week or so wasps have built a nest inside the polycrub. I have no idea how we didn’t notice it until a few days ago, by which time it was well on the way to becoming the buzzing Fortress of Doom.
The nest is a remarkable feat of engineering, but sadly it had to go. It was right inside the entrance to the polycrub, over the door, meaning that every time you walked in or out you were walking directly underneath it and the wasps swarmed out defensively. It was only a matter of time before one of us got badly stung.
Hugh was going to remove, bag and dispose of it yesterday, and donned protective gear and a face net to see to them, but the wasps were very aggressive and swarmed out in their multitudes whenever he approached. He beat a tactical retreat.
He decided that being balanced up a rather rickety ladder was not the best place to be whilst being dive-bombed by dozens of them. Because just in those few days the bomber squad had clearly hatched and was raring to go.
Simple removal was not going to be an option, so sadly, we had to use a chemical spray to poison them just to get close enough to dispose of them. Both of us felt guilty at having to kill them like this just for building in the wrong place, but it had to be done.
Croft life isn’t all flowers and kittens. We don’t kill indiscriminately, or ever without serious consideration of the alternatives, but sometimes it’s the only way.
Ravencroft Skye 
Yeah, sometimes there is no choice! My husband is allergic to stings.
We discovered a wasp nest above our garage door after I got stung while opening it. The only way we could see it was from the inside, with the door rolled down all the way. It turned out the nest had gotten so big, every time we opened and closed the door, it was hitting the nest! The wasps were getting in and out through spaces in the cladding, and small holes in the wood where knots used to be, and start swarming as soon as the door was moved. It took two cans of poison spray that could be applied from 10 ft away, then a garden hose to wash away the nest. All while hiding behind our van that we could not move until the nest was clear and we could open the door again!
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Oh lord that sounds terrifying!
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Yikes. Don’t feel guilty for spraying them. This was clearly a survival situation.
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Thank you. It felt like it!
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I hate killing wildlife too but sometimes it is necessary and this was one of them. You provide a lot of habitats on the croft and mostly work in a wildlife friendly way so worry not about one wasp nest in a dangerous place.
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Thank you 🙏
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Different species of wasp, but my daughter was able to remove a nest at night and take it several kilometres away. They are a lot less aggressive at night as long as you keep the light off the nest.
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