A large wasps nest has appeared in our shed over the summer. Any painfree way to get rid of them this winter?

Question

The shed is not used often - hence the wasps' ability to build at leisure. We are environmentalists and would prefer not to use chemicals or similarly drastic measures to get rid of the nest. We are hoping that someone knows about the wasps level of (in)activity in colder temperatures and will be able to tell us how to safely handle the nest this winter - even if we have to wait until it's 0C or colder. Thanks so much - we really want to tackle this and have the nest gone before next spring.

Answer 1

wasps die in the winter. so when it gets below 20 and stays there for a few days then it is safe to remove it by hand.

Answer 2

You're petty much correct about the weather. Once it drops close to or below freezing, the wasps will hybernate. Most will die off. just keep an eye on the nest. You will quickly notice no activity. this is the time to remove the nest.

Once it's moved, though, in the spring, the wasps will tend to leave and find a new site for their hive, unless you can prop it up in a fallen log, so that the entrance is totally accessible.

Just take it to a wooded area, where there are lots of wild flowers close by, but the trees offer shelter from the elements.

Answer 3

Cold in shed. Nest is safe to handle; no live wasps. It seems that (at least next couple of years) generations from a particular nest must have a homing instinct (I'm sure some expert out there will have the correct answer on that part). But, after we got rid of a wasp nest in corner of our porch, we resided so the original 'home' was gone. Wasps showed up periodically over next couple of years trying to find that same hole. Be prepared to get rid of more future nests.

When have an active hive, wait well after dark (they are in bed). Spray the dickens out of the nest & knock nest into a doubled bag for disposal. Every couple of months, recheck shed.

Answer 4

Since the wasps pretty much hibernate during the winter or when it gets really cold you shouldn't have any problem removing the nest. Although, the barn we had stayed fairly warm. So what we ended up doing was to spray liquid plastic all over the nest except of course where it adhered to a beam in the barn. We took it outside a couple of hundred yards from the house and wedged it into a fork of a tree. Come springtime when they started coming out they just broke out of the piece that used to hold it to the beam in the barn. Didn't seem to bother them any more than normal.

Answer 5

Put a garbage bag loosely around the nest then knock it off with a stick, then spray wasp killer in bag, and seal it up. Presto no stings and your rid of the pests.