The short version: do not do it yourself. This is the one pest where the DIY attempt is genuinely dangerous rather than merely ineffective.
Have it treated professionally. £90 fixed cost, guaranteed for 30 days. The colony is treated at the nest, foragers carry the treatment in, and it dies within a day or two.
Do not attempt it yourself. Not because we want the work — because aerosols provoke the colony, blocking the hole drives wasps into the building, and most serious injuries come from the ladder rather than the stings.
You do not need to see the nest. You need the entry point, and that is easier.
A steady stream in and out is a nest. Wasps around a bin or fallen fruit are foraging and mean nothing.
Read nextWasps in the Roof in Stanmore – Where Is the Nest? →Fixed cost, guaranteed for 30 days, whatever the height or location. Every nest found on the same visit at the same property is included.
£90 fixed cost, guaranteed for 30 days. See our full wasp nest treatment service and what the guarantee covers.
View Wasp Nest Removal Stanmore →The specific risk on a larger plot, and the one that causes the worst incidents.
The worst wasp incidents we hear about are not people on ladders. They are people on a ride-on mower who went over a nest in a bank they did not know was there.
The most common and most damaging mistake. Wasps chew through plasterboard, insulation and soft mortar. Blocked outside, they come inside.
It does not reach the nest. It does provoke the colony into defending it, from a distance of a few feet, with you holding the can.
Wasps defending a nest at head height, on a ladder, produces falls. The sting is rarely the serious part.
It happens every summer. Roof fires, burns, and a nest that is still there afterwards.
A visible nest under an eave or in a shed is a colony of hundreds to thousands. Knocking it down releases all of them at once.
Petrol into a hole in a bank is both dangerous and an environmental offence, and it does not reliably work.
From late August the colony structure breaks down, workers stop rearing brood, and behaviour changes — more interested in sugar, less predictable, more likely to sting. A nest that was tolerable in July can become a real problem in September, which is exactly when people are cutting back the garden.
| What you see | What it is |
|---|---|
| Yellow and black, sharp waist, smooth | Wasp — treat |
| Large, brown and yellow, loud, slower | Hornet — treated the same way, less aggressive than reputation suggests |
| Golden-brown, hairy, many at one spot | Honey bees — we will not treat; contact a beekeeper |
| Big, round, very fuzzy | Bumblebee — docile, colony dies out by late summer, leave it |
| Small dark bees in a lawn or mortar | Solitary bees — harmless, do not treat |
| Bees going into a hole in a bank | Possibly bumblebees — often best left |
On a property with a large garden, bumblebee nests in banks, compost heaps and old rodent burrows are common. They are docile, the colony dies out by late summer, and they are worth leaving.
At the end of the season, yes. That may be months away, and the colony grows and becomes more aggressive in the meantime.
No. A new queen builds a new nest, though a good site tends to attract a new one nearby.
A mature nest can hold several thousand wasps.
£90 fixed cost, guaranteed for 30 days in Stanmore — every nest on the visit included.
Professional treatment at the nest. £90 fixed cost, guaranteed for 30 days. Foragers carry treatment in and the colony dies within a day or two.
A mower or strimmer over one brings the colony out at once, at ankle height. Walk the ground before cutting it in late summer, mark anything you find, and tell your gardener.
No. Wasps chew through plasterboard, insulation and soft mortar and come into the building instead.
Not on one inside a void. It does not reach the nest but does provoke the colony.
No. Petrol into a hole is dangerous, an environmental offence, and does not reliably work.
Treat it as urgent and tell us. Anyone with breathing difficulty or swelling beyond the sting site after a sting needs urgent medical help.
Often bumblebees, which are docile and die out by late summer. They are worth leaving, and we will tell you if that is what you have.
At the end of the season, yes — but that may be months away, and the colony grows and gets more aggressive in the meantime.
£90 fixed, guaranteed for 30 days. And walk the ground before you mow it in August.
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