Earth wasps – i.e. wasps that sometimes nest in the ground – are feared by garden owners. Because they can get in your way particularly critically when they are close to the ground. How to get rid of the insects or come to an amicable agreement with them can be read below.
How can you effectively get rid of earth wasps?
To get rid of earth wasps, you can first offer home remedies such as sugar water or boiled ham. If a nest needs to be removed, consult a professional such as a beekeeper or conservation expert. You may also be able to cordon off the nest area and thus enable coexistence.
Distinguishing earth wasps from earth bees
The term “earth wasps” is not a zoological species name, but a popular name for wasps that nest in the ground. Species that do this include the common wasp and the German wasp. But some species of wild bees, such as sand bees, also nest in the ground. Before you want to eliminate a nest of striped insects in the garden, clear identification is necessary. Because earth bees are strictly protected and must not be controlled. If you intentionally kill, injure or damage the nests, you can face high fines.
Wasps are also protected, but the regulations for them are not quite as rigid. According to the catalog of fines, pen alties are only imposed for killing, injuring and disturbing resting places if there was no reasonable reason for doing so. Whether a reason is reasonable is always assessed individually - possible reasons could include an allergy or small children living in the house.
Overall, however, the following applies: Wasps can be annoying and can also be dangerous if the nest is close to people's living areas. Nevertheless, the animals are generally peaceful and are also useful and worth protecting, among other things because they destroy pests. You should therefore rely on gentle expulsion measures.
To remember:
- Before any expulsion measures, make sure that the wasps are ground wasps
- Expelling beneficial insects carefully
How to get rid of earth wasps?
First: home remedies
As long as the wasps only come to the patio table and become annoying beneficiaries, you should limit yourself to simple home remedies. First of all, this includes keeping calm and not fidgeting. This only makes the animals aggressive and happy to bite. The easiest way is to set up a bowl with sugar water or some cooked ham and place a glass over the settling wasp(s) at me altime. Then release them again.
Nest removal only by professionals
To shut down an entire nest, you should urgently consult a professional. Firstly, as mentioned above, you are easily liable to prosecution if you take action yourself. On the other hand, it requires a lot of experience in dealing with the stinging insects in order to safely shut down a nest with around 7,000 animals.
How the beekeeper or nature conservation specialist removes the nest depends on the individual situation. Depending on the location and accessibility of the nest, various methods are possible, such as foaming with an agent that is lethal to the animals. In individual cases, a wasp nest can also be relocated by vacuuming the animals and dismantling and rebuilding the honeycomb structure. However, this is quite time-consuming and, given the short wasp generation period of just one summer, it is usually not worth it.
Amicable settlement?
If in doubt, you should consider whether you can't make friends with these peaceful and useful insects. To protect yourself and children, the area around the nest can easily be cordoned off. So both parties have some peace and quiet.
