A wasp’s nest can appear not only on a bush or under the roof of a private house: sometimes the owners of apartments in high-rise buildings discover an unpleasant “surprise” on the balcony. Attempts to knock down a dense grayish-black ball, drive away insects, or smoke it with smoke bombs can lead to poisoning of household members or an attack by a swarm of wasps. It is dangerous if children unknowingly try to remove the nest: multiple bites can lead to severe allergies and death.
What to do if wasps appear on the balcony? How to get rid of dangerous “neighbors”? What is the reason for the infestation of stinging insects? How to prevent the appearance of wasps in your home? The answers are in the article.
Why do stinging insects appear?
In the spring, insects awaken from hibernation, swarming begins, and the search for a place to form a nest begins. You need to find a quiet, secluded place where you can safely reproduce.
Wasps often make nests in attics, spreading bushes, trees, stumps, hollows, and under the roof of private houses. Sometimes insects climb onto the balcony, especially if there are old things in this area that no one has touched for a long time, and you can safely build a nest.
In most cases, a dark gray ball with brownish and black splashes with a small entrance is located at the top of the balcony. While there are few wasps, many owners do not pay attention to strange “neighbors,” but after the appearance of the offspring, the situation quickly becomes critical.
If two or three wasps often hover on the balcony, you should think about the reason for their appearance, inspect all corners: perhaps there is a wasp nest on the balcony.
In old brick houses, if there are problems with the tightness of seams in the masonry, insects climb deeper into the voids, and it is very difficult to notice and get pests. Often people become victims of attacks by stinging insects while repairing balconies and walls. It is easy to miss and accidentally disturb a few individuals hiding among the brickwork.
Other reasons for wasp infestation:
in an open or glassed space there are flowerpots with soil in which the housewife has not been able to plant flowers for a long time; The boarded balcony has cracks and dry areas where stinging insects can easily hide. Also, not only wasps, but also fleas, cockroaches, bugs, and ants may appear in the home; the owners store old boxes, household equipment, buckets, rags, cups with soil and seedlings, and other devices for the garden and garden; at the junction of the glazed balcony with the wall there are recesses, cracks, pieces of tiles fall off, and there are depressions in the bricks.
Where to look for a hive
Insects are attracted to wooden structures because they provide building material from wasps. The insect scrapes off the top layer of wood with powerful jaws, chews it, and obtains a sticky, viscous substance, which it uses to build honeycombs, the inner and outer parts of the nest. Pests also easily infest in ready-made suitable structures - cracks in the wall, under the floor.
You can see what a wasp nest looks like in the photo below. Outwardly it resembles a sphere with a hole at the bottom, which serves as an entrance. As the number of individuals increases, it increases in size. The average hive is no larger than the size of an apple.
Common places for wasp nests to be built on the balcony:
- under the floor;
- outside under the balcony;
- under the eaves;
- in sheathing;
- among the rubbish;
- in pipes for draining rainwater.
If it was not possible to visually detect a wasp’s home, you need to observe the behavior of the insects. Sit for half an hour in the daytime on the balcony and trace the trajectory of insects. During the day, they actively rush from nest to nest, performing their functions. Having marked where the pests fly, you can carefully inspect the place. It remains to make a decision on the use of one or another method of struggle.
Wasps on the balcony
Should I touch a wasp's nest on the balcony?
Why do doctors strongly advise removing a wasp's nest from the balcony? Perhaps humans can coexist peacefully with insects of this species?
The danger is that wasps perceive any intrusion into their territory as obvious aggression. The housewife goes out to hang up the laundry, moves her hands, takes out clothespins, shakes off the pillowcases - stinging insects perceive all actions as a threat. The answer is immediate: a sting, an attack on a person to protect its nest and young individuals. Representatives of the stinging species do not understand who came out onto the balcony: a child or an adult, which makes an encounter with wasps even more dangerous.
Other important negative factors:
wasps do not leave a sting and can attack several times, which increases the danger from bites; Also, stinging insects often carry certain diseases.
Lures
If you set out to poison all wasps with poisonous bait, you can achieve this in a few days or weeks. To do this, take a shallow container (for example, a tin can), and place food that wasps love - beer, honey, sugar, fermented jam - into it.
Adult wasps feed on nectar and plant fruits, while wasp larvae feed only on insects.
And boric acid (a teaspoon per glass of bait) or any odorless insecticide is mixed with the food. The “treat” is placed on the balcony, where the wasps actively eat it and carry it to their larvae. The contents of the bait are changed every few days until the insects disappear completely.
Bait can also be placed inside traps, homemade or purchased. You can make a trap yourself from a plastic bottle - small holes are made in it, through which the wasp can crawl inside, but cannot find its way back.
Safety precautions when removing a nest
Important rules for hosts:
protect your hands with thick gloves; wear clear glasses; Before the procedure, refrain from using deodorants and perfumes, do not wash your hair with shampoo with a pleasant smell, and do not smoke; wear long sleeves to protect your legs and neck; do not make sudden movements, act carefully; First, treat the nest so that the wasps die, only after this operation remove the dense ball from the balcony or wall; do not open the wasp’s nest ahead of time: there may be living individuals there; During the procedure, remove household members from the home and warn neighbors not to go out onto the balcony. It is important to close the vents and windows to protect against insects.
Prevention
Wasps can fly to the smell of food; for example, they may be attracted by the aroma of jam spilled from a jar. In such cases, prevention consists of maintaining cleanliness in food storage areas on the balcony. Wasps do not like the smells of stings, detergents, citrus and mint essential oils. You can use them to repel wasps looking for a place to live.
But wasps discovered in the spring, as a rule, settle on the balcony in the fall. The future queen, a young female, finds a suitable secluded place here and sleeps all winter. With the onset of warm days, she wakes up and begins building a nest.
Therefore, the balcony must be regularly inspected, repaired (caulk all the cracks in the casing), install a fine grille on the gutters and prevent the accumulation of a large number of things piled in a heap - wasps are very attracted to disorder and abandonment. Insects are much less likely to settle on well-kept glass balconies.
How to get rid of it: proven methods
An important point is the location of the wasp nest. If the ball is in a convenient place, it is not difficult to destroy pests, but, unfortunately, wasps often build a house at the top of the balcony or near it, at the junction with metal structures, for example, a window sill.
You always need to think through an action plan to protect the owner and household members. If you doubt your abilities or are afraid of stinging insects, you will need the help of special services. In this case, the success of the treatment will be guaranteed and there will be no risk to the health of residents.
On a note! It is advisable to carry out the destruction of pests in the evening, when the wasps gather in the nest. In this case, there is hope to get rid of all the wasps living on the balcony.
Option one – the nest is located in a convenient location:
purchase an insecticide against wasps, a regular aerosol Dichlorvos or a Mosquitoll brand product “From wasp nests” is suitable; protect your face, hands, eyes; take a large plastic bag, carefully approach the nest, wrap the hard ball in plastic; it is important to act quickly, but without sudden movements; a plastic bag needs to be tied around the wasp nest so that the polyethylene adheres well to the home of stinging insects; Carefully make a small hole in the bag, spray a powerful insecticide inside, close the hole with tape or put another bag on top; wait until the insects inside die. You need to carefully read the inscription on the can and find out how long the treatment lasts to kill the wasps. On average, a bag of sprayed insecticide should remain on the nest for 40 minutes to 1 hour; After the specified time, carefully separate the wasp nest from the surface. You must wear thick gloves. Next, place the ball in another bag, take it to a landfill, and burn it; upon returning home, you need to clean off the remains of the nest from the surface, eliminate all the cracks, spray with natural ingredients to repel pests or insecticides to destroy random individuals, so that wasps do not settle on the balcony.
Option two – the wasp’s nest is located in an inconvenient place.
Many owners make the mistake of trying to knock down a wasp house with a stick or mop, which can lead to an attack by angry insects, multiple bites, and serious health consequences. There are safer methods.
Proven methods of dealing with wasps if the nest is difficult to reach:
method number 1. For a glazed balcony, the treatment is easiest: you need to put on protective clothing, a respirator, close the door to the room, and spray a powerful insecticide in all corners, walls and floors. It is important to go through all the corners, wait the allotted time according to the instructions to destroy pests. After the interval after treatment, you need to carefully remove the nest, first cover the ball with a bag, take it to a landfill, and burn it. Effective drugs: Cucaracha, Karbofos, Dichlorvos, Mosquitoll, Executioner. The insecticidal effect lasts from two days to 14 days; method No. 2. Mix boric acid with fruit, sweet syrup, lemonade, boiled meat or fish. The smell of food attracts harmful insects, the poisonous bait gets not only into the stomach, but also remains on the paws, wasps infect their relatives. Boric acid affects the transmission of nerve impulses, causes paralysis, and the entire swarm gradually dies. A more active insecticidal effect is provided by concentrated poison of the brands Get, Clean House, Raid, Delta Zone and Lambda Zone. The method of application is indicated on the packaging for powerful insecticides. It is important that children and pets do not reach the containers.
Soap solution
It is convenient to use a spray bottle here. It is filled with ordinary water, to which liquid soap is added and mixed until a homogeneous mass is formed. This solution must be used to treat all surfaces near the insects' home. Particular attention is paid to the place of settlement itself. After a while, you will get rid of most of the insects, and the rest will fly away.
What to do if bitten by a wasp
It is important to act correctly:
don’t panic, go into the shadows, unbutton your collar, loosen your belt; you should not look for a sting: wasps do not leave sharp “needles” in the human body, they often bite repeatedly; give the victim clean water, slightly salted mineral water without carbon, or weak green tea; To remove toxins as quickly as possible, an enterosorbent is needed. You need to wait until the allergy pill takes effect, then give Enterosgel, Polysorb, White Coal, Smecta, Multisorb so that the active component does not absorb the active substance of the antihyatamine drug; wipe the bite site with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, soda solution, aloe juice; take an antihistamine tablet to prevent allergic reactions, especially if you are prone to an acute immune response. The drug Suprastin has a rapid effect. It is important to follow the instructions and not exceed the dosage: negative manifestations are possible. Reduction of signs of Quincke's edema and other types of allergic reactions appears within 10–15 minutes; It is important for the victim to take a “reclining” position and not be nervous; If a person is attacked by a swarm of wasps or there are numerous bites, then you need to immediately call an ambulance. It is important to remove intoxication from the action of the poison in time, otherwise a tragic outcome is possible. Before the arrival of doctors, you need to complete all the points listed above; Urgent hospitalization is needed for stings on the tongue, eyelids, face, neck, ear, or if a child is injured. Observation by doctors in the first hours after the incident reduces the risk of negative consequences for the body.
Bag and insecticides
If the nest is so conveniently located that it is possible to pull a bag over it, you can use this baiting method: a liquid insecticide is poured into a thick plastic bag and the bag is quickly pulled over the nest.
Next, you can proceed in two ways. If the socket at the attachment point can be easily cut off, then it is better to do so. After this, the neck of the bag is quickly tied, the wasps, along with the nest, remain in the bag. In the second case, the top of the bag is attached with tape to the surface on which the nest hangs and left in this position for several hours. In both cases, the insects die within a few hours, after which they are thrown away along with the nest.
Peaceful coexistence
Some summer residents, knowing that striped predators destroy garden pests, do not touch the hive with wasps, hoping that the neighborhood will be fruitful for both parties.
Indeed, wasps will catch small insects, but they will also spoil the harvest by feeding on the juice of ripened sweet berries and fruits. They will not ignore the host’s table, constantly trying to profit from something tasty. And attempts to ward off annoying sweet tooths can result in painful bites.
So you shouldn’t hope to get along with wasps in your dacha; the fragile peace can be disrupted at any moment.
