Despite embracing an unruly approach to gardening, I am compelled to battle our hedge when the path becomes impassable. While cutting back some beech recently, my partner yelled out that he’d been stung. Moments later, we spotted a football-sized wasps’ nest hanging from a branch of our dogwood. Within minutes, I was nursing a sting of my own and hatching a relocation plan.
Being a former beekeeper, I’m fairly confident around stinging insects. So come nightfall I put on my old beekeeping suit and carefully placed a compost bag around the nest before cutting off the branch it hung from and placing the whole thing in a secure box. We nervously walked the package into the woods, opened the box and bag, then ran home. The internet assures me that the wasps will be temporarily baffled but eventually set about making a new home – far from my garden, hopefully.
Now, I’m not recommending this approach to ill-equipped gardeners. But the experience made me realise that the prejudice I’ve long held against wasps (developed while keeping bees – they are known to attack hives to eat the honey and the honeybees) was starting to come undone.
I think we all ought to consider being a little kinder to the oft-maligned wasp. They’re an important part of our ecosystem and we shouldn’t let our fear overwhelm our instincts as nature-friendly gardeners (but remain necessarily careful). Wasp populations are declining in a similar manner to honeybees. There are thousands of species of wasp in the UK, the majority of which don’t cause us any bother, apart from the most familiar ones – the nine or so species of so-called social wasps – whose ability to sting repeatedly is fair cause for panic.
Nonetheless, wasps have much to offer in the veg patch, keeping various creatures that bother our plants (sap-sucking insects and cabbage white caterpillars) in check, and contributing to the pollination of our crops as they forage for sweet nectar.
The best way to manage wasps without turning to toxic sprays is to discourage them from making a nest in your home, so it’s good practice to fill any holes in your roof, loft, garage or shed. Having said that, those little spaces are vital for invertebrates such as masonry bees, so consider placing bee hotels, bricks and pieces of wood with holes drilled in them around your garden to offer solitary insects somewhere else to nest.
If you do find a hanging nest, pest-control professionals can remove it humanely. And burning a citronella candle in the garden or using a citronella spray can repel these stinging insects, as they tend to dislike smoke and strong citrus smells.
