Why Are Wasps Flying Into Your Millbrook Home? Common Causes and Solutions
A garden with fruit trees, compost heaps or a vegetable plot offers wasps plenty to eat. Managing those sources keeps them away from your back door.
The garden as a feeding ground
Wasps do not know where your garden ends and your kitchen begins. If the lawn is scattered with fallen apples, the compost heap has a pile of fruit peelings and the veg patch has split tomatoes, the garden becomes a feeding station. The wasps that gather there are only a few steps from your back door.
From midsummer into autumn, as natural food gets scarcer for the colony, these sources become even more attractive. Fruit that ferments gives off strong sweet smells, and wasps drink the juice greedily.
Treating the garden as part of the house, rather than a separate space, is the first step to keeping insects out.
A vegetable plot gives the same effect on a smaller scale. Split tomatoes, soft pumpkin skins and squashed strawberries all leak sugary juice, and wasps find them within hours. Picking produce when it is ripe, rather than leaving it on the plant, takes away much of the temptation.
Windfalls and fruit trees
Pick up fallen fruit once a day if you can, and certainly every two days. Put it in a closed container or a lidded bin, and not in an open wheelbarrow beside the path. Fruit left for birds and hedgehogs should be moved well away from the house.
If a tree is heavy with ripe fruit, pick it earlier than you otherwise would. Damaged fruit with bird pecks or splits draws wasps first, so remove those fruits first.
When picking, check the fruit before reaching into branches. Wasps feeding inside a ripe plum are hard to see until they are on your hand.
A bowl of fruit juice or beer left in a shallow dish at the bottom of the garden is sometimes used to draw wasps away. This can work as a distraction, but it can also bring more wasps to the area, so it is best placed well away from where people sit, and only if you are comfortable doing so.
Netting over soft fruit protects it from birds, but it also traps wasps that get caught in the mesh. Check netting regularly and wear gloves when releasing insects.
Compost heaps and food waste
- Bury fruit peelings and food scraps in the middle of the heap, not on the surface.
- Use a lid or a thick layer of dry material over fresh additions.
- Keep the compost bin away from the back door and the washing line.
- Empty the kitchen caddy into the heap in the evening, when fewer wasps are flying.
Open heaps in a sunny spot are the worst offenders, since the warmth speeds fermentation and spreads the scent.
Rotting fruit in a wheelie bin by the back door is another source. Bag it first and tie the top, then put it in the bin and close the lid fully. A bin that is cleaned out with a hose and a little detergent every few weeks smells much less.
Between the garden and the kitchen
Think of the route a wasp takes from the garden source into the house. It usually follows the scent upwind through the nearest open door. A door screen, a table of drinks moved to the shade and a bin at the bottom of the garden instead of at the door all help.
Wipe down outdoor furniture after meals, particularly if you have been eating soft fruit or drinking cider. Wasps spend hours on a sticky table, and they bring their relatives when they return.
If you feed garden birds with fat balls or sugar-based food, put them out of reach of the house for the late summer period.
Look at the washing line too. Fruit drinks spilt on towels or children’s clothes leave a sweet residue that can draw a wasp from several metres away. Check items for insects as you bring them in and shake them out outside first.
Soft drinks and ice lollies left in children’s hands add another trail from the garden. A wasp attracted to a lolly will often follow the child to the back door.
Spotting a nest in a garden full of wasps
A garden with a feast on offer will have wasps whether or not there is a nest on your plot. The key is to distinguish the feeders from the ones that travel in a line. Wasps feeding on fruit wander and hover. Wasps from a nest travel in a determined line and vanish into a gap, a hedge or a hole in the ground.
Stay back, observe from an upstairs window if you can, and write down what you see. If you notice a patch of lawn or bank where wasps keep disappearing, do not dig or mow near it.
Do not assume that a quiet patch of ground is harmless. Holes in banks, lawns and under paving can lead to underground nests, and the colony defends the entrance. If you notice wasps going in and out of the ground, note the location, keep children and animals away and ring for advice.
Booking in Millbrook
When a nest is confirmed, treatment costs £70 (fixed), and £30 for a further nest on the same property. There is no call-out charge. We always confirm the price on the phone before the technician arrives, and the only thing that might change it is a nest that needs special access equipment, in which case we tell you first.
Call 07852 111 437 or use the online form. The Millbrook technician receives a text and email alert seven days a week, and same-day, evening and weekend visits are available for both homes and businesses.
It helps to tell us whether the activity is near fruit trees, a compost heap or an allotment shed, since it indicates where to look.
Wasps on your property in Millbrook?
Fixed price £70 per nest, no call-out charge, same-day service available.