Wasp nests
Wasps at the Café or a Nest Nearby?
From August onwards, worker wasps leave the nest in search of sugar, and a street full of pastries, fruit and sweet drinks is an easy source. A few wasps at a table do not mean a nest in your home. A steady stream of wasps going into and out of the same gap, day after day, does. How to tell if you have a wasp nest explains what to watch for, and why wasps are more aggressive in late summer explains the change in their behaviour.
Where Nests Are Found in Golders Green
High Edwardian roofs
The larger Edwardian houses have tall roofs, gables, dormers and bay windows with their own small roofs. Wasps get in under loose tiles, at gaps in the fascia and where a bay roof meets the wall. The nest may be in the main loft or in a small void above a bay. In a converted house, the top-floor flat usually notices first.
The rear roofs of the parade
Behind the shops, the buildings often step down to flat or low-pitched roofs over the back of the shop, with the flat windows above. Wasps nest in gaps at the edges of these roofs, in old vents and in the brickwork, close to someone's kitchen or bedroom window. If you are in a flat above a shop and wasps are coming past your window, look down at the roof below.
Trees and hedges near the Heath
Gardens backing towards Golders Hill Park and the Heath Extension have mature trees and hedges, and wasps sometimes nest in them or in the ground. Where wasps build nests covers all the usual spots.
What to Do Now
- Keep windows near the nest closed, especially bedroom windows
- Keep children and pets away from the entrance
- Do not block the hole, which can send wasps into the rooms inside
- Do not try to reach a high nest from a ladder
- If you run a café or bakery, cover sweet food and clear tables promptly
Whether it is safe to remove a nest yourself explains the risks. If you are stung and feel unwell, speak to a pharmacist or GP, and call 999 for signs of a severe allergic reaction.
Booking and Around the Visit
When you book wasp nest removal, tell us where the wasps are going in and roughly how high it is. If you are in a flat, say which floor and whether you can reach the roof or loft. If the nest sits above a shop's back roof, let the business know, because access may be through their yard. Keep the window nearest the nest shut for a while afterwards. How quickly activity dies down depends on the nest and where it is, and how long treatment takes to work explains why. If the nest is still active within 30 days, we come back at no extra cost. Whether wasps return explains what to expect.
If you run a café or bakery
Foraging wasps at a counter are not something treatment of a nest elsewhere will stop, because they may come from several nests across a wide area. Covering cakes and fruit, clearing outside tables quickly and keeping bin lids shut reduces them. If there is a nest on your own building, in a vent, a wall or the roof over the back of the shop, that can be treated, and it is the same £90 fixed price per nest.
Other Things in the Roof
Old wasp nests do not get reused, but the same gap may attract a new queen next spring. Birds and squirrels use the same roofs: noise in the loft could be squirrels in Golders Green, and old birds' nests can bring carpet beetles. For wasps across the rest of the borough, see Wasp Nest Removal Barnet.
