The Deep Eaves of a Metroland Semi
Stand on the drive and look up at the point where the tiles stop. On a house of this age the roof oversails the wall by a good margin, and the underside of that overhang is boarded in timber that has swelled and shrunk through ninety-odd summers. Where a board has pulled back from the brickwork, or the mortar fillet along the tile edge has crumbled, there is a slot a few millimetres wide opening straight into the space above the bedroom ceiling. Nothing about it is visible from the ground; what gives it away is a thin, steady thread of insects arriving at one fixed point and dropping into it. Where wasps build nests around houses runs through the other openings on a roof of this kind.
When the colony is inside the roof itself
Past the soffit the insects are in the roof void, and a nest there hangs from a rafter or sits down on the insulation between the joists. From the landing you may hear a dry, papery rustle overhead on a warm afternoon, or find one or two insects circling the bathroom light or bumping at the loft hatch. Do not open the hatch to have a look with a torch, and do not put a foot into a loft where insects are already coming through the boards. What to do about a wasp nest in the loft covers the sensible next step. Scrabbling and gnawing overhead at first light, with no insects about at all, is a squirrel rather than a nest.
The Garage, the Shed and the Boundary Hedge
Preston houses come with more outbuilding than most: a garage at the side of the drive, a shed at the end of the garden, sometimes both. A garage roof that is felt over open rafters gives a colony a dry, still ceiling to hang from, and the shelf of paint tins below is rarely touched between one spring and the next. Air bricks and open perpend joints low in a garage wall lead into the same kind of void, which is what can wasps nest inside walls? describes. In a mature boundary hedge a nest is usually discovered by whoever is cutting it, at the worst possible moment; if the shears go quiet and the household comes indoors quickly, that is the reason.
Nests in a Preston Lawn
Not every nest is up in the roof. An old mouse burrow, a hollow under a paving edge or the loose soil at the foot of a border will do just as well, and the first sign is insects skimming low across the grass to one dark hole. A mower or a strimmer passing over that hole brings a great many of them out at once, so stop cutting that part of the garden and keep children and pets off it until it has been dealt with. What to do about a nest in the ground explains how these differ from a nest in the building. Winged insects boiling out of the joints in the block paving for a single humid afternoon are not wasps at all but flying ants, and they need nothing doing to them.
Reaching the Nest From the Drive
Access is worth a sentence when you book, because it decides how the job is approached. Say which elevation the entrance is on and roughly how high, whether the drive is clear enough to work from, and whether the back garden is reached through a side gate, through the garage or only through the house. If the nest is in the roof void, mention whether the loft hatch is clear underneath and whether the loft is boarded. Keep the windows on that side shut in the meantime. Anyone in the house who has reacted badly to a sting before should stay well away from the flight line, and signs of a severe allergic reaction after a sting mean calling 999.
What not to do while you wait
- Leave the opening exactly as you found it — a sealed soffit gap only makes the colony chew a fresh way out, which can be into the bedroom below
- Do not lean a ladder against the guttering for a closer look at the overhang
- Do not go up into the loft, and keep the hatch shut
- Do not pull the garage or shed apart to find the nest, and leave stored things where they stand
- Do not mow, strim or cut the hedge anywhere near an entrance
The days that follow
Insects still turning up at the opening afterwards are normal and are not a sign that nothing has changed. Keep the nearest windows closed for a while, leave the gap unblocked, and stay out of the shed or off that side of the garden for a few days. An old nest is not taken over the following spring, so one behind a soffit or on the insulation can be left where it is. Should it still be active within 30 days, the return visit costs nothing, and will wasps return after treatment? sets out what to expect in between.
Shortening the List of Openings Before Next Spring
Once the season is over and the nest is dead, the roofline is worth an hour of somebody's attention. Our Brent wasp advice goes wider, Wasp Nest Removal Brent covers the whole borough, and neighbouring Kenton has the same interwar rooflines.
- Have a roofer re-fix loose soffit and fascia boards and make good the mortar along the tile edge
- Ask for the felt at the eaves to be checked at the same time, since a torn edge lets insects past the boarding
- In late spring, look under the overhang, along the garage rafters and into the hedge for a small grey paper cup no bigger than a plum, and ring rather than knock it down
- Keep the garage side door and the shed shut through the spring
- Bins on the drive with the lids properly down, and cans rinsed before they go out, give late-season insects less to come for
