How to deal with wasps on the balcony

The owner of any apartment at least once in his life may find himself in a situation where wasps are found on his balcony or loggia. Occasionally, wasps accidentally flying onto the balcony in most cases do not pose a problem - there is no point in fighting them, just open the window and set them free.

Another thing is when these uninvited guests decide to settle here (or somewhere nearby) by building their nest. In this case, the wasps on the balcony begin to pose a serious threat, because they are unlikely to indifferently endure people who constantly go out into the "fresh air" and disturb them. Very soon, unpleasant neighbors will begin to sting all household members indiscriminately: animals, children, and yourself, in the end.

This means only one thing - the fight against wasps on the balcony should begin immediately. As soon as you notice that meetings with these insects have already become constant, you should immediately look for ways to get rid of them, without waiting for the growth of the hornet's nest.

In order to get the wasps out of the balcony once and for all, you first need to try to find their nest.Moreover, it is far from always located in plain sight and directly inside the loggia or balcony - there are a number of nuances here ...

As a rule, wasps have settled on the balcony since autumn. A young female finds a secluded place for wintering among the rubble of old things, and in the spring - with the onset of heat - she begins to build a nest here or under the ceiling. In the event that the owner of the apartment misses this moment even a little, it will be already difficult to get close to the dwelling of the insects - there will be too many wasps and they will already be able to defend themselves.

Most often, wasps on the balcony start:

• under the ceiling inside;
• under the eaves outside;
• outside under the windowsill;
• in pipes for draining rainwater;
• between walls and sheathing - both inside and outside;
• with a lot of trash - right in the middle of it.

Despite the variety of places suitable for building a nest, finding its location is usually not so difficult: to understand where to look for the dwelling of insects, you just need to sit still for half an hour on the balcony and watch exactly where the wasps fly. If such observations did not help, then most likely the nest is located somewhere outside, and the wasps need to be observed from the window.

But you should not categorically start dismantling the rubbish on the balcony or move the lining in search of a nest: wasps can suddenly attack. For a successful outcome of the fight against insects, it is necessary to at least roughly imagine the location of their nest in advance, but you need to look for it carefully.

On a note

The nest of wasps at the very beginning looks like a small cone-shaped grayish cast with honeycombs, attached to the ceiling or wall. It is not visible at all in cracks or pipes, but it is noticeable how insects constantly fly in and out of there.

In the photo - nests of wasps at different stages of construction:

 

Wasp nest on the balcony: the main methods of destruction

So, let's assume that the first task is successfully completed: either the wasp nest has already been found, or there is a clear idea where it is. Now we need to destroy it. Moreover, it is to destroy, and not humanely remove and carry away, because in the latter case there is a high risk of suffering from bites (with a large number of them, it can even be life-threatening).

Important!
Just kicking the wasps out of the balcony, waving, for example, a newspaper, will not work in any way: they will defend their nest to the last. Insects can either be destroyed or capitulated and leave the balcony in their power.

How can you get rid of a wasp nest on the balcony? There are several effective ways that are worth dwelling on in detail.

The first - one of the longest ways to fight - to poison the wasps themselves. It will take several days (or even weeks), but it is well suited if the owners rarely visit the balcony.

To remove insects in this way, a simple bowl, tin can or plastic bottle is taken, in the walls of which large holes are cut. Half a glass of beer is poured inside the makeshift feeder and honey is added (you can do without beer, the main thing here is sweet bait). Half a teaspoon of borax or boric acid is also added here (they play the role of a poison), after which all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

At night, when the wasps are inactive, a feeder with poisoned bait is placed near their nest, and the door to the balcony is tightly closed.If after a few days all the bait is eaten and there are still live wasps left, you will need to add another portion of the mixture to the feeder.

Practice shows that sooner or later (as a rule, it takes a week or two), all wasps, without exception, die. By the way, they also feed their larvae and the uterus with poisoned bait.

This breeding method can also be used if the wasps start in the attic.

The second method of dealing with wasps on the balcony is burning the nest. This method, for obvious reasons, is extremely fire hazardous (the nest will burn with a big flame), so it is reasonable to use it only in cases where the dwelling hangs, for example, on the outer concrete wall of the balcony or under the ceiling away from plastic lining and wallpaper.

Attention!

Burning a hornet's nest is the most effective method of destruction, but at the same time the most dangerous. You can not use it if there is paper (including wallpaper), wood and furniture, plastic, textiles, carpets nearby.

In order to implement this method of getting rid of wasps within the balcony, in the evening you can pour gasoline or kerosene into a bottle of household chemicals, and close the container itself with a lid with a spray bottle. The nest of wasps is almost paper, and therefore it flares up quickly enough - you just need to spray it a little with a combustible composition at night and immediately set it on fire.

The third way - quite fast and fireproof, but requiring some skill - is drowning the nest in water.

It is worth noting that this method of dealing with wasps has one feature: the insect dwelling must be attached in the middle of a flat ceiling, otherwise it will be problematic to implement the method.

To remove the wasps from the balcony by this method, a bucket is taken, filled to the brim with water and at night rises so that its edges rest against the ceiling, and the nest is completely submerged in water. Within a few hours, the water container should fit snugly against the ceiling, therefore, as a rule, it is supported from below by some object suitable in height - for example, an ordinary stepladder.

Attention!

Before you remove the bucket, you should still play it safe and knock on it with a hard object. If the buzzing of the wasps is not heard after that, it means that they died. Otherwise, lowering the bucket is very dangerous!

By the way, this method can also be successfully used in a country cottage, if, for example, a nest of hornets appears there - the closest relatives of wasps. In addition, along with the first method of destruction, the third can also be used to remove wasps from the attic.

And finally, the last of the most effective ways to exterminate wasps is to use insecticidal agents against them. This method is very effective, but somewhat laborious.

A dense and necessarily sealed (without holes) plastic bag is taken, into which a little of any powerful wasp remedy is poured (you can read about them below). At night, the bag is put on the nest, and the neck of the plastic trap is attached with tape to the surface around it so that the wasps cannot get out. Insects will die within a few hours, so you should not rush to check the effectiveness of this method.

After the destruction of wasps in any way, in order to avoid unpleasant consequences, it is always necessary to check if there are any living insects left in the nest. To do this, it is enough to knock on it with a long stick or a metal rod.

 

Means for baiting wasps

Probably the first thing that comes to mind when wasps start on the balcony is their extermination with insecticidal chemicals.

To date, quite a lot of such drugs are being produced, and some remedies for domestic insects can also be used as a poison. For example, here are some of them:

• Karbofos is a relatively inexpensive, but effective drug (although it has a strong unpleasant odor);
• Get is a powerful modern insecticide that is odorless and relatively safe for humans;
• Tetrix or Cucaracha are some of the most powerful remedies, but they are not easy to find on sale, they are expensive and smell very strong;
• Sinuzan;
• Microcin;
• Minap 22;
• Delta Zone;
• Cucaracha;
• Executioner.

And etc.

An important point that you should pay special attention to is that liquid concentrates diluted in water for subsequent spraying in the form of a spray, or ready-to-use aerosols, are better suited to combat wasps on a balcony.

But the powders here, alas, will not work (you will not sprinkle them on the nest; but the powders can be suitable for preparing poisoned baits).

In order to drive out wasps from a balcony or loggia, you can also use some standard garden preparations to protect plants from pests.

If you like the option of preparing poisoned baits, then for this you can add all the same insecticides to the sweet syrup: Get, Delta Zone, Cucaracha. Cockroach gels are also good, which you can simply anoint in several places near the nest. Adult wasps will eat the poison themselves, as well as bring it into their home to feed the larvae and queen.

 

Safety rules for the destruction of wasps on the balcony

The fight against wasps on the balcony, no matter what method is used for this purpose, is still not a safe event. Insects are ready to defend the nest even at the cost of their own lives, and for humans, multiple bites can be fraught with serious consequences.

That is why, in order to avoid an attack, all work on removing wasps should be carried out:

• in the most closed clothing, gloves and, preferably, a beekeeper's mask;
• at night, when the wasps are inactive and have poor vision;
• quickly so that the insects do not have time to react;
• with the door to the apartment open, so that in the event of an attack by wasps, a retreat path is always ready.

If something did not go according to plan, and the wasps began to attack, you should immediately run into the room and close the door behind you. After half an hour or an hour, the insects will calm down, and the attempt can be repeated.

 

How to get rid of a wasp that accidentally flew onto the balcony?

If a wasp flew onto your closed balcony by accident, you should not kill it: it will not cause any harm, but on the street it will be of great use.

A single wasp is very easy to catch and release. To do this, it is enough to take an empty matchbox, cover it with a wasp on glass or a wall and, without moving the boxes away from the surface, close it. Open it, respectively, you need already outside the window so that the insect can fly away.

Similarly, you can catch a wasp with an empty glass jar. Sometimes you don’t even need to use a lid, but just quickly put the wasp jar out of the window.

 

What to do so that the wasps on the balcony will no longer start

As you may have noticed, breeding wasps is a rather laborious process.Therefore, as in many other areas, it is much easier to prevent a potential problem than to eliminate it after the fact.

To prevent the appearance of wasps on the balcony, you just need to follow some simple rules:

• do not allow accumulation of old unnecessary things on the loggia or balcony, among which wasps successfully hide or find convenient places for nests;
• close all the cracks between the walls and the cladding;
• install a thin grate outside the pipe to drain the water;
• if the balcony is open, visit it regularly and inspect the ceilings and walls.

In general, wasps simply cannot physically settle on well-groomed, clean and glazed balconies. So draw certain conclusions and always keep clean not only your apartment, but also your balcony!

 

The original way to get rid of wasps

 

Interesting video: wasps in the house on the balcony

 

Why wasps bite and how not to become their victim