We don’t very often get a chance to see a hornets nest as they tend to build them in cavities or cracks in the wall, so when I visited a client with a hornet problem last week, I was quite surprised to see a fully formed nest in the middle of the loft space. Again, doing a hornet control treatment as late as November is also pretty rare, but with the position of the nest well into the loft and also so unusually mild weather, the occupants of the nest were still very much alive and kicking!

This short video shows the remains of the hornets nest – unfortunately I never had the video camera with me to show it in situ – and we had to kill all the hornets before we could remove it, so quite a bit of damage occurred in getting it out. Despite this, it shows the amazing structure very clearly and is still in pretty good shape.

Hornets nests are significantly smaller in numbers than wasp nests – the average wasp nest is about 5 to 10 thousand wasps, where as the average hornets nest is about 500 tops. Hornets feed mostly on insects and at night, however if you ever disturb a hornets nest – get out of there quickly. They are very protective and aggressive to any attacks and a sting is not only painful, but potentially very dangerous – nest removal should only be attempted by a professional pest control company like Rapid Pest Control.

As a side line, one night we watched a hornet attack a moth and kill it when it was flying around a lamp on the table outside – it took this moth on the wing like a hawk and simply landed on the table and ate this moth. One of our guests was totally freaked out by it all but he hornet was completely oblivious to us and just went about its business.

Anyway, all wasp and hornets nests are pretty much dead now so its time to service all the wasp control gear, dry clean the not so white wasp suit and put everything back into storage now until next season. Over the season we attended hundreds of wasp problems in the Newbury area, the worst house having 11 nests in and around the house – mainly because they failed to treat the problem of the previous year.

We are now moving towards rat and mouse problems with the weather turning as well as rabbit problems - ferreting is really just kicking off, so summer is now offically over at Rapid Pest Control headquarters!

If you have a pest problem, contact Rapid Pest Control now via the website or call Newbury 01635 247192 anytime for a fast and reliable pest control service in the Berkshire area.

With the number of calls increasing for hornet nest problems, I took the opportunity of a really nice day and videoed a quite large hornets nest in the dormer window of a house in Thatcham. I found this nest when attending a call next door to this property- basically the hornets were coming into the care home and causing some concern to the residents there, but no nest could be found. I was called in to find the nest and deal with it.

I did a thorough inspection of the care home and could not see any activity, so the best thing to do is just sit and watch. After 10 minutes or so, I saw some hornets flying about, so just followed them to the nest – next door!

So having chatted to the neighbour (who had not noticed it) they decided the right thing to do was treat the hornets nest immediately, especially as the hornets were causing issues next door.

Now hornets are not aggressive and normally have high level nests, keeping themselves to themselves. They hunt at night and in the day, so seeing them at night coming into the light to catch moths is reasonably common. Getting one trapped in the kitchen is quite scary and they do get the hump and attack after a while - especially if you have tried to spray them or swat them!

I keep saying, DO NOT try to deal with a hornets nest yourself – they will sting and they do pack one hell of a punch – leave it to the experts and definitely DO NOT poke the nest (yes some people actually do!!).

If you think you have a hornets nest or a wasp nest, contact us now or call 01635 247192 for a fast and cost effective service.

As the Wasp season moves into full swing, we start getting the dreaded Hornets Nest calls. This week I have treated quite a few and each one was in a really tricky place.

So how do you know if you have a Hornets Nest? Well firstly, they are about 4- 5 times bigger than a wasp, the numbers are much fewer, and then there is the noise – it sounds like a helicopter coming in to land!

I would suggest that even the most battle hardened DIY Wasp nest destroyer does not attempt to do a Hornets Nest! When annoyed, they are just plain mean….and take no prisoners!!

One particularly nasty one this week was on a roof where the building had an extension, so to get to it you first had to go onto the flat roof, then with crawling boards and a second ladder go up one more story, to another gutter walk way. The client has been up here many times and had the route off to a tee, but when the Hornets use this as a runway to the nest, which was tucked up under the tiles out of view, its a different matter.

Having looked at this route, I decided that this nest was probably accessible from within the loft space, so before starting any Indiana Jones manoeuvres over the roof, I checked out the nest access from inside. Sure enough, there was a good portion of the nest clearly visible but the loft void was extremely small so access was also a bit of a problem.

So I decided that I would do it from both the inside and the outside to make sure it was fully treated. As I stuck the lance into the nest from the loft, they got a little angry and started to come for me, so a quick exit from the loft was in order. Then up onto the roof. By now, they were very angry, so thankfully my trusted extension poles did their job so I didn’t have to get too close.

I do feel a little sorry for Hornets as they do get a lot of bad press. They are pretty docile in comparison to wasps and don’t make a nuisance of themselves really – but if you touch the nest – watch out as they pack a serious punch. They still need to be controlled, so if you have a Hornets Nest, please contact us so we can sort it out for you.