Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: AlaninCarlisle on May 28, 2017, 12:52
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I broke off from cutting the front lawn this morning to go do some weeding in the surrounding shrubbery. I disturbed a wasps nest, mistook the first sting for a rose-thorn, didn't get out quick enough and have a total of 4 stings, one on the ankle, two on the hand and one on my foot. One little so and so got into my shoe under the flap at the front. How can little things like that inflict so much pain?
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And the moral of the story is------------ weed more often, :lol:
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No, the moral of the story is that some time this afternoon, I'll mark the entrance to the underground nest with a cane and then tonight, once it's dark and they're all snugly tucked up in bed, there will be euthanasia using my own patented fluid
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Do you have to? They have a role to play in the ecology of the woodland, and if you could leave the weeding and that bit of the shrubbery in peace, they could get on with it.
I know they hurt (if it was me it would be A&E time) but you don't need revenge!
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Not revenge, I have 4 grandkids, 6, 4 & 3 years old and the baby at 4 months. The crying after being nettle-stung is bad enough.............
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I'm with you Alan, get rid of them.
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Wait untill its dark and the wasp's are in the nest shine a torch in the hole and you should see
some wasp at the entrance, move away wrap a bit of rag around a strong bit of wood soak it in petrol
then hammer it into the hole, and walk away have a look mid morning and they will all be stone dead
and dispose the wood and rag,,
How do i know this well in our teens we use to go out looking for wasp nests mark them a stick and bit of rag
then do the above when we went back we dug them out, we wanted the grubs in the nest for chub fishing in the
weir pools on the river thames at Sheperton Middlesexmmmthe good old days.
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Would that be 4 star or unleaded, :lol: :lol:
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That's more or less what I've been doing for the past thirty years since we moved here to this wasps' Paradise, although my method of application of the euthanasia liquor is a bit cruder than yours
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Would that be 4 star or unleaded, :lol: :lol:
No - it's diesel, as in des'll fix 'em! :lol:
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Very good Goosegirl, I like it. :lol: :lol:
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And we expect the Indians to be tolerant of tigers ! :nowink:
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Nest entrance staked out with a tennis ball on a cane ready for the midnight slaughter
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How cruel is all I can say.
Leave them be and they will not harm anymore.
A wasp does some good in our world, not like our real enemies slugs and snails.
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Slugs and snails do good by recycling vegetation, which is about all wasps do, except they're recycling insects that have already recycled the vegetation. Allegedly anyway, although I've yet to see a wasp with a greenfly in its mouth
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I have watched wasps clear a cabbage of butterfly catterpillars , not a single one left as i checked!
It would be better if wasps could hawk down the adults before they got to lay their eggs .
There is an idea for a mini drone application *, it would just need to put 'em through the rotors ! :)
* patt pending ;)
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How cruel is all I can say.
Leave them be and they will not harm anymore.
A wasp does some good in our world, not like our real enemies slugs and snails.
Slugs and snails do help with decomposition of old vegetation. It is a shame that we have the mentality of slaughter anything that causes even a minor inconvenience, but I guess that is the issue with modern life, we have become ignorant and detached from the natural world, and see the natural world as something to be controlled or eliminated.
One reason slugs and snails cause problems is to do with selective breeding. Plants in the wild have evolved defense mechanisms such as bitter tasting compounds to deter animals and insects from eating them. The crops we eat are heavily human-modified versions of those wild plants. To make crops taste better, we breed the bitterness out, then complain when every slug, snail, aphid and pigeon wants to tuck into the sweet gourmet cuisine.
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well, I relented on killing them and here we are, four months later and they are still going in and out of the hole in the border. And I've learned from the experience by avoiding getting stung again.
Here's a question. The thousand inhabitants of that nest must be close to the end of the natural life cycle and I'm keen to clear it out and replant. They are still active. Is now a humane and natural-ish time to euthanase them?
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I find wasps at this time of year are worse than ever, they seem intent on stinging.
I suppose the weather will have to get quite a bit colder for them to die naturally.
I have no patience so would try to get rid of if I needed to cultivate.
having said that I have plenty to harvest yet and clearing and putting the plot to bed is a long way off.
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well, I relented on killing them and here we are, four months later and they are still going in and out of the hole in the border. And I've learned from the experience by avoiding getting stung again.
Here's a question. The thousand inhabitants of that nest must be close to the end of the natural life cycle and I'm keen to clear it out and replant. They are still active. Is now a humane and natural-ish time to euthanase them?
As long as you do not kill the queens it is not genocide ! ;)
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Shows how much warmer it is in your corner than in the Midlands. Or wasps have gone pretty much - I found one very lethargic individual yesterday, but I doubt it made it through the night.
The queen will still be in the nest if it is active, but the young queens will have flown in all probability. Monday's bad weather might well be the end for them.