Wall Eating Wasps

Daisy Turnip writes.....

We’ve had a wasps nest in the eaves of our house for quite a while now. They haven’t bothered us so we were quite happy to leave it there.

At the weekend I walked into the bedroom and could hear this strange noise – a little bit like rain drops gently falling on the window ledge. Strangely, for the middle of this English summer time, the weather was glorious outside and not a drop of rain could be either seen or felt. To my horror I realised it was the wasps nest behind the wall!

Monday morning I rang the pest control team at our local council who informed me they’d love to come and get rid of it for us and would equally love to charge us £50 for the pleasure of doing so. I begrudgingly agreed and was then informed, “Someone will call you in 24 hours to arrange a visit”

No one called.

This morning I went into the spare room and could seriously hear the wasps behind the wall. I walked right up to the wall and then spotted that part of the wall – about the size of a 10 pence piece was coming away from the rest of the wall. Adrenalin rush extraordinaire! Oh my God, the wasps are coming through the wall I thought. Then I calmed down and thought this couldn’t be so.

I rang the pest control team and asked why no one had called and what had happened to the visit. I then, slightly embarrassed by asking the question, asked if they could eat their way through a wall, “oh yes, came the reply” aaarrrrrggggghhh, “Would you make that call out an urgent one then please?” I screeched as I quickly ran upstairs and pushed back the plaster into the wall and carefully ripped off a whole tape of sellotape, trying to seal the broken plaster back into the wall.

Luckily, the lovely Neil turned up an hour or so later and gave me all the gory stories behind the life and times of being a ‘wasp man’ – twice this week he’s been on call outs where the wasps have eaten their way through the plaster board of both a wall and a ceiling. Talking and writing about it is seriously giving me the heebygeebies!

Anyway, Neil sprayed his potion into the eaves and then snatched a cheque from me and said, “All should be fine within the next few hours, you might see minor activity for the next couple of weeks, but if there’s anything more after 14 days, give me a call and I’ll be back” – thanks Arnie of the wasp world!

I’ll do nothing about the wall and the sellotape until a fortnight then? Any visitors can just assume we’re holding up the wall with sellotape. I’m not going to mention the wasps!

I later rang a colleague, who had slept in the room only just over a week ago. She’s now receiving counselling for mental trauma. She too thought she was going mad as she thought she could hear rain but when she looked out of the window could only see sunshine. In her head, she can now permanently hear the sound of wasps buzzing behind the wall at the side of the bed!!

Biodiversity in my eaves – you can stick it thanks!!