It is still a little early for a lot wasps, wasp nests are still small but the numbers will be growing rapidly now.
As a pest Controller for 13 years, I have been stung hundreds of times by the blighters and bees, but wasps are a bugger, they hurt like a bitch and itch for days after!!, I hate them!!!
At work our poor little pest contractor has been run off his feet for the past several weeks - however, half the time when he gets there they turn out to bees & NOT wasps
Lardhelmet, that is soo common, you would never guess how many people would be insulted when I suggest that the problem sounds more like bees, "I know the difference between a wasp and a bee, I ain't bloody stupid mate" would usually be the response, but rest assured, it was always bees when I arrived and they were still charged £45.00 for the call out!!
The Hornets are in many ways harmless, they really are gentle giants, Ive only ever known one person to be stung by a hornet, he nearly died after going into anaphylactic shock. but generally leave them alone and they will leave you alone, one of my employees would destroy a hornet nest without any protection with hornets walking all over him, he never got stung once, he was braver than me!!!
I relocated a wasp nest this year, it was in the bottom of a tub of dead plants, when I turned out the tub, there was the nest. I moved it to a corner of the garden and put a couple of bits of broken pot over it for weather protection. Its lovely, when you go over there you can hear them humming.
I was watching CBBC yesterday and it showed that wasps are the biggest predator in nature for it`s size, killing all sorts of pests to feed the young in their nest. In future I shan`t kill them, but be thankful for them.
Woofgang, your wasps nest sounds to me a little more like cuckoo bees, nesting in rotten vegetation (very typical) also if you disturbed wasps like that you would have been badly stung!
it looked like a wasp nest and they mended/reconstructed it after I moved it. I am one of those people who don't tend to get stung although i have been.