Couple living on farm estate near Horsham plagued by 'record numbers' of wasps

Bernard Wiggins has had to call out pest controllers after discovering SIX wasp nests at his home in West Grinstead.

Experts say that each nest can host thousands of the insects.

"It’s early in the season, as I understand it,” said Bernard, “but I have five nests on various parts of the house and one on the garage.

“Six wasps nests is some kind of record, surely? I don’t know what is going on this year but there seem to be a lot of wasps around.”

He said the insects had got beneath tiles on his house and he had called out an expert to remove them. “I have been stung too many times by wasps to have any affinity with them,” he said.

The wasps seem to be proving true a warning given earlier this year by pest controllers that Britian’s wasp population would soar by 150 per cent in the warmer months.

According to experts at Waspinator, the number of wasps in the summer depends on how many queen wasps survive the winter and spring. The successful colonies will then produce a large number of wasps in the summer where a single wasp nest can have thousands of inhabitants.

Experts at pest control company Rentokil say that wasps make their nests from chewed wood pulp and saliva, giving them distinctive papery walls.

Nests are usually built in sheltered spots with easy access to the outside such as wall cavities, roof spaces, under eaves, in bird boxes, sheds or garages.

“At first, a wasp nest will start off very small, around the size of a golf ball or a walnut, when the queen wasp begins to build a nest in the spring,” says Rentokil. “During the summer months the nest will grow as the number of wasps increases. The nest can grow to the size of a football or larger.

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“It is best to treat a wasp nest earlier in the year before numbers increase and the wasps become more aggressive in late summer.”

The common wasp – Vespula vulgaris – and the German wasp – Vespula germanica – are the wasps people are most likely to see in their home.