Wasps nest

[alison]

My ivy has been growing so much over the front of the house that it had begun to cover my bedroom window completely so I needed to get it cut back. I had waited as the birds seemed to be nesting in it so once they had all finished I then waited for my son to finally decide he would get it done for me. As he climbed up to the end of the house he was surrounded by wasps and we found that we had a wasps nest in the top corner of the house. Luckily our eldest son has been a pest controlller so he came down armed with his beekeepers suits and the necessary solutions to kill the wasps. I hated killing them but didn't know what else to do.
We got some looks from the neighbours as I stood at the bottom of the ladder with a beekeepers suit on whilst my son was at the top spraying the nest. Suddenly loads of wasps appeared from nowhere to try to get inside the nest but they knew something was wrong and they just kept circling and moving near the opening but turning away as they got close. They didn't try to attack or anything but just kept coming back and forth. My son said that what was happening was the ones inside the nest had sent out signals they were under attack and the other wasps had come to help. It must have been very disturbing for them to not be able to get into their home and I felt so sad for them. Especially as I was the one instigating their demise. He didn't think there was a queen inside as it was so near the end of the wasps cycle that he felt that they would have been the drones sent away from another nest but I guess we will never know if that was the case or not.
Anyway we hadn't heard any birds or seen them in the ivy for a while but as soon as my son started to spray suddenly one then two, three four five....ten sparrows all shot out of the ivy in different directions. That made ne feel even worse as I was cutting back their home as well . But it looks a lot better now and I can finally see out of my bedroom window again.

[kaz]

Alison... I would feel exactly the same as you. It must be a weight off your mind though now the job is done. Lucky you having a willing son... Scott is just dreadful when it comes to helping mum out

[alison]

We are lucky really as Darren is always willing to help and I often assign his help elsewhere without his knowledge which I guess is a bit naughty of me really but he is usually okay about it. But then of course we practically have his children living with us I don't think that any of them went home for the 6 week holidays and often we had four children staying. We didn't have a single day without children staying over. Our middle son Ian is not about as much even though he lives the nearest so he gets away with not having to help out. Our eldest son will do things but you often have to say you will pay him and then we barter over the price. Normally it is just what he thinks he can get away with because I am sure that he would do it for nothing really. He was the one who came to do the wasps nest and although he did it free (and so he should as he loves us and we do everything for free, that is how they have been brought up) I did give him petrol money as he has to travel about 40 - 50 minutes down the A1 as he lives in Catterick.
The Ivy does look a lot better now and the window cleaner was very kind to try to get the suckers off the frame which he says he will do each time until they are off.
I have been out tidying up the garden and planting up cyclamans in the front garden to give it a colourful boost of pinks and reds. The only problem for us is of course that our refuse collectors are on strike and the garden waste is already full to overflowing in the brown wheeliebin so I have had to just put the new stuff next to the bin and hope that on wednesday they do send out a collection.

[kaz]

You need to light a bonfire girl

[alison]

It might come to that yet. It was a great idea of the council to provide the brown bins as I hated throwing all the garden stuff away and I really haven't got enough space for a compost bin. They now do all the work of composting and then sell it back to us !!

[alison]

Just an update on the sparrows really. Hurray I have seen them back in the Ivy so they didn't abandon it altogether. It must have been a big shock to them though, but all is well and I don't feel so bad now at cutting back their home.