Do Wasps Return to the Same Nest Every Year? A Guide for Adwick le Street and Cantley Gardens

You find a grey paper ball in the shed or under the eaves in November. Is it dangerous, will it be reoccupied, and what should you do with it?

You have found a papery nest in the cold months

It usually happens by chance. You are clearing the shed before Christmas, taking down a hanging basket or pruning a hedge, and there it is: a grey, papery ball the size of a football or larger, with a hole at the bottom and a layered, shell-like surface. It may have been there since summer without anybody noticing, or it may have appeared in a loft or garage that nobody visits.

The first question most people ask is whether the wasps will come back to it. The short answer is no. Wasp colonies are annual. When the cold arrives, the workers die and the colony comes to an end, and the nest is abandoned. It is a finished building, not a home waiting for its tenants.

Why the colony does not carry on

The life of a wasp nest follows a single season. A queen starts it in early April, depending on the weather, rears the first workers, and from then on the colony grows until it peaks in August, when a nest can hold as many as 2,000 wasps. In autumn the colony winds down. The workers die off as the temperature falls, and the nest has no further use.

New queens produced late in the year leave to find shelter for the winter, and in spring they each begin again by themselves. They build a fresh nest rather than moving into last year's. That is why the same gap under your eaves can host a nest in one year, none the next, and another a few years later without any wasp ever returning to the old structure.

This is useful to know when you are deciding what to do. There is no live colony in a nest found in the depths of winter, but you should still be careful if you are unsure whether it is truly abandoned.

Is it safe to handle?

In the middle of winter, a nest that has been hit by frost is very unlikely to hold active wasps. Even so, a sensible approach is to treat it with respect.

1. Look at it first. Are any wasps entering or leaving, even on a mild day? If so, it is not abandoned.
2. Do not break it open while it is inside a loft or cavity, where you may disturb dust, debris and the odd sleepy insect.
3. Wear gloves and avoid putting your face close to it.
4. Bag it, if it is loose, and place it in the outside bin.

If it is attached to a rafter, wall or the underside of a roof, you may prefer to leave it where it is until you have thought about the surroundings. Some people hope to keep an empty nest as a curiosity; there is no harm in that provided it is indeed empty.

If the nest is somewhere awkward, such as a high gable or deep in a roof void, do not climb up to examine it. A nest you cannot reach safely is a nest to leave alone for now, and photographs taken from the ground are a better way to look. Whether it is empty or not can be hard to judge from a distance, so ask for advice if you are unsure.

Why an old nest may still attract notice

Although old nests are not reoccupied, an abandoned structure can still tell you something. It shows that the spot was attractive to a queen: sheltered, dry and easy to reach. A cluster of rooftiles, a loose piece of fascia, an air brick with a gap or a crack in a wall may well appeal to another queen in a later spring.

Old nests can also draw the interest of other creatures. Birds and insects may pick at them, and they can collect dust. Beyond that, an empty nest in a space you use is simply untidy and may make you wary of what else is up there.

If you live in Adwick le Street, Cantley or the neighbouring villages, a quick tour of the outside of your home each February or March will show you where any gaps are. The moment to act on them is before the first queen goes house-hunting in April, and only once you are sure nothing is living inside.

One practical point is that a bare, empty nest is sometimes mistaken for a live one by neighbours, who may become anxious. A short explanation, and perhaps a photograph, tends to calm things down. In the same way, children are often fascinated by an old nest, and it is a good opportunity to explain, in simple terms, why we keep away from the real thing in summer.

Photographing the nest and noting its position is a useful habit. If another nest appears in or near the same place next year, you will have a record of what was there and when, which makes it easier to describe the spot when you ring.

What to check the following spring

From early April onwards, keep an occasional eye out for new activity. One wasp investigating a gap, flying in short loops and then entering, is worth noting. A few days later you might see two or three insects travelling in and out of the same hole.

• Check eaves, soffits and the tops of walls near the old nest site.
• Look at sheds, garages and outbuildings, including their roofs.
• Examine hedges, shrubs and the base of tree trunks.
• Watch for small holes in lawns or banks with traffic going in and out.

Do it from a few metres away. If you see steady traffic, keep people and pets away and decide whether to book a treatment while the nest is still small.

Getting a live nest dealt with

If a nest is active, leave it alone and ask for help. The Wasp Exterminator treats nests at a fixed £70 each, and an additional nest at the same address is £25 extra. There is no call-out charge, and we work seven days a week with same-day service available. Our technician is fully insured and qualified, and domestic and commercial customers are both welcome.

The price is confirmed on the phone before a visit. It might be higher where special access equipment is needed to reach the nest, and no work is carried out until you have agreed. You can ring 07798 792 774, use the online booking form or send a message through the contact page. Ask at booking whether the empty nest can be taken down once it has been treated.

If you are not sure whether what you have found is old or new, the simplest test is observation. Stand well back on a mild day and watch the entrance for several minutes. No movement, and no wasps on warm afternoons in spring or summer, strongly suggests an empty nest. Any traffic at all means it is live.

Frequently asked questions

More wasp advice for Adwick le Street and Cantley