A paper led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology published last year, analysed 25,000 trends for 726 species and calculated that on average seasonal events were occurring 11 days earlier than a generation ago. Some spring species recorded their earliest appearance since records began in the late 1700s. This year I wonder if there would be an increase on that figure as there seems to be a lot of insect activity. Whilst there is food available this shouldn’t be a problem to insects and there certainly seems to be more wasps around later in the season than last autumn.

With such mild weather following a brief cold snap it’s not surprising that nature doesn’t seem to know if it’s spring or autumn. The trees may be threadbare but there are ripe tomatoes dangling from my patio pots and the roses are in bloom.

This weekend I did some gardening. As I raked a thick blanket of soggy leaves from the lawn, a huge queen wasp buzzed past, probably scouting for somewhere sheltered to spend the winter. Inside the shed something buzzed beneath my gardening gloves. I think I had disturbed a hibernating wasp, and there’s nothing more angrier than a tired and grumpy queen. Luckily I retrieved my hand before I got stung but others in my household haven’t been so lucky.

Inside the house I have had to put a few queen wasps firmly in their place – outside. I have discovered them nesting in the cosy folds of my curtains and inside a throw. One bold wasp even tried to befriend me by snuggling sleepily inside my sweater. I briskly ended that friendship with a flick outside. Wasps don’t make good friends. As soon as you get close to them they will let you down by stinging you when you least expect it.

Even as I write these words there’s a wasp lazily drifting through the air looking for somewhere to overwinter. It has finally selected a high oak beam in the centre of the living room, within reaching distance of the vacuum cleaner.

I suspect there must be a wasp nest nearby. I’m finding dead wasps on the floor daily. They buzz around irritatingly then drop out of the air like Kamikaze wasps and lie half-dead on the carpet, waiting for someone to stand on them like an evil death-wish. Although the weather seems to be getting milder unfortunately for wasps they don’t have the life expectancy to live for more than a few weeks. As soon as the first frost bites the workers wasps will die off, leaving behind an empty nest of crumbling carcasses.

The Last of The Summer Wasps is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Traditionally hallowe’en costumes have focused on the theme of witches, vampires, devils, ghosts, bats and spiders but more recently it seems like anything goes.  This tiny super hero will be sure to see off any baddie and the cockroaches and rodents will be scuttling off when they see him coming!

Snug As A Bug

This Hallowe’en cutie (pictured right) is as quiet as a mouse, oblivious to the powers of the tiny super hero keeping our streets free of vermin.

Cute Cat

If you have a rodent problem perhaps cat girl can help out. Cats have been used for centuries to control mice and rat populations and today they still have a strong instinct to hunt mice and rats, even if they aren’t even the tiniest bit hungry. Though I suspect this gorgeous feline would prefer to snuggle up on the sofa and chew her tail.

Ladybird or Harlequin?

I blogged recently about annoying Harlequins invading my house in their hundreds but this little lady bug does not look like a pest. More like an angel disguised as a ladybird.

Halloween Super Heroes is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Ironically the UK is the safest place for spiders. Apart from a few nasty, biting rogue imports like the Black Widow and the Brazilian Wandering Spider which hitchhikes on bananas the common house spider will only hurt a fly.

The Fear Index – Which Pests are the Most Feared in the UK?
1. Spiders 67%
2. Hornets 65%
3. Rats 64%
4. Wasps 58%
5. Cockroaches 55%
6. Mosquitoes 51%
7. Foxes 49%
8. Mice 35%
9. Fleas 13%
10. Pigeons 13%
11. Slugs and Snails 12%
12. Moths 8%
13. Flies 6%
14. Ants 4%

Almost 1 in 10 (9.4%) of households reported rats invading their homes and gardens, with a massive 87% stating that they believed there had been an explosion in rat populations in their area over the past decade. Population increases were reported across a wide range of pests – in particular, UK homeowners felt that wasps, mosquitoes, foxes and mice were booming in numbers.

Many also reported seeing new, larger or foreign species of pests, with the rising worries over stinging insects attributed to newspaper reports of invading exotic species such as harlequin ladybirds and Chinese hornets. 67% noted a marked increase in the size of rats, with many stating that they were now scared of rats where they had not been before.

When encountering a wasp or hornet in their home, 56% of respondents said that they would either open the window and leave the room, or tell their partner to deal with it – and the bravery of British men was called into doubt as figures showed that they were just as likely to pass the buck to their wives and girlfriends as vice versa.

Between 32 and 33% of either sex chose this option. When dealing with rodents, the majority of Britons like to call for a pest control expert or use ‘humane’ traps. 7% claimed that they would kill a mouse or rat “with their bare hands”, although details were not forthcoming.

When asked if they considered their phobias to be rational or irrational, the majority described their fear of wasps and hornets as rational, while 74% admitted that their arachnophobia was perhaps not a logical response, despite greater numbers suffering from this phobia than any other.

Spiders and Hornets Are the Most Feared UK Pest is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

There were lots of questions about ants too. A couple of weeks ago we reported that this year has been a bumper year for ants and flying ants and they really have been proving to be a pest, particularly when they invade your home.

Here’s some wasp and ant questions answered:

Q. I’m pretty sure we have a wasps’ nest under our house in an airbrick, as there are a lot of them coming and going. They aren’t in a place where they bother us, and I am pretty averse to killing things unnecessarily. I like the fact that they kill other insects and we’re not allergic to stings. So, is there any reason why it’s a bad idea to just leave it alone, as long as we’re careful, given that they won’t use it again?

A. It’s conceivable they might use it again, it depends how much room there is. If they are not causing you a problem, they are not pests (to you). Feel free to leave them alone.

Q. What on earth are wasps for? Do they serve any useful purpose in the overall scheme of things?

Wasps are predatory insects; they perform a similar role to other predatory insects (including dragonflies, ladybirds and hoverflies). Remove wasps from an ecosystem and you would see a rise in the insects they feed on. They are pretty important beneficial insects in agriculture as they feed on a number of crop pests.

Q. We are going camping in August and I’m dreading it – any tips for keeping them away – does a jam jar really work?

Good hygiene is the basis of good pest control, so make sure that all litter is tidied away quickly and kept in a sealed bag. Clean up any spillages promptly too. Jars of sweetened water will hold a visiting wasp’s attention, although jar traps work best when the wasp can’t work out how to get out again. You can buy jar traps with narrow necks or make your own.

Q. We keep getting 2 or 3 odd ants in the conservatory and into the lounge. Is this because they smell food? What are they doing? Exploring for the main bunch?

Q. Last night I noticed lots of big flying ants in the kitchen and realised they were coming out from under the fridge. On pulling it put out I found about 2 inch deep sand piled up to the skirting boards. We shovelled it out and didn’t find many more ants so perhaps not the nest itself? The ants appear to be nesting under the patio directly outside the kitchen but we can’t see where they are coming in despite watching them for quite a while. Is this activity likely to damage our house and why are they leaving piles of sand in our kitchen?

A. Garden ant nests can remain active for well over five years. Digging up the nest is an effective non-chemical way of dealing with it, provided you can get to it. It’s impossible to a make a building ‘ant-proof’ so you will always find one or two ants looking for food. Try putting down some double-sided tape on the floor where you suspect they are coming in. They should get stuck and you might find some appropriate places to improve proofing or apply baits.

For more information about why ants fly en masse and why they turn soil into powder, visit our flying ants blog.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Q&A session at Mumset. You can still join the forum discussion here.

How To Get Rid Of Wasps And Ants is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

A honey-bee colony can be decimated by an ant or yellow-jacket invasion. Driven by a sweet-toothed desire for honey just a handful of wasp ninja’s can diminish a hive within hours. However you may be surprised to find out what happens when an ant meets a wasp.

Check out these video’s which provide an insight into how insects provide their own pest control.

30 Hornets v 30,000 Bees

This incredible footage by silentrouge shows what happens when a handful of hornets plunder a beehive containing thousands of bees.

Ants v Bees

The beekeeper in the video explains that bees can’t contract their stinger enough to sting, but the ants can easily sting the bees. Interestingly the beekeeper also explains that fire ants don’t bother bees, just humans!

Ant v Wasp

Finally, who do you think comes off best when an ant attacks a wasp? To find out watch this great footage by Lionel9965:

Wasps v Bees and Ants is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

To answer their question, Rentokil use a powder insecticide which will kill any wasps returning to the nest, thus allowing Richard and Judy to sip Pimm’s in peace.

Tweeters have been venting their frustration about wasps on UKWaspWatch this week. Reports have been flooding in from people having their sandwiches attacked or being chased down the street by a persistent wasp.

From spring to early summer wasps are predators, catching insects and spiders to the grubs which develop in the nest. During late summer queens stop laying eggs. The worker wasps are freed from their daily chores of nest building and infant nursing, but suddenly must fend for themselves; the larval wasps also feed the workers. The tiny, narrow waist of an adult wasp prohibits it from eating solid food, as it can’t pass through the constricted abdomen. The larvae produce a highly concentrated, nutritious liquid that the workers lick from the mouths of the larvae.

With the larvae all grown up, the worker wasps turn their attention to sweet food stuffs. They do not have the sucking mouthparts of a bee and must ingest their food by licking, which why your ice lolly or fizzy drink is so appealing. In late summer wasps can also get drunk off fermented fruit, and it is then when they are most likely to sting.

Some wasps can become persistent and aggressive scavengers around human food. If large numbers of wasps are bothering you, watch to see where the wasps are coming from and you may have a nest close-by like Richard and Judy.

Why Wasps Become Pests is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Due to their tiny size and global distribution, the black widow kills more than any other spider – with around seven people a year dying in the U.S. from black widow bites.

Fortunately the Black Widow is not native to the UK and no one has ever died of a black widow spider bite in the UK. There are 640 recorded species of spider in the UK.  Only 12 of these have been known to bite humans in the UK and this includes two Steatoda species, S. grossa and S. nobilis

Overall, Great Britain is lucky to have very few pests which are venomous enough to kill. Adders are the only venomous snakes found in Britain, although they are absent from Ireland and there is evidence that they are in decline. Although an adder’s venom poses little danger to a healthy adult human, the bite is very painful and requires urgent medical attention.  The NHS said about 100 cases of adder bites are reported in the UK every year. Since records began in 1876 only 14 people have been reported to have died from adder bites – the last in 1975.

All of our native species are protected by law so it is an offence to kill, injure, sell or trade one in any way. It is against the law to disturb them or their habitat. If you’re walking in an area where adders are known to live, it’s wise to stick to paths and keep dogs on their leads to minimise disturbance, especially during their most active season from March to October.

We are about to enter into the height of the wasp season, which if you are severely allergic can present a serious threat. Wasps can sting repeatedly. The venom of a wasp sting contains a pheromone which signals other wasps to become more aggressive when a wasp has stung something or been killed, so it’s best to leave wasps alone when its mates are around.  Wasps are not normally aggressive to humans, but towards the end of summer nests can become hot and overcrowded, making wasps bad tempered.

In late summer the worker wasps stop building nests and feast on sweet foodstuffs like sticky drinks and sometimes getting drunk on fermented fruit. This is when wasps become a major nuisance and are at their most likely to sting. For more information on wasps please visit UKWaspWatch.

On the whole us Brits are lucky to live in a country which is home to few life threatening pests such malarial mosquitoes or venomous spiders.

Not So Poisonous Britain is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

We all know that wasps can sting repeatedly, but here are some facts about wasps which you may not know.

1. The venom in wasps contains a pheromone that causes other wasps to become more aggressive. Try not to swat one near its nest or other wasps.
2. The sting of a wasp should wear off within 24 hours but for a small minority of people the venom in their sting causes anaphylactic shock which can be fatal. For more information on the symptoms of anaphylaxia visit The Anaphylaxis Campaign
3. An ordinary sting can be treated with deodorant containing aluminium.
4. Wasps live in colonies that form self-contained communities, each following a caste order of queens, males and workers.
5. A male wasp is called a Drone. The job of the Drone is to mate with the Queen. After they have fulfilled this mission, they die shortly afterwards.
6. Wasps don’t swarm.
7. European Hornets strip the bark from trees, causing damage to trees and shrubs.
8. Wasps feed their young meat e.g. insect larvae.
9. The only wasps that survive the winter are young fertilised queens. They emerge from overwintering in the spring to build new nests. Initially the queen lays up to a dozen eggs and when they hatch into larvae she feeds them until they become workers. The workers then forage for food, feed the new larvae and defend the nest.
10. In late summer, the colony produces males and new queens. They fly away to mate and the queens then find a place to hibernate. The cold weather eventually kills the males, workers and foundation queen.

We want to build up a bigger picture of wasp activity in the UK and need your help. If you spot a wasp or a wasp nest please visit www.UKWaspWatch.co.uk. Rentokil will be giving 20p to The Anaphylaxis Campaign for every wasp or wasp nest plotted on the map. For more information visit the UKWaspWatch blog.

10 Facts About Wasps is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

More wasps means an increased risk of being stung, which is particularly worrying for those who suffer from severe reactions to wasp stings. We have teamed up with The Anaphylaxis Campaign to help wasp allergy sufferers.

Be Wasp Aware

To help manage the potential threats posed by wasps and to be more wasp aware, we have created UKWaspWatch, the first ever interactive map to log wasp hotspots around the country.

There are now three ways to log wasp sightings together with their severity, from a single wasp or sting, to a massive wasps’ nest:

• Visit www.ukwaspwatch.co.uk and log a sighting directly onto the map by following the simple instructions.
• Enter your sighting via a special Facebook application
• Tweet the hashtag #ukwaspwatch, your postcode and how serious the sighting is using the scale on the UKWaspWatch website.

Allergic Reaction to Wasps

We are supporting The Anaphylaxis Campaign (the UK charity focused on helping people living with severe allergies) by donating 20p to the charity whenever a person logs a wasp or wasps’ nest sighting onto the UKWaspWatch map throughout the wasp season (June to September).

Dr Shuaib Nasser, Consultant in Allergy, Addenbrookes NHS Trust Hospital, Cambridge and member of The Anaphylaxis Campaign Clinical and Scientific Advisory Panel comments “the prolonged warm weather has seen large numbers of wasps with many people reporting being stung. If you have had a severe allergic reaction in the past, the risk of a similar allergic reaction is increased and precautions should be taken to avoid further stings. There are some simple practical steps that can be taken such as avoiding drinking out of cans, and not walking barefoot when outdoors. If the previous reaction involved breathing difficulty or feeling faint or dizzy you should talk to your family doctor to discuss carrying emergency treatment and ensure referral to an Allergy Clinic.”

Anaphylaxis symptoms may include:

• an itchy feeling
• difficulty in swallowing
• hives (nettle rash) anywhere on the body
• generalised flushing of the skin
• abdominal cramps and nausea
• increased heart rate
• difficulty in breathing due to severe asthma or throat swelling
• a sudden feeling of weakness (a drop in blood pressure)
• a sense of doom
• collapse and unconsciousness”

Top tips for keeping buzzing pests at bay:

• Don’t forget to pack Fly, Ant & Wasp Spray, which can effectively control wasps in and around the home or when out and about
• Wasps are attracted to bright colours so go for muted, pastel shades if you want to reduce the risk of being targeted
• Make sure sweet drinks and foods are not left exposed as wasps will make a beeline for them! Encourage your children to use lids and wrap food as soon as you’ve finished eating
• Use an insect repellent to provide protection
• Never try to swat wasps, this will increase the likelihood of being stung
• Log a sighting on the www.UKWaspWatch.co.uk map to help wasp allergy sufferers identify hotspot locations across the country

To find out more about UKWaspWatch and to help raise money for The Anaphylaxis Campaign visit www.UKWaspWatch.co.uk.

About The Anaphylaxis Campaign

The Anaphylaxis Campaign is the only UK charity to exclusively meet the needs of the growing numbers of people at risk from severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) by providing information and support relating to foods and other triggers such as latex, drugs and insect stings.

The aim of the charity is to create a safe environment for all people with severe allergy by educating the food industry, schools, pre-schools, colleges, health professionals and other key audiences, with a focus on medical facts, food labelling, risk reduction and allergen management.

The Anaphylaxis Campaign offers AllergyWise, online anaphylaxis training, which will help you to know what to do in an emergency situation. Visit www.anaphylaxis.org.uk to register.

We want to build up a bigger picture of wasp activity in the UK and need your help. If you spot a wasp or a wasp nest please visit www.UKWaspWatch.co.uk

Help Build A Map Of Wasp Activity is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

• In April a swarm landed on a car in Old Hatfield. The Mother and Daughter returned from a shopping trip to find people taking photographs of the car, and thousands of bees on their rear window. The pair eventually had to call in a professional bee keeper, after driving the car around didn’t send the bees packing.

• This month in Somerset, a young lady was called out of her house by concerned neighbours who had spotted thousands of bees attacking the fuel cap on her car. After 2 hours the bees refused to move on and she was forced to call a professional bee keeper

• Most recently in Eccles, a mechanic arrived to work to find the door of a client’s car covered in over 10,000 bees. It was fortunate that the mechanics garage also doubled as a bee keeping equipment warehouse. They quickly called in the manager of the firm who uses the warehouse space and the bees were taken away.

Apparently bees swarming is a part of their natural reproductive cycle; however the increased number of bees is down to the warm spring we are experiencing. While bees are not particularly aggressive, unlike wasps,  I sure hope I don’t come across a swarm of bees that refuse to move, I have to admit, I think I would struggle to stay calm if I did!

The Bee Swarm Epidemic is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog