Once the warmer temperatures return those queen wasps will be desperate to get outdoors and start making nests all over your property.
Wasp nest in attic winter.
It s survival of the queen.
So if you intend to go up into your attic or do some renovations in the wall be aware that this hazard is much more prevalent in winter and take measures to protect yourself.
The structure of a wasp nest is able to withstand the meteorological conditions outside but this doesn t mean the wasps will use it again a new wasp is made when the winter is over.
In winter wasps are using your walls and your attic crawl spaces to hide from the cold.
However for the rest of the wasps in winter the outlook isn t good.
After the initial structure is in place somewhere sturdy and sheltered which is why wasps often choose loft spaces and guttering the queen will start to lay eggs in the nest s cells.
I am quite protective and never harm the queens.
Once winter is over any surviving queens come out of hibernation and start on the building blocks of a new nest.
They can damage the insulation in your attic and interfere with the structure of your walls.
If your wasps have built a nest on the floor of your attic bomb style wasp poisons work very well.
Spray the nest according to the directions on your spray.
Wasp nests in the loft or attic.
All members of a wasp colony do whatever it takes to keep the queen alive to lay eggs when the weather warms.
Nests are helpful when trying to identify the type of social wasp.
While one or two small wasps won t cause much damage to the structure of your home several hundred certainly could.
The motto of wasps is not survival of the fittest.
Wasp nests do take longer to die off after treatment in the autumn and winter mainly due to the lower metabolism of the wasps making the absorption of insecticide slower.
As stated we have had hibernating wasp queens in the attic and we found a nest already abandoned.
Therefore it is a good idea to knock down any empty abandoned nests over the winter and thoroughly clean the area before the queen wasp reclaims the area come springtime.
From your description the nest is probably a bald faced hornet nest which are very common in our area.
It can take 10 20 days for a wasp nest to die off when treated at this time of year compared with a few hours in july or august.
During winter when the temperatures drop low only the wasp queen gets through the hibernation process the rest of the colony is wiped out completely.
