I hope your mother is recovering quickly. What a nasty experience for her.

Generally if a wasp nest is not near a regular pathway, I leave it as they do a good job with pests but if they are in an area that could be dangerous, I will get rid of them. I usually spray them with ordinary fly spray (then run real fast), wait until the wasps are dead, then knock the nest down and spray any that missed out the first time.

My grandfather use to roll up a piece of paper and light the end (like a torch or candle) and burn the wasps and nest, but that will only work in an easily accessible place.

Hi Annie so sorry to hear about your Mother I do hope she is Ok that's a shocking thing to happen to her.
I also had a bad experience with them when I lived in Townsville. I was pruning a creeper on the pool fence and they attacked me I must have cut into their nest don't laugh but they got under my dress and bit me all over I was in agony for ages.

Hubby heard me screaming and came over armed with a stick but when he seen what they were he got the Termite spray and sprayed then with that, he must have killed them as I never seen another wasp after that. He pulled that creeper out too if it had not been on the pool fence he probably would have put some diesel on it and lit a match, a cheap way of getting rid of all the termites and biting insects he reckons.....Cheers..MM.

It is supposed to be safer if you attack the nest after sunset. You can buy specific wasp powder for this at hardware shops etc. Use a torch with red cellophane over the end secured with a rubber band. Apparently they cannot see the red light so it doesn't disturb them. I would still be well clothed and extremely careful, just in case.

I do hope your Mother is okay. That really was a scary experience for her.

Cheers,
Dee.

Oh, Annie, I do hope your Mum is O.K. now.
Darn things, they do so much good round the place getting rid of other insects and grubs but only if their nests are out of the way.
We usually wait till there are a lot on the nest, give them a good quick spray with fly spray and run like the dickens away.
then go back and knock the nest down, they don't seem to come back.
Depending on how much you like the tree they are in the rolled paper with the fire is good but it knocks the tree,bush, about a bit.
Good luck, and have your running shoes on, they can get cranky.
Marion

what sort of wasps??

if it's the european wasp most local councils will get rid of them free of charge.

as for other varieties - ashmeri's advice is good - if you can run quick :-)

Yes similar sympathies as above. Your poor Mum!
I've only dealt with these at night, and same advice as above, you can spray or burn, provided you are not about to destroy the house as well.

g'day annie,

yes best time to deal with the nest is after dark and before sunup when all the wasps are there, use the paper and fire trick but be careful wouldn't be good to read about it in the news hey lol. i usally hit them with the fly spray then pull the nest(s) off by hand and put them in the bin be careful not to stand on dying wasps but if you are bare feeted.

but generally if they are in a place where risk of stinging is low i leave them alone as they are part of my organic system, but those little grey paper wasps common in most suburban gardens are a bad bunch the other sorts of paper wasps don't seem to so angry.

len

I assumed you meant the European wasps because we have such a problem with them down here. That is what my advice was based on.
Cheers,
Dee.

from what i have read the european wasp is something else again it apparently nests in holes in rock walls or retaining walls, and the last i saw suggested the to treat them do it after dark and with a torch with a red filter on it so they didn't get agitated the information suggested they where very agro and harmful to deal with.

the paper wasp is probably a bit of a pussy cat against that.

len

Thank you all for your concern. Mum is feeling much better. She got a bad fright as you can imagine. She said that she just feels jittery and nervy and doesn't even want to go into the courtyard.
My brother-in-law went over the next evening and, from what I can gather, drowned the little beggars in Baygon.
Mum decided she didn't care whether she killed everything else as well. I think she's figuring that, if everything died, she could start again and be confident that there are no nasty, little beasties lurking in there.
I can understand how she feels. I once got a bad fright from a spider landing on me from a certain bush and even now, when I'm working near that particular area, I can keep a nervous eye out for any others.
Which is ridiculous, I know....like there are no other bushes in my garden that might be home to other spiders.
thanks again,
Annie