Found a Wasp Nest in Your Loft in Broxtowe? Here's What to Do
Often the first sign of a loft nest is a sound rather than a sight, a low buzz or a dry rustle overhead, and this explains how to read it and respond.
The sound comes before the sight
Most people do not discover a loft nest by climbing up and finding it. They notice a noise. It might be a faint hum in the bedroom at night, a dry scratching from above the landing, or a buzzing that gets louder on a warm afternoon. Broxtowe, in the Nottingham area, has many houses with roof spaces nobody has opened for months, so a nest can be well established before anyone has a clue.
A nest makes a distinctive mix of noises. There is the steady hum of many wasps fanning and moving, and there is a faint rasping as the workers chew wood fibre to build and extend the paper cells. The rasping is easiest to hear when the house is quiet and the loft is warm.
If you hear this and also see wasps in the house, or a few crawling on a ceiling or around a light fitting, a nest is very likely.
One tip is to listen at different times. A nest is busiest during the warm part of the day, and many people hear it only on a sunny afternoon, with the sound fading as the temperature drops. If you can only hear it occasionally, that fits with a nest rather than with plumbing or a bird. Mention this when you ring.
Telling it apart from other loft noises
Not every sound overhead is a nest, and it is worth thinking about what else could be responsible.
- Pipes and water tanks tick and knock as they heat and cool, usually at predictable times.
- Birds or mice produce scratching and scuffling, often at night and at irregular intervals.
- A bee swarm or colony makes a deeper hum, and honeybees are rounder and furrier than wasps.
- A wasp nest hums all day and reaches its peak in the warm part of it, with insects visibly coming and going somewhere outside.
The clue is outside the house: watch the eaves, a gable end, a vent or a gap in the roof edge for a stream of wasps going in and out. The traffic is the giveaway, more than the noise.
What to do the moment you suspect it
Resist the urge to go up and check. Opening the loft hatch next to an active nest is the single most common way people are stung. Instead:
- Keep the hatch closed, and make sure children understand not to open it.
- Stand outside, at a distance, and look for the wasps’ entry point.
- Close windows and doors near the part of the house where the noise is loudest.
- Do not bang on the ceiling, block any hole or try to flush them out.
- Make a note of when the noise is loudest and where you hear it.
Those notes help the person you speak to on the phone get a sense of where the nest might be.
If a child tells you they have heard "something buzzing" in their bedroom ceiling, take it seriously and move them out of that room while you investigate from outside. Children are often the first to notice, and the last to be told to stay away.
Why a loft suits a nest
A roof space gives wasps what they want: a sheltered, dry, quiet cavity with a small gap to the outside, well away from disturbance. Queens begin nests from late April, depending on how mild the spring is, and a loft is attractive because it stays warm and nobody bothers them. By August the colony is at its largest and the nest can hold thousands of wasps, which is also when you are most likely to hear it.
Nests are also sometimes found when somebody goes up to fetch the Christmas decorations in autumn and finds a papery grey ball among the boxes. By then the wasps may be slowing down for the year, but do not assume the nest is harmless. Ring and describe what you saw.
Booking, and what the visit involves
Ring 0115 937 5117, or use the online booking form on the contact page. Treatment of a wasp nest is a fixed £95 per nest, with no call-out charge, and an additional nest on the same property is £35. The price is confirmed before the technician comes, and no work is done without your agreement. Same-day service is offered, but cannot be promised for every call, so ring early.
The technician is trained and the work is fully insured. They will look at the entry point outside, work out how to reach the nest and treat it. You will be asked to stay away from the hatch and the rooms beneath the nest.
Say when you book if anyone in the household is allergic to stings.
It helps to tell us how many wasps you have seen indoors and in which rooms. A handful in one bedroom suggests the nest is close to that spot; wasps in several rooms suggest more than one route or a larger colony. Nothing about the answer changes the fixed price, but the technician can use it to plan.
After the visit
Expect a few wasps to turn up in the rooms below for a short time, drawn by light. Leave them, open a window for them if safe to do so, and keep the hatch closed until the technician has told you that it is fine. The empty nest and any dead wasps will still be in the loft. If you would like the nest taken down, ask when you book; the technician can tell you what is possible.
A final point: if the noise is in a house you share, such as a semi or terrace, a neighbour may be hearing the same thing. A quick word over the fence can confirm whether the nest is on your side of the wall, theirs, or both, and means the whole row can be dealt with sooner.
Wasps on your property in Broxtowe?
Fixed price £95 per nest, no call-out charge, same-day service available.