Summer insect invasion!

To be fair the vinegar cure didn’t work when I tried it, sadly!

It’s good that you were kind enough to be gentle with the wasp despite his assault on you!

Oh and I removed the wasp from my bed and left him on the outside windowsill. I think he was a bit battered but otherwise okay.

Didn't know about the vinegar cure. It's a fairly sensitive place to get stung. I think the stings were painful for about 24 hours.  

Yes probably best to sterilise the water before using it after that incident. I’d do the same. No actually I’d have only used shop bought bottled water from then on. Something like that would have got into my head! 

My relationship with my mum could also fill a whole psychology book! 

We grow our own food too and try to keep it as organic as possible. Little pots of stale beer sunk into the ground around plants are a fabulous deterrent for slugs! Your bug research seems interesting, what have you discovered?

Thank you for the tip about ground cinnamon for deterring the ants! I could try that next year and it would be safe for both the dog and my youngest daughter. I wonder what it is about the cinnamon that repels them? I could try planting mint in tubs outside my patio doors, it would smell nice too! It’s interesting that you say that having soft skin repels bugs as I use tons of moisturiser and haven’t been bitten this year I don’t think, I wonder how this works?

The long term problem was my state of mind.

I never cleaned my teeth with water from the hot water tap. I heated cold water in a kettle and used that.

My twisted relationship with my parents could fill a whole psychology book.

I dont mind insects as I grow my own food and chemical free so insects all have a place. Ive also started researching bugs. Ants come in our front door however but ground cinnamon along the door stopped them. I also planted mint there. I've been bitten alot this year so tried having skin so soft and it does really repel bugs! I see alot of facebook posts saying I've been bitten I think was false widdow..... I've lots in my conservatory and no bites from these. 

I remember getting the wasp nest poison from the pest control section in a DIY store.  It was powder in a cardboard tube. With a pointed end so you could blow it into the nest opening.

That’s really good that it all got flushed through so quickly! Did not employing a plumber cause any long term problems? I’m sorry to hear about your father, it must have been difficult for you?

That’s wise advice! Though wasps are so small I imagine they can get in through very tiny access points! Very sensible to know where to obtain wasps nest poison when required! Luckily we know a bee keeper who can get it for us if needed!

Only the hot water taps were affected. After a good flushing the water looked almost ok the next day.

My big regret is that I didn't get a plumber to do a proper cleaning of the system ASAP. 

My father didn't change, he just got older, more stubborn and continued hating/resenting me.

Carefully check for access points such as rotten wood and any other gaps.

In subsequent years we had two other wasp invasions,  both times I tackled them with wasp nest poison as soon as I noticed it.  No hesitation,  no waiting or asking for advice.

Is there any way to deter wasps from nesting in your loft?

Your Father doesn’t seem as though he was very understanding! I’d like to think that this incident taught him that you did know what you were talking about!

Bits of wasps in the water sounds very hazardous! That would have done some harm if someone had accidentally drank a sting or trod on a sting in the bath! How long did it take for the water to be free if bits of wasps?

That would be a total nightmare having to rip the house us to locate bee hives! We get hornets around here. We’ve had a nest in our loft before we moved in, a load of dead hornets fell out when we changed the bathroom lightbulb the other year! Luckily they didn’t land on anyone! Apparently hornets don’t nest in the same place twice so we should be safe! Though they are still in the band of trees behind our back garden so we have to be careful around evening time in the warm weather!

Yes.  A lot of flushing.

The following year we installed central heating with a combination boiler, where hot water was heated on demand and we got rid of both water tanks.

The wasps must have some kind of genetic memory because we and our neighbours had problems with wasps nests every year.  I felt relief when I noticed a neighbour fighting a nest because it meant we were safe for another year.

We had that in a house we rented - a few months after we  moved in, every now and then, there would be 'bits' when we ran a bath - I went into the loft and found lots of old nests above the open tanks and the 'water' in the tanks was actually wasp-soup.   It was soooooo gross!    Thousands of dead, dissolving wasps had met their end in the tanks.   That took a lot of flushing to clear out and I fitted lids to the tanks to make sure it didn't happen again.

I REALLY didn't want them finding a way into the house to set up a hive - my house has inaccessible void-spaces in the loft - I can't imagine ripping the house to bits to get access to them would be convenient or cheap to get a professional in.    A quick squirt of RAID and they moved on.

Our wasp invasion was a nightmare in more ways than one.

My relationship with my father was just about the worst possible and the reaction to the wasps is just one example. 

Although his mental state was a hundred times worse than mine.  He openly hated me calling me an embarrassment and a stupid nutter.

Our house had a  water system where a cold water tank in the loft was feeding the hot water tank.  one summer I noticed wasps coming in and out of the overflow pipe above the cold water tank.  I mentioned it to my parents. My father as usual completely ignored me, pretending that I didn't exist. My mother insisted we do nothing,  just leave the wasps alone.

After about a week I noticed that the hot water was slightly yellow and had a horrible smell, when I saw bits of dead wasps coming through the hot water taps, I phoned for pest controllers. 

I told my parents that the pest controllers were due in a couple of hours.  instantly my father ran for the ladder braved the swarm of wasps and tried to block the overflow pipe. So that there wouldn't be any wasps when the pest controllers arrived.  He failed.

The pest controllers found three separate wasps nests in the attic,  one directly above the cold water tank.