ROYAL PAIN AS WASPS TAKE OVER THE SHED

“MOVE very, very slowly and don’t make any sudden movement…”

As a photographer and a journalist, you’re far more used to giving the orders than receiving them. But when you’re standing in a shed owned by John Ricks of O’ Rahilly’s Villas in front of a wasps’ nest filled with a thousand buzzing nasties just five feet away, you tend to take direction gladly.

Tralee couple John and Elizabeth Ricks are treading very gingerly indeed in their own home these days thanks to the unwelcome visitors - resident now with two months in their garden shed.

John says that the whole thing just keeps “growing, growing and growing!”

“For the last ten days, it’s grown in size like crazy! The aerosol can that is next to the nest gives a great perspective in how much the nest has actually grown over the last few months,” said John.

“It’s just gobbled the cans up now as its grown!” he added.

“There could easily be a thousand wasps inside there and there’s got to be at least one or two queens in there at least; generally speaking, with large nests such as this, there could be multiple queens inside” he continued.

“I won’t go down there, I haven’t been down there in weeks, I was always pottering around down there but since that thing arrived, I haven’t been able to get down there, I’ll be very glad to see the back of it” said Elizabeth, who’s far less happy with the nest than her husband.

“We had our grandchildren here in September and the first thing we had to say to them was to stay away from the back of the garden lest they disturb the nest” she continued.

So, what does John plan to do with the nest?“I’m getting rid of, that’s for certain. I’m waiting until all the drones have left the nest at the end of their season; they should have started leaving by now but I think they’ve a perfect climate in the shed; I think they’re going to be there for at least another month!” he said.

“When they’ve all gone, that will leave the nest with only one or two queens and then it will be safe for me to remove the nest. I’ll use a flexible saw to cut around the back edges of the nest and take it out in one solid piece and put it in a black plastic bag and give it to a woman from Tralee who wants to cut it in half and show it to her kids,” said John, finishing up.

Watch as the aerosol can gets sucked into the wasps’ nest - in little under a fortnight - as the nasty critters swarm inside and out.

John Ricks