Wasps and bees aren’t normally considered pests, but if they nest close to or inside your property, they can cause a lot of bother and damage. Wasps can be particularly aggressive around food, presenting an additional health and safety hazard.

 

But many people believe that bees and wasps go away naturally on their own. Does that mean you don’t need to order a professional wasp removal?

 

Will Wasps Leave on Their Own?

Yes, wasps will eventually go away. If the nest isn’t causing you trouble or you discover it late-season its perfectly fine to leave it alone instead of calling in insect pest control. Despite their demeanour, wasps are beneficial insects. Consider installing insect screens to prevent them from entering your property. 

 

The exception is if you run a business. You have a duty to staff and customers to protect them and call in wasp pest control if the insects pose a risk to health and safety.

What Happens if You Ignore a Wasp's Nest?

It will slowly expand until it reaches its peak around autumn. Wasps don’t store honey like bees, so once their food runs out, the whole nest dies. Only a newborn queen will survive, and she always leaves to establish a nest somewhere else.

 

Once the nest dies its important to seal up and repair whatever hole they entered the property. It's rare, but a queen from a separate hive could consider that location prime real estate next spring.

Will Bees Leave on Their Own?

Once bees make an established hive with honeycomb and larvae, they will never leave on their own. Bees create permanent hives and will expand them until there is no more room to expand. This could be up to three metres of honeycomb building up in your floor or walls, even more. Once you discover a hive in your home, calling in a beekeeper or insect pest control service is your only option.

How Can You tell if Bees Are in your Walls?

The main signs of a hive in your walls are unusually elevated numbers of worker drones entering or flying around the house. During quieter hours, you may hear a humming, paper rustling or a sound like raindrops coming from the affected ceiling, floor or wall. Many bees bypassing your insect screens can be a sign that they are completely bypassing the screen by having a hole to their hive accessible inside the house.