Wasps are a seasonal annual: every nest dies out by November, and every new nest is started from scratch the following spring by a single overwintering queen. That cycle matters when you're deciding whether to pay for nest removal, because a nest you spot in April is a very different proposition from one you spot in August.
Spring: the queen on her own
From April to early May, the queen builds a golf-ball-sized starter nest and raises the first few dozen workers herself. At this stage the nest is rarely a problem and often goes unnoticed.
Midsummer: the colony explodes
From June to July the workers do all the foraging and the queen becomes a full-time egg-laying machine. A nest can hold 3,000–6,000 workers by late July. The colony is busy but focused on protein for the larvae — meat scraps, caterpillars, other insects — so they're less interested in your picnic.
August and September: the nuisance peak
The queen stops laying, the larvae stop secreting the sugary fluid that fed the workers, and suddenly thousands of adult wasps go looking for sugar themselves. That's when you get them at pub gardens, in bin stores, around fallen apples and inside kitchens. It's also when stings rise sharply, because frustrated, sugar-starved wasps are more defensive.
Should you remove a nest in late summer?
- Nest near a doorway, garden seating area, child's play area or busy footpath — yes, treat it now.
- Nest in a high loft eave with no human traffic and you're past mid-September — it'll die out naturally within weeks.
- Anyone in the household with a known wasp-sting allergy — always treat, regardless of location.
- Never try to block the entrance hole. Trapped wasps will chew through plasterboard into the room below.