Danger ! - Wasp Hives

At the moment the many cracks and holes in the wall makes it easy for unwelcome guests to enter the house. Besides smaller (2cm) hives, we also found to massive ones made by "Suzume-batchi" (info page: Japanese original | English Translation by Google).

Considering that this kind of wasp has an extremely strong poison, we were very reluctant to approach them - however, after some time of observation we concluded that both are deserted, and hence proceded to remove them.

Unfortunately the location of them was rather awkwardly located above the bathroom and toilet, in the eastern (lower roof) part of the house. Because the ceiling is made only by thin veneer sheets, it does not carry weight. A further annoyance was the large amount of dust on top the ceiling...

Nevertheless, Tomo and I tackled this challenge too. After putting on dust mask and googles, I climbed up and balanced on the structural beams to get close. I then shifted a plastic sheet below the hive with attached rope. Tomo handed me various sharp implements, and I sawed off the nest at its based, upon which it fell onto the sheet. By pulling the rope we closed the sheet and pulled it back to the ladder.

On this photo I just nudge the nest with a bamboo pole after making an incision at the top.




The reward of the hard work, the heroes of an epic battle:



Looking closer at the hives, reveals amazing and fascinating construction: