wasps nests

Everybody has noticed it, there are wasps everywhere! Dodging the insects in beer gardens, BBQs and at picnics has become an Olympic sport this summer with everyone either swatting, wafting or (for the more fearful of us) running away as an ineffective way to control the wasps that have descended.

We are seeing an industry wide large increase in wasp call-outs this year, which confirms that wasp populations have risen. This year Cleankill had a 176% rise in wasp nest call-outs compared to 2024! 

You can probably count on one hand the number of wasps you have seen this summer which is good news for people who have a phobia of wasps, but not such good news for pest controllers who usually benefit from the extra business wasp nest removals brings in.

Spheksophobia – the persistent fear of wasps - is one of the more common phobias. The word is derived from Greek spheco meaning wasps and Phobos the ‘Greek God of fear’ or dread. 

We’ve just posted two stories about wasps on our social media sites and what is interesting is that, while one conforms to our stereotypical image of the wasp, the second article completely goes against our jaundiced view of this insect. It made me think, what do we really know about wasps?

I was recently doing some number crunching to see how things had developed during lockdown and I came across an astonishing fact – our business has seen a 23% increase in callouts relating to wasps! Between 1 July and mid-September in 2019 we had 271 callouts for wasp nests and, for the same period in 2020, we have had 334 callouts.