Posted By Robert Woods An operative clearing a right of way has been attacked by a swarm of wasps. Has anyone come across a similar problem? What was the outcome? Comments and advice please.

Posted By Chris Pollington Having an allergy to wasp stings myself and having dealt with nests at home and at work I have built up some knowledge of the little stingy creatures. Generally wasps get bad press but are not naturally agressive, just short tempered. Ground nesting wasps are the worst and will attack if provoked, provacation can be anything that they feel threatened by, strimmers and mowers are common types of equipment that upsets them. If they have been disturbed the best policy is to leave them to calm down before taking action. For work situations or areas that need quick tretament, the local authority pest control department normally will attend fairly quickly if children or elderly people are at risk. They will Sting you (excuse the intended pun) for about £100 for a visit. For low risk activities or domestic nests, leave it until dusk when the nest activity is low and use ant powder or wasp powder at the entrance to the nest this will get dragged in during the following day and will kill the nest in 2-3 days. Needless to say that if you are doing this as part of your work activities it must be managed like any other activity. One other factor that has come about recently is the increase in large European wasps that are more agressive by nature, I don't know much about them though but hopefully someone can fill us in. I'll buzz off now. Chris