Not as far as I know. However our garden is alive with wasps. That's a problem because Mrs Didge, a keen gardener, is seriously allergic to wasp and bee stings and has to keep medication on hand. Therefore, anytime she discoveres a new nest, I have to climb aboard my steed and ride into battle armed with nothing but a can of insect spray.
It's a bit like playing space invaders, shooting down the little beasties as they swarm in to attack like a squadron of Messerschmidts. So far I've won every dogfight but should I disappear from this site one day and never return you'll know that my Vickers Machine Gun ran out of bug spray and I laid down my life for my woman.
I HATE wasps. Not that anyone likes them. Well, maybe someone does.
You should wait until when it cools down in the evening and they go back to their nest. Then get the kind of spray that foams. Then you soak the nest with the foam and they can't get out. Or when they get out the stuff is all over them.
Thanks, Mr B. That's pretty much what I do, though I prefer to attack the nest when there's enough daylight to spot any counter attacks. So far I'm doing pretty well but I'll certainly note your advice. It's appreciated.
A very low level solution from a garden sprayer will kill wasps in seconds, but it is very dangerous to cats and they should not be exposed to it. I remember my father used to bring home a spray bottle from the lab, spray it once on windows then I'd watch flies and wasps (and, sometimes unfortunately, other insects) fall off the window after a few seconds exposure. Lasted for months.
Permethrin is one of the main ingredients in proprietory insecticides. I believe it's a nerve agent, blocking the transmissions of signals through nerves.
It's not only dangerous to cats, it's also very dangerous to aquatic life (according to the can labels) so don't use it anywhere near aquaria or garden ponds.
A point about colonial wasp nests. If the insects feel threatened they may rise en masse to attack you, in defence.
Indeed. You won't find me anywhere near a wasp nest even if I had buckets of the stuff. :)
Now that you mention it I do seem to have seen the 'Not Near Fish' line on bug sprays in the past. I recall it as being extraordinarily effective when used in solution by my father, especially on a wasp nest that developed during the course of a summer holiday inside the garage.
We had cats too at the time, but they were kept out of the room until the sprayed window had dried and all was well.
I don't know about within my home's cavity wall, but most homes are very comfy to a wide range of invertebrates, mainly eating detritus like paper and cotton fibres, and our sloughed skin cells. You don't notice most of them most of the time.
Someone once posted on an internal works network slightly similar to AM, his concern about the damage a colony of wood-lice was doing to his loft. I told him they were doing him a favour: they were not damaging anything but by their presence, showing there was damp, decaying wood (their food) up there. I.e., his roof had been leaking for a long time!
Bats sometimes roost in house lofts, if they can get in, but these wonderful little animals have their self-respect. They don't want any old loft all dirty and full of grubby old cob-webs, or where they will be disturbed.
It destroyed the communal stock of chocolate wafer biscuits, and ate a chunk of a bar of "Fairy" soap! (The rodent version of internal cleanliness and colonic irrigation?)
Someone cornered it behind a car-battery standing close to a wall, and a well-aimed kick of the battery killed the animal out-right.
Benedict Arnold 