Why Are Wasps Repeatedly Flying Into the Roof of My Huntingdon Home?

If something keeps flying into the same spot on your roof, the first job is to confirm what it is. Most of the time it is wasps. Sometimes it is not, and the right answer changes completely. Huntingdon has everything from Georgian houses to post-war semis, and any of them can turn up the same question.

What you might be looking at

• Wasps. Slim, with a narrow waist, bright yellow and black, smooth and shiny. They fly fast and straight and do not look furry.
• Honey bees. Rounder and more golden-brown, noticeably furry, and usually less keen to go near people. A colony in a chimney or cavity is a job for a beekeeper, not pest control.
• Bumblebees. Large, very furry and slow-moving. Their nests are small and short-lived, and they are best left alone if you can.
• Solitary bees. Small bees going into holes in mortar or a bank. They do not defend a nest and are not a pest.
• Hornets. Larger than a wasp, with more orange and brown. They are less aggressive than their size suggests, and they can be treated where the nest is genuinely in the way.

How to tell from a distance

You do not need to get close. Watch the flight. Wasps tend to travel in a straight, purposeful line to a single entrance, and they come and go all day in warm weather. A bee's flight is usually slower and more wandering. If you can, take a photograph from a window or a good distance with a zoom, and send it to us.

If it is wasps in Huntingdon

A nest in a roof is typically invisible. Wasps may use a slipped tile, a gap at the eaves or a worn joint in the fascia. The colony grows through the summer and reaches its peak in late summer. In a Georgian townhouse with a deep roof or a post-war house with a boxed eaves, the entrance can be in a different place from where you first see them.

Please do not block the hole or spray it. Wasps that cannot get back in can chew through into the house, and a can of spray only deals with the wasps you can see.

What we do

We confirm the insect, find the nest, and apply an insecticidal dust at the entrance, which the foragers carry into the colony. In Huntingdon, wasp nest removal is £90 fixed, with the price confirmed before booking. See the cost guide. If you want identification first, a pest inspection and survey is £120.

In an older Huntingdon property, lime pointing, parapets and deep eaves give insects plenty of places to nest, and in a post-war house the boxed soffits do the same. Both are easy to misjudge from the ground, which is why a photograph is so useful.

A photo helps. Send one by WhatsApp or call 01223 902388 and we will tell you what we think it is.