How does it work?

We strongly believe the question should be why kill wasps if you can just make them go away somewhere they don’t bother humans. Wasps, as annoying as they are for us humans, are an essential part of nature and of the balance of insect life in your garden. Why kill wasps with wasp traps which need maintenance and cleaning when you can stop wasps bothering you all together with Waspinator.

There are up to one million wasps per square mile in the UK, and you will need an awful lot of traps to kill them all. When you kill a wasp it emits a pheromone panic signal which will attract other wasps to see what the problem is – kill a wasp and five more will come to its funeral! Waspinator doesn’t eliminate wasps but is a wasp repellent which makes them forage for food and building materials away from areas of human activity.

The Waspinator is a fake wasps nest. Wasps are very territorial and will aggressively defend their nest against wasps from another colony. When a foraging wasp sees another wasps nest it will rapidly leave the area for fear of being attacked by the nest’s defenders.

Wasps have a very long range of vision and when they see a Waspinator they think it’s an enemy wasps nest and quickly leave the area for somewhere safer, leaving the area around the Waspinator completely free of wasps. Waspinator is a wasp repellent it does not harm, trap or kill wasps, it will simply get rid of wasps.

They don’t get close enough to it to realise it is a fake wasp nest. They see the Waspinator from 6 or 7 metres away, they see the shape of a wasp’s nest and the horizontal pattern which makes it look fibrous and layered like a real wasp’s nest, and they fly straight off.

Not a lot is known about wasps’ eyesight, other than they can see for long distances, but they do get fooled by other things, for example, the ability of orchids to appear and smell like a female wasp which elicits copulating behaviour by the male wasp and thereby the pollination of the orchid.

Too much information perhaps, but nature uses mimicry to induce behaviour in wildlife, and Waspinator uses it to get rid of wasps. Waspinator works like a scarecrow for wasps, it is a wasp repellent, not a wasp trap.

A wasp trap uses chemicals or poisons to attract the wasps in the first place (not always a good idea), then traps them and kills them (see later). They only eliminate the wasps which get caught by the trap rather than acting as a general wasp repellent which keeps them away altogether.

A wasp trap needs cleaning out of dead and dying wasps and needs to be replenished with chemicals or poisons. Waspinator just needs to be hung up, and that’s it. No, it’s not a wasp trap, it is a wasp repellent and works more like a wasp scarecrow. Wasps see it, think they are in another colony’s territory, and go away for fear of being attacked by the enemy wasp nest’s defenders.

In the UK there are up to a million wasps per square mile and not all the traps in the world will catch them, it is far better to just make them stay away from areas of human activity then we can go about our lives safe from stings and annoyance, and they can go about their business of catching and killing aphids and caterpillars.

Waspinator will get rid of wasps found in the UK and Northern Europe, and most of those found in Southern Europe. It works as a wasp deterrent for all species of social wasp, which are by far and away the most commonly found wasps in the UK and the whole Northern Hemisphere.

The main two UK species are the Common wasp and the German wasp. The same is true of most of Europe and the Northern Hemisphere. It can also work as a hornet repellent, which are becoming an increasing problem in the UK and Europe. It will work for other wasp species for which hornets are a predator.

There are some wasp species which build very different nests and behave very differently, such as the Paper Wasp and the Olive Wasp found in Southern Europe, and the Cicada Killer Wasp found in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Waspinator will not be as effective on these wasps. Even so, Waspinator will still act as a wasp repellent for some of these wasps because Waspinator also resembles a hornets’ nest, and as hornets are predators to these species, the wasps think it’s a hornets’ nest and stay away for that reason.

Yes, Waspinator can get rid of hornets. It isn’t designed for this purpose, but hornets have the same territorial nature as wasps and build very similar nests, so hornets can be repelled by it in the same way that wasps are. However, hornets tend to be even more inquisitive and more confident than wasps so sometimes they will get close enough to a Waspinator to realise there is no smell, heat or movement emanating from it and so will realise it is not a real nest.

We must be honest and say we did have one report from a celebrity customer (who hates wasps) that a hornet had temporarily taken up residence on top of his Waspinator and looked as if he was waiting for the wasps to return home so he could pick them off.

For ages, its ability to last as a wasp repellent is not reliant on chemicals or anything that needs replenishing, it is totally a visual wasp deterrent. It is made of recyclable polypropylene. It is weatherproof and can be left out all season, it can be squished up to take out with you to a picnic or the beach, and will easily be puffed up to its working shape.

It is best to put scrunched up supermarket carrier bags (the really thin ones) inside and this will help keep its shape in windy conditions.

The idea for a wasp deterrent like Waspinator stemmed from methods used in the Middle Ages and by Native Americans, and it has been updated using modern materials and especially incorporating the horizontal design which makes Waspinator look fibrous and layered like a real nest, and it is this which makes Waspinator so highly effective and practical as a wasp repellent.

Waspinator has a Patent application in process. The Waspinator shape, design and the striation design are all Registered Designs throughout the EU. Waspinator is a Registered Trademark.

Yes, it really does get rid of wasps. It is highly effective, and we have many unsolicited testimonials from happy (and slightly surprised) customers, you can read some of these on this website.

Waspinator won the Silver Award at the 2008 DIY and Garden Show at Earl’s Court and at the prestigious Business Garden Show in Holland and has won various similar awards in Northern America. Waspinator has just been selected as one of the “50 Best Things to Take Camping” by The Independent newspaper.

Waspinator was also nominated for awards for innovation and eco-friendliness at the GLEE exhibition which is the UK’s major trade show for the garden industry. We have scientific evidence and test results which support Waspinator (see FAQ Does it Work) and we have only a tiny number of cases where it hasn’t – in most of these cases it is either due to a real nest very close by (see next paragraph), or where it has been poorly sited and where we can help to make it work – Waspinator is a visual wasp deterrent and therefore must be placed in a visible position.

Waspinator may not get rid of wasps in all countries. It works on all species of wasp found in Northern Europe but there are species in hotter more arid climates which are not territorial and which therefore are not frightened by the idea of another nest. Please check with us if you are in any doubt please email: [email protected]

If there is a real wasp nest nearby, and a Waspinator is sited within the area the wasps see as their territory, it will not usually get rid of the wasps because the colony’s defenders will be sent out to assess the threat of the new ‘wasp nest’ and will get close enough to realise it is not real. Waspinator will then be neutral in effect.

If you have a live wasps nest in your roof space or very near to where you want to spend time outdoors, unfortunately, there are only two practical choices – one is to put up with them, the other is to kill the wasps. If you decide to kill the wasps and remove the nest we strongly advise to use a professional controller, wasps nests typically have thousands of wasps inhabiting them, they will defend their nest very aggressively and they can fly faster than we can run. Having said all this, we have had lots of cases reported to us where Waspinator has worked even though there is a real wasp nest nearby – nature is a funny thing.

Because it is a fairly recent patented invention. Waspinator was launched in Canada in 2005 and was wildly successful in North America. It was introduced to the UK in 2008 and has been a real success at trade and retail shows where it has won awards and has been the subject of great trade interest from ecological groups, garden centres and hardware stores, and pest control companies looking for a natural wasp repellent.

Waspinator has been the number one best selling eco product for major UK garden centre chains, and our direct web sales have been wonderful. It’s still a bit new, but it can be found in most good garden centres and hardware stores. Call or e-mail us if you can’t find one locally and we’ll help, and please tell your local garden centre or hardware store that they’re missing out on the best wasp repellent there is!

Candles aren’t that effective outdoors, and indoors you can smell their aroma yourself. Wasp traps are messy to use and clean, you either use a poisonous bait which will kill wasps once they are inside, or an attractant bait which gets the wasps into the trap and then kills the wasps because they can’t get out. So first the wasp trap attracts them (which you may not think is a good idea), then it kills them.

Any wasps which don’t get caught by the wasp trap will still be buzzing around, and will be highly agitated as they will have sensed the panic signal pheromones given off by the dying wasps. Then you have to clean the trap of dead and dying wasps, and of the residue of sticky or poisonous bait. Either way you have to watch wasps dying. Finally! Dying wasps give off a pheromone which acts like an attack signal for other wasps, and they will then come to see what the danger is, ie. more wasps to deal with, and ones that are already agitated.

There are around one million wasps per square mile in the UK and all the traps in the world won’t catch them all. The Waspinator is a much better option than traps or sprays, it works, it is environmentally friendly, no toxic chemicals, no mess and dead wasps to clean up, it couldn’t be simpler to use, it’s portable, and durable. And it doesn’t kill them.

Waspinator does have to look like a real wasps nest otherwise it wouldn’t work. A wasps nest can be any colour from brown through to silver, it depends on what they use to build their nests. If you don’t like the look of it, take it down after use and put it back up again about an hour before you want to go outside. It’s best left in situ though, this way once wasps know and remember it is there they won’t come to the area at all.

For severe wasp problems, it is best to keep the Waspinator in situ and to use more than one, placed where you estimate the wasps’ line of sight will ensure they are seen and from as many directions as possible. If you leave it up, wasps have memory and after a while, they’ll know it’s there and won’t even come in the first place.

No other insects or Bees will be repelled by Waspinator, it is purely a wasp repellent and the insect life in your garden will be unchanged. If you have a large/medium-sized garden you will still even get wasps in it at the periphery, just not where you want to conduct human activities.

Whilst not an insect repellent, Waspinator allows wasps to carry on their job as natural pest controllers in the periphery of your garden. Beekeepers can use Waspinator to protect their hives from wasp attack.

There are many recent studies alarmed at the decline in the bee population and the catastrophic effect this could have on our lives – almost the entire food supply chain is reliant on pollination by bees at source, even meat and dairy which is fed by bee-pollinated food.

It will certainly deter wasps nests from being built, but we can’t guarantee that it will absolutely stop wasps nesting. If you have wasps nesting in your roof or garage or very nearby, unfortunately for the wasps you will need to have it treated by a pest controller – Waspinator will not make them leave home.

Once the inhabitants are dealt with, a pest controller will often leave the old nest in place as this will act as a wasp deterrent for wasps from another colony and will help stop them nesting there (for exactly the same reasons that Waspinator works). If you are having this done late in the season, make sure there are no hibernating Queens hiding away in nooks and crannies, under lagging, etc.

We have independent scientific field test results that Waspinator is a highly effective wasp repellent outdoors, and we have anecdotal evidence that it deters wasps nesting in houses and outbuildings as long as there is no real nest or hibernating Queen present.

Yes, it does and the scientists we commissioned to test it liked Waspinator just as much as we do. Obviously, we might be biased but we can assure you that they are not! Leading entomologists have endorsed the methodology behind Waspinator, and a field test was undertaken by Snell Scientifics (a leading entomological test house) which proved its effectiveness under stringent test conditions and with the use of lures made of meat, fruit, and other foodstuffs highly attractive to wasps.

So, to answer the question Waspinator does it work? is ‘Yes’. Their conclusions were that Waspinator is an effective wasp repellent and will deter wasps from entering areas which are attractive to them. You can read the full paper here and the entomologists report here.