Neighbor Calls This Mom “Evil” For Asking Pest Control To Remove A Wasp Nest To Protect Her 5 Y.O. Kid, She Wonders If She’s A Jerk For Doing So
Caring for the environment is great and very commendable. Good relations with neighbors are no less great. However, any mother would not be a mother if she did not care more about the safety and health of her own child, especially if this child is still small.
Toddlers are a constant source of potential trouble for themselves, because curiosity almost always prevails over their sense of security. It will take a long time before they begin to correctly assess the level of potential danger – but for now, all responsibility for their life and health lies with their parents.
For example, this mother also put her child’s safety above everything else, and as a result, it seems that she got into a serious argument with her neighbor. The woman told her story in a post on Mumsnet’s Am I Being Unreasonable Forum, and most people in the comments supported her. However, let’s not get ahead of things.
More info: Mumsnet
The Original Poster was upset upon discovering a wasp nest in her garden as she was worried for her 5 Y.O. son’s safety
Image credits: Dennis Murphy (not the actual photo)
So it all started at the beginning of summer, when the Original Poster found a wasp nest in her garden. We must say that the woman was very upset, because she planned that her 5-Y.O. son would spend a lot of time outdoors this summer.
The fact is that the boy is disabled, and the garden is usually a safe place where he spends most of his waking hours, so the mother was quite reasonably afraid that the wasps might attack the child and harm him.
Image credits: PinkBump2022
According to statistical data, the number of wasp attacks in the 21st century grows from year to year
It must be said that the OP’s fears were not entirely unfounded. So, according to the National Vital Statistics System for the United States, published in 2019, the number of deaths from wasps and similar insects in the country over the two decades of the 21st century has been increasing almost every year. And these statistics still do not take into account probable health problems due to allergies after a wasp sting.
Image credits: PinkBump2022
“Not all allergic reactions are life-threatening, so a mild reaction localized to the sting area can usually be treated at home,” says Gene Conti, MD, an emergency medicine doctor at Halifax Regional Medical Center in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, in an interview with Everyday Health. Nevertheless, the OP was seriously worried as after all, her son already has health problems.
Image credits: PinkBump2022
The OP called pest control and they removed the nest from her garden
So, the woman called an exterminator, who filled the nest with a poison powder, after which he removed it from the garden. More trouble came later when her older neighbor called out the OP when she saw lots of dead baby wasps in her bathroom, covered with the same pest control powder.
Image credits: PinkBump2022
One of the neighbors called the OP “evil” for poisoning baby wasps
The neighbor was indignant and called the OP’s act “evil,” ignoring the mom’s words that she was just worried about her son. The neighbor said that the mother could keep the child inside the house, waiting for the wasps to leave their garden. After all, says the OP, she didn’t want to let the wasps ruin her son’s summer.
Most of the commenters, however, supported the OP and told her she did almost everything right
However, most of the people in the comments supported the OP, noting that the only thing she did wrong was not warning the neighbors in advance about the upcoming pest control. After all, when wasps fly in through your bathroom window, covered in some poisonous powder, it’s not really a pleasant thing.
Image credits: Orangeaurochs (not the actual photo)
According to some commenters, it’s pretty stupid of a neighbor to call the OP “evil” for killing wasps – after all, we don’t consider ourselves evil for swatting flies too! And one of the commenters also noted that when they had wasps in their garden too, they were very afraid for their toddlers. In general, most believe that the OP did everything right.
Now we’d like to know: what do you think of the OP’s behavior? Perhaps you, too, have had to deal with wasps in your garden and maybe even with their stings? As always, we are waiting for your comments and, perhaps, even for some similar stories.
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That neighbor fails biology hard. When they can fly, they are adults. Wasps get pretty aggressive at the end of summer. Once the nest stops growing, there isn't enough food for the adults produced by the larvae so the, pretty much unemployed, adults go look for sugars outside the nest. Which tends to be found a lot around kids. Wasps are predators. They don't die after stinging and don't hesitate to sting just because they find something can be stung. They also aren't endangered in the least.
That and let's not forget that you might be the lucky one to get an allergic reaction when they do sting.
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Wasps are just evil. I do not care if people think otherwise. Bees are cool, wasps suck and can go to hell.
I am with you. I hate wasps. Somebody pointed out on the comments above about pollinators. Wasps are not pollinators anyway...
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Someone getting mad at you about wasps is very very ridiculous. We have waaaaaay to much bad stuff in the world right now for someone to be upset about wasps. If you are one of those people that has to be mad about something no matter how irrelevant or meaningless, please get a life or a hobby. This would be like someone asking my mother not to dust when I was a kid because it is not those innocent dust particles fault that I am allergic. Why don't they just make me wear a hasmat suit in the house. This little old lady sounds like she needs a hug or something.
Been and bumblebees are admired, spiders are gently moved out from the house (we do not have poisonous ones in Finland..) caterpillars are carried to safer places. But for wasps too close to the buildings.. sorry.. it`s genocide..
I'm not shaming this Mom, she felt her disabled child was unsafe. HOWEVER, most people (including myself a couple years back) are highly uneducated about wasps. Solitary wasps like mud daubers and the wasps like semi-social paper wasp (big nest in photo) are not going to attack unless you attack them. Wasps like yellow jackets who are considered social, will swarm and sting. Solitary wasps and semi solitary are amazing pollinating wasps and unlike the honey bee (in the US) most or all are indigenous. One nest does make a difference. I was about to destroy a mud daubers nest but decided to educate myself first by speaking to an Entomology Professor at Cornell University. Documented the wasps life cycle in 2020, nest was in between our window and screen. Currently I have paper wasps building a nest on our porch. I have a child with ASD, and he has learned a lot and is not scared of bees or wasps. He is scared of flys, can't win them all!
They did say they were being regularly stung though, rather than just generally afraid
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It is not unreasonable to take out a wasps nest when you get dive bombed walking out the door. I think the exterminator is being unreasonable by using something that leaves them able to fly away.
It usually takes a few days for them to all die. Anything that can take out a nest in minutes is dangerous to much more then just wasps so these chemicals are phased out in most places. They usually just powder up the entrance so that the poison reaches the queen. Once the queen is dead, the nest dies as well. It takes a few days that way but the environmental impact is next to nothing that way.
Load More Replies... 
Technically the OP has every right to kill off the wasps as they are in HER yard and in HER territory and her son might be deathly allergic to them. The wasps would wipe out the family for being in their territory if they could. The wasp went where they weren't welcome and that's what they get. If the neighbor is so upset about it then maybe she should put a wasp nest right next to her bed and see what happens
Wasps in southeastern U.S. are just like other things in that region. NOT THE SAME. We also have a new wasp that is much more aggressive. The red paper wasp with black legs minds its own business unless disturbed. The black and yellow ones attack if you just walk past them. The photo attached to this post is neither. This photo is a hornets nest, which contains not a dozen wasps, but hundreds of hornets which is deadly to a full grown horse if disturbed. Wasps in the U.S. are not pollinators. They are predators that kill other insects and stuff them into the egg cell as food for the hatching baby Wasps. We have a Magnolia tree that evolved before the dinosaurs that is pollinated by beetles, and our native vegetables like squash, tomatoes and certain beans and corn do not need European honey bees. But most large crops on a global scale need bees in bee hives, descended from Italian and German type bees. These pollinators are no longer growing in the wild in numbers great enough to support global agriculture. They are raised on farms and transported on huge trucks from field to field. Extermination Companies do not kill honey bees. They capture them and put them to work.
OMG what's wrong with the world?!? A grown up mother of a child needs to ask strangers on the web if she right or not in such a stupid situation 🤦🏻♀️
Right so I did a project on wasps and I'm here to be a bit of a wasp nerd for a bit. While not as noteworthy for it as bees, wasps are important pollinators. For example, most figs are pollinated solely by wasps, as well as the multiple species of orchids suspected to be pollinated by wasps alone. However, this is not their only purpose. Yes, they can sting you multiple times. They are predators. These stings let them hunt other small bugs they feel to their larvae. Arguably, they have just as significant a role in controlling aphid populations as ladybirds. Obviously, they are annoying little pains in the a**e but they do have a role. And I'm on the side of the mother here as well, as there are plenty of wasps out there that aren't a danger to a small child. Just wanted to say they are useful and not just there to cause irritation :)
Neighbor doesn’t have screens in her windows? She’s lucky it was only wasps flying in then. Depending on the size of the window and how much she had it open, she could’ve had two-legged pests coming through, and they’re much harder to get rid of.
Wasps and bees can understand us when we speak of them or to them. I always ask the wasp people and the bee people to fly above our heads. I remind them that they have made their nest on our nest. I do point out that there are large trees nearby to which they could transfer their nest. If they want to be most safe from us. The wasps have moved their nests twice, except for one nest that is on a side of our house none of us ever goes to. I remind the wasps and bees once every spring to please fly above our heads. Animals are smart. We never give them credit for being smart. It would be the to the benefit of all living creatures if we showed love and respect to them by regarding them as being intelligent.
I almost died getting stung by wasps. I was in the third grade first day in school in Atlanta, Georgia. A bunch of kids and I were jumping over a hedge waiting for the bus to pick us up. Regretably I missed and hit a hidden wasp nest and all these wasp came flying out and attacked me. I started screaming and all the other kids started scattering. Needless to say, but I missed my first day of school, was taken to Ft. MacPherson medical facility and treated, the doctor told my mother I was very lucky to be alive, and very lucky she brought me in so quickly or I would be here today to write about the experience. My motto ever since that day has been, if it's got teeth and wants to bite, kill it. That goes for dogs too. As a Letter Carrier. Working for the Postal Service this dog came charging at me, barking and snapping at my feet, my reaction was picking the damn dog up by the back of its neck and throwing him out in on coming traffic.
My neighbour is the one who told me about the nest over my front door!
This may be the result of the neighbor's ignorance in assuming that all flying, stinging insects (and not just honey bees) are critical pollinators and are in decline.
Wasps are nasty creatures ! One crawled into MY boot yesterday and stung the hell out of me like 5 times , they're out to get us lol! And their stings hurt like crazy
We had paper wasps at one point. We had jerry the bee guy come out. No poison. He vacuumed them up and fed them to his chickens. This was 10 years ago or so when the company was smaller. I know they also capture honey bees and other productive bees and re-home them. It's a thing of beauty.
You are NOT EVIL for knowing the killing potential of these life-threatening flying insects. AND the Carolina ER doc stands duly corrected. FIRST, some neighbors need to get a life. Starting with minding THEIR OWN business! It's NOT ANY neighbor's business or place to even comment on the op's decision, actions, with a wacked-out FANATICAL sympathy for baby wasps' deaths! Pets, children, AND ADULTS are priority over keeping a nest of deadly pests OUT of your garden. SECONDLY, people usually shriek and SWAT at insects attacking. This NOISE alerts the entire hive of intrusion and MASS SWARMING of THESE INSECTS will result and likely death, even without allergic reactions at play. These TOXINS in the blood affect the spleen of the victim AND EMS may administer EPI BUT THAT can be LETHAL depending upon cardiao/pulmonary health of the victim. AND LASTLY, when one goes into anaphylaxis (shock) NO "GUARANTEE" EXISTS of reversal. IGNORE your neighbor. BEWARE. She sounds "off".
Wasps do nothing but sting. They don't pollinate, they don't help the world. They sting because they can. You don't have to antagonize a wasp to make it sting. And it will sting you a dozen times if you give it the chance.
The thing I'd be worried about is getting sued. If you knew you had a large nest, and someone got attacked by a swarm and had a serious injury, you could be held liable. Most big exterminators don't use "poisons" anymore. I believe they use pyrethrin for wasps, which is harmless.
Should be careful on doing that, must call the expert like us https://www.propestcontroltownsville.com.au/ we can help you removing and make you safe.
How did the wasps get into the neighbour's bathroom? Sensible people have insect screens on all windows.
I don't agree with the neighbour calling OP evil, but I also don't agree with poisoning wasps
That neighbor fails biology hard. When they can fly, they are adults. Wasps get pretty aggressive at the end of summer. Once the nest stops growing, there isn't enough food for the adults produced by the larvae so the, pretty much unemployed, adults go look for sugars outside the nest. Which tends to be found a lot around kids. Wasps are predators. They don't die after stinging and don't hesitate to sting just because they find something can be stung. They also aren't endangered in the least.
That and let's not forget that you might be the lucky one to get an allergic reaction when they do sting.
Load More Replies... Wasps are just evil. I do not care if people think otherwise. Bees are cool, wasps suck and can go to hell.
I am with you. I hate wasps. Somebody pointed out on the comments above about pollinators. Wasps are not pollinators anyway...
Load More Replies... Someone getting mad at you about wasps is very very ridiculous. We have waaaaaay to much bad stuff in the world right now for someone to be upset about wasps. If you are one of those people that has to be mad about something no matter how irrelevant or meaningless, please get a life or a hobby. This would be like someone asking my mother not to dust when I was a kid because it is not those innocent dust particles fault that I am allergic. Why don't they just make me wear a hasmat suit in the house. This little old lady sounds like she needs a hug or something.
Been and bumblebees are admired, spiders are gently moved out from the house (we do not have poisonous ones in Finland..) caterpillars are carried to safer places. But for wasps too close to the buildings.. sorry.. it`s genocide..
I'm not shaming this Mom, she felt her disabled child was unsafe. HOWEVER, most people (including myself a couple years back) are highly uneducated about wasps. Solitary wasps like mud daubers and the wasps like semi-social paper wasp (big nest in photo) are not going to attack unless you attack them. Wasps like yellow jackets who are considered social, will swarm and sting. Solitary wasps and semi solitary are amazing pollinating wasps and unlike the honey bee (in the US) most or all are indigenous. One nest does make a difference. I was about to destroy a mud daubers nest but decided to educate myself first by speaking to an Entomology Professor at Cornell University. Documented the wasps life cycle in 2020, nest was in between our window and screen. Currently I have paper wasps building a nest on our porch. I have a child with ASD, and he has learned a lot and is not scared of bees or wasps. He is scared of flys, can't win them all!
They did say they were being regularly stung though, rather than just generally afraid
Load More Replies... It is not unreasonable to take out a wasps nest when you get dive bombed walking out the door. I think the exterminator is being unreasonable by using something that leaves them able to fly away.
It usually takes a few days for them to all die. Anything that can take out a nest in minutes is dangerous to much more then just wasps so these chemicals are phased out in most places. They usually just powder up the entrance so that the poison reaches the queen. Once the queen is dead, the nest dies as well. It takes a few days that way but the environmental impact is next to nothing that way.
Load More Replies... Technically the OP has every right to kill off the wasps as they are in HER yard and in HER territory and her son might be deathly allergic to them. The wasps would wipe out the family for being in their territory if they could. The wasp went where they weren't welcome and that's what they get. If the neighbor is so upset about it then maybe she should put a wasp nest right next to her bed and see what happens
Wasps in southeastern U.S. are just like other things in that region. NOT THE SAME. We also have a new wasp that is much more aggressive. The red paper wasp with black legs minds its own business unless disturbed. The black and yellow ones attack if you just walk past them. The photo attached to this post is neither. This photo is a hornets nest, which contains not a dozen wasps, but hundreds of hornets which is deadly to a full grown horse if disturbed. Wasps in the U.S. are not pollinators. They are predators that kill other insects and stuff them into the egg cell as food for the hatching baby Wasps. We have a Magnolia tree that evolved before the dinosaurs that is pollinated by beetles, and our native vegetables like squash, tomatoes and certain beans and corn do not need European honey bees. But most large crops on a global scale need bees in bee hives, descended from Italian and German type bees. These pollinators are no longer growing in the wild in numbers great enough to support global agriculture. They are raised on farms and transported on huge trucks from field to field. Extermination Companies do not kill honey bees. They capture them and put them to work.
OMG what's wrong with the world?!? A grown up mother of a child needs to ask strangers on the web if she right or not in such a stupid situation 🤦🏻♀️
Right so I did a project on wasps and I'm here to be a bit of a wasp nerd for a bit. While not as noteworthy for it as bees, wasps are important pollinators. For example, most figs are pollinated solely by wasps, as well as the multiple species of orchids suspected to be pollinated by wasps alone. However, this is not their only purpose. Yes, they can sting you multiple times. They are predators. These stings let them hunt other small bugs they feel to their larvae. Arguably, they have just as significant a role in controlling aphid populations as ladybirds. Obviously, they are annoying little pains in the a**e but they do have a role. And I'm on the side of the mother here as well, as there are plenty of wasps out there that aren't a danger to a small child. Just wanted to say they are useful and not just there to cause irritation :)
Neighbor doesn’t have screens in her windows? She’s lucky it was only wasps flying in then. Depending on the size of the window and how much she had it open, she could’ve had two-legged pests coming through, and they’re much harder to get rid of.
Wasps and bees can understand us when we speak of them or to them. I always ask the wasp people and the bee people to fly above our heads. I remind them that they have made their nest on our nest. I do point out that there are large trees nearby to which they could transfer their nest. If they want to be most safe from us. The wasps have moved their nests twice, except for one nest that is on a side of our house none of us ever goes to. I remind the wasps and bees once every spring to please fly above our heads. Animals are smart. We never give them credit for being smart. It would be the to the benefit of all living creatures if we showed love and respect to them by regarding them as being intelligent.
I almost died getting stung by wasps. I was in the third grade first day in school in Atlanta, Georgia. A bunch of kids and I were jumping over a hedge waiting for the bus to pick us up. Regretably I missed and hit a hidden wasp nest and all these wasp came flying out and attacked me. I started screaming and all the other kids started scattering. Needless to say, but I missed my first day of school, was taken to Ft. MacPherson medical facility and treated, the doctor told my mother I was very lucky to be alive, and very lucky she brought me in so quickly or I would be here today to write about the experience. My motto ever since that day has been, if it's got teeth and wants to bite, kill it. That goes for dogs too. As a Letter Carrier. Working for the Postal Service this dog came charging at me, barking and snapping at my feet, my reaction was picking the damn dog up by the back of its neck and throwing him out in on coming traffic.
My neighbour is the one who told me about the nest over my front door!
This may be the result of the neighbor's ignorance in assuming that all flying, stinging insects (and not just honey bees) are critical pollinators and are in decline.
Wasps are nasty creatures ! One crawled into MY boot yesterday and stung the hell out of me like 5 times , they're out to get us lol! And their stings hurt like crazy
We had paper wasps at one point. We had jerry the bee guy come out. No poison. He vacuumed them up and fed them to his chickens. This was 10 years ago or so when the company was smaller. I know they also capture honey bees and other productive bees and re-home them. It's a thing of beauty.
You are NOT EVIL for knowing the killing potential of these life-threatening flying insects. AND the Carolina ER doc stands duly corrected. FIRST, some neighbors need to get a life. Starting with minding THEIR OWN business! It's NOT ANY neighbor's business or place to even comment on the op's decision, actions, with a wacked-out FANATICAL sympathy for baby wasps' deaths! Pets, children, AND ADULTS are priority over keeping a nest of deadly pests OUT of your garden. SECONDLY, people usually shriek and SWAT at insects attacking. This NOISE alerts the entire hive of intrusion and MASS SWARMING of THESE INSECTS will result and likely death, even without allergic reactions at play. These TOXINS in the blood affect the spleen of the victim AND EMS may administer EPI BUT THAT can be LETHAL depending upon cardiao/pulmonary health of the victim. AND LASTLY, when one goes into anaphylaxis (shock) NO "GUARANTEE" EXISTS of reversal. IGNORE your neighbor. BEWARE. She sounds "off".
Wasps do nothing but sting. They don't pollinate, they don't help the world. They sting because they can. You don't have to antagonize a wasp to make it sting. And it will sting you a dozen times if you give it the chance.
The thing I'd be worried about is getting sued. If you knew you had a large nest, and someone got attacked by a swarm and had a serious injury, you could be held liable. Most big exterminators don't use "poisons" anymore. I believe they use pyrethrin for wasps, which is harmless.
Should be careful on doing that, must call the expert like us https://www.propestcontroltownsville.com.au/ we can help you removing and make you safe.
How did the wasps get into the neighbour's bathroom? Sensible people have insect screens on all windows.
I don't agree with the neighbour calling OP evil, but I also don't agree with poisoning wasps
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