Search and Destroy

We seem to be spending a lot of time locating and eradicating wasp nests on and around the house.  7 so far!

Same here, lots of them turning up.
Also have the problem with those funny insects, that take the mud from the side of the pond and then come into the house to find somewhere to make a sort of mud ball in which they lay their eggs. It hardens off like cement and is a pain to clean off. Happens every summer!!

Geotherm wrote:Same here, lots of them turning up.Also have the problem with those funny insects, that take the mud from the side of the pond and then come into the house to find somewhere to make a sort of mud ball in which they lay their eggs. It hardens off like cement and is a pain to clean off. Happens every summer!!

 ...perhaps these mud dauber wasp. If the same as we have you will find lots of spiders in the mud shell. I guess their eggs hatch and eat the spiders....    

Interesting little beasts Mud dauber

Canne .................Does anybody have any ideas on how I could dispose of (as in kill) cane ? I cannot dig them out as they growing in a bank and I do not want to disturb the bank if possible. They are growing (and seemingly multiplying !) to some 4/5mtrs tall. Every year I have a major job cutting them down and I really would like them to stop growing !!!   grrr !!

V

I've seen a number of post on other forums on this subject and it is not easy to deal with. Best we have found is chopping the roots our, not what you want to do I gather. The roots are big/massive but not too deep, so you might want to reconsider. The other is chemicals, with repeat application (not tried it). The other common thing seems to be they grow where there is a good source of water, so you could try cutting off the supply? Both patches we had were where water drained off the drive, so I've assumed this is true. Not tried redirecting the water.

Vicino, if you are not bothered about killing anything else in their vicinity, use caustic soda ..... that'll do it.

Thanks folks,

I suppose I could dig some out, I'm concerned with what happens to the holes that I leave, the soil will no doubt come down from above the digging, unless I suppose I refill with other soil from elsewhere.

There MAY have been water there as we had a small irritating (irrigating maybe ? !) hole in the pool above the area.

The caustic soda solution is a possible no no as there are olive trees nearby - ish. Could you hazard a guess as to what range it would destroy ? If it was 1 mtr, I could cope, much more would be a hazard indeed.

I'll scratch my head and my chin for a bit,

Thanks,

V

"Roundup" a Glyphosate product is good. See:
http://www.bamboo-inspiration.com/kill-bamboo.html
The advantage of Glyphosate is that it doesn't persist in the ground.
The website seems pretty drastic, but I should follow the instructions on the package first.
Cane is very difficult, I know

L'uomodelluna, grazie,

It sounds like hard work but worth me having a go, the tubers seem to be 20cm long and look almost like elongated turnips. Each one seems to sprout more and more canes every year.

I CAN cut them down to ground level, but they still come back.

I also thought as an option, cutting them to ground level, then covering them with some heavy duty black garden matting to blot out the light and sun (they seem to like the sun) and maybe plant a low spreading plant to cover the area. This having the effect that having no light and no sun, may leave them dormant or better still dying ?

Thanks for the help,

V

We had a problem with bamboo some years ago in Australia. It is most difficult to erradicate. This link has usefl information as well: Complete bamboo

Get a Panda Gala, problem solved!

No pandas available, could only get kangaroos or koalas: 

I have used a glyphosate product successfully - but it has to be repeated MANY times. They will weaken their growth each time and eventually they will give up.