European wasps are the summer emergency, and on the peninsula they turn up exactly where people are outside. A nest the size of a golf ball in November is a basketball by March, and they sting repeatedly rather than once. They nest in the ground along fence lines and dune edges, in wall cavities, compost heaps and under eaves. The season peaks February to April, straight through the holiday crowd.
Never block the entry hole yourself, because that drives them through the wall cavity and into the house. Honey bees are a different call: a swarm on a branch is house-hunting and usually moves on, and a local beekeeper will often collect it for nothing. We treat bees only where a colony is in a wall or roof and someone is at real risk.
