If wasps settled in close proximity to people with a wasp nest, they can become a real threat to health. In addition to beekeepers and professional exterminators, the fire brigade also offers their services for removing a wasp nest. However, this is subject to various conditions. What these are and what costs have to be expected here can be read at Plantopedia.
basics
who a wasp nest discovered at the house or in the immediate vicinity of whereabouts, usually wishes to be removed quickly. Calling in a specialist is usually the simplest solution, because they have the appropriate experience and equipment and are familiar with the legal provisions. the fire Department Asking for help is one way to get a wasp nest removed. However, this is a voluntary service and cannot be claimed in every case.
Wasp nest with its honeycombs
firefighting operations
Legal provisions for firefighting operations
According to §§ 1 paragraph 1 number 2 of the general aid in combination with 8 paragraph 3 state fire and disaster protection law, fire brigades can provide help according to their possibilities, even if it is not about dangerous events such as fire or flooding. However, according to the law, the citizen does not own the legal claim to non-hazard prevention assistance. This means that fire brigades do not necessarily have to help if the requested help does not serve to avert danger. For this reason, a fire brigade operation to remove the wasp nest is only possible under certain conditions.
- the fire brigade authority has approved such operations
- there is no economic disadvantage for private companies that can provide the same service
- there is an acute health risk for children, people with walking disabilities or allergy sufferers
- the head of operations of the fire brigade sees a legitimate operation
- the wasp nest is in one place
- which poses a particularly high health risk for people when removed
- where there is poor access or no access at all, so that the fire brigade has to create it
No fire service
The fire brigade will not usually remove your wasp nest, even if a professional one does in the middle of the working week exterminator company can be summoned. Many of the providers have a 24-hour service, which also allows operations at night, on Sundays and public holidays. These possibilities must first have been exhausted before a fire service deployment in an "emergency" is justified.
Fire brigades do not help to remove wasp nests because you will have to wait a few hours or days for an appointment with the pest controller or beekeeper. the fire chief will usually not authorize operations involving protection against the wasps. This means, for example, a fence around the nest. In this way, the danger posed by the insects to humans can be reduced and the time until a professional expert can appear can be bridged.
firefighter
exemption
While when ordering a professional usually a permit at the competent Conservation Agency has to be obtained, fire brigades have a general special permit for necessary operations to remove wasp nests. This results from the decision of the operations manager who finds an operation necessary (emergency). The exemption will then come into force automatically. In this case, affected house and apartment owners do not have to obtain prior approval from the city/municipality.
punishment
Penalty despite exemption
If you have already started destroying the wasp nests or killing wasps yourself before the fire brigade arrives without prior approval from the authorities, you cannot invoke the special permit for the fire brigade deployment. This only applies to the performance of the fire brigade. This means you may have committed a criminal offense and could penalty payment in the amount of up to 50,000 euros.
cost fire brigade
Price relevant factors
The actual cost of removing a wasp nest depends on a variety of factors.
- Access to the wasp nest
- locality
- danger risk
- Wasp nest size
- Resettlement or killing of the wasps
Wasps on wasp nest
Access to the wasp nest
The price of the fire brigade depends, among other things, on how well or poorly and quickly the nest can be reached. The higher it is, the more effort has to be made. if necessary firefighting tools be provided because what is available on site is not sufficient. Here, for example, the following questions arise in the direction of cost calculation.
- Can the nest be reached using a household ladder or is a special ladder/lift required?
- Is the way to the nest freely accessible and, if necessary, passable for a fire engine?
- For example, do panels or facades have to be removed to gain sufficient access to the nest?
locality
Popular places are, for example, winding ones places, as found in roller shutter boxes, but they also like to build their nests in house insulation. Here, access is usually much more difficult than, for example, with a nest that was built on a tree. Or is it not visible at all and the wasps fly through a slit, so that a search has to be made first? The higher the effort here, the more the cost calculation increases.
danger risk
It is not uncommon for wasp nests to be found in places where access could pose additional health hazards. This is the case, for example, when they are attached to power lines or a descent into the chimney is necessary.
nest size
The larger a wasp web, the more wasps are to be expected and the risk of an attack increases accordingly. In addition, the fastenings are correspondingly stronger, because as the size increases, Weight increases. This means more work when detaching the nest. Of course, if a poison is used, more of it is needed for hundreds of wasps than if it is a small nest with only ten or 20 wasps.
wasp nest from the inside
resettlement or killing
As a rule, resettlement takes significantly more time than an insecticide spray. Accordingly, it is also more expensive. However, this decision is entirely at the discretion of the fire service. As a rule, they try to avoid killing in any case and carry out resettlement.
costs/prices
Remove wasp nests from trees
A Vespinae nest removal on trees is usually the cheapest and simplest option. Apart from the question of height and access through possibly dense branches, there are usually no further difficulties to be expected. Fire brigades can easily detach the nest attachment from the adhesive base with a spatula or knife and move the nest. For this purpose, a suitable location is chosen that fulfills roughly the same conditions as at the time of the nest removal. The distance is at least three kilometers so that the wasps cannot find their way back. Here you can expect costs between 80 euros and 120 euros.
Angled locality
Removal is more difficult, cumbersome and labor-intensive when the firefighters find wasp nests in nooks and crannies. In this case, for example, the mechanics of a roller shutter box may not allow direct access to the nest attachment. Damage to the nest could cause the resettlement project to fail if by a nest break the wasps suddenly buzzed out. In this case, there is also an increased risk of danger for the firefighters, who must proceed with absolute care for this reason. In addition, a "hidden" location also harbors the risk that the nests can continue to expand undisturbed without being discovered. Depending on the effort, the fire brigade costs average between 150 and 250 euros.
Nest removal with structural difficulties
Has a wasp web somewhere difficult to access in the building fabric if it "settles in" or structural factors prevent access, it can be expensive. The wasp nests are usually only discovered late here, so that the wasps have plenty of time to let their nest grow to enormous sizes. This makes the work of firefighters even more difficult. It is not uncommon for craftsmen to be called in, especially in the case of nests in the roof structure, to create access and/or repair damage that has already been caused by the wasps. Prices around 300 euros for the firefighting performance should be taken into account in the best case - in the worst case the bill can also exceed the 1000 euro mark if the effort involved in removing the wasp nest is correspondingly extensive.
Wasp nest on a window corner
insecticide use
Theoretically, the cost of a killing of wasps by spraying with an insecticide to an average of 70 to 100 euros. However, since the goal of the local fire brigades is resettlement, they will leave no stone unturned to carry this out. This means that a service is already created before the decision to kill is made. These result from the above-mentioned relevant factors of the workload and the use of work equipment and are added to the costs of the killing.
One exception is only given if the nests are immensely large. In the worst case, these can be several meters, making safe detachment and transport to resettlement impossible. Then an insecticide is used directly by the fire brigade. The use of work equipment such as a long fire brigade ladder or a lift can increase the price again between 20 euros and 50 euros.