Wasp nest in your home or garden: who pays to have it removed?

A wasp nest in your shed, under your roof tiles or in your garden is your problem as the owner. There is no national scheme that puts the cost anywhere else.

That feels unfair when the nest is in a cavity wall you did not build, but that is how it works. What you can do is know the cost in advance: ask two controllers for a price before you give the job, even in a hurry.

In public space the council is responsible: a nest in a council tree, in a playground or in public greenery. You report that through the council's reporting line.

How far that goes differs per municipality and is set out on the council website. Some councils only remove nests that pose a danger in public space, others do more.

What almost no council does is remove a nest on private land, even if it is on the street side. Check your own council's website before you count on anything.

Report it to your landlord in writing and wait for an answer before you bring anyone in yourself. If you call a controller first and forward the bill afterwards, you are in a weak position.

What a tenant has to arrange is set out in the Dutch Minor Repairs Decree, with an annex naming the jobs one by one. The Huurcommissie publishes that annex in its policy manual. Put that list next to your tenancy agreement.

If the nuisance stems from a defect in the property, for example a broken roof tile or an open joint that lets the wasps in, that is different from a nest that happens to hang in the garden. Put that distinction in your report, with photos.

A nest in the cavity is often dealt with by opening the cavity or by sealing it. There is a catch there that few people know about.

Under the Dutch Environment Act it is prohibited to kill, catch or deliberately disturb protected animals and to destroy their resting places, even when the animals are not there at that moment. Bats regularly occupy cavity walls in Dutch homes.

Following a Council of State ruling, cavity wall insulation work must first be preceded by a check for bats. The Association of Netherlands Municipalities and Verbeterjehuis explain what that means in practice.

The short lesson for you: do not let a controller foam the cavity shut just because there are wasps in it. Ask what they find and what they do with the opening afterwards.

Wasps defend their nest and they do it many at a time. A spray can from a ladder is the combination that puts people in A and E every year, not because of the stings but because of the fall.

The second problem is that you rarely hit the whole nest. What survives builds on or moves deeper into the structure, and then it is a bigger job in a more awkward spot next week.

If you or someone in the house has an allergy, this is not a job to do yourself at all. Call someone.

A nest hanging free where nobody passes can also simply be left alone. A wasp colony finishes at the end of the season and does not reuse the same nest. That saves you the whole bill.