Wasps wasted

Early in the year, wasps are welcome visitors: they gobble up aphids and caterpillars by the dozen to feed to their young, leaving your plants pest-free.

By summer, though, they become a nuisance, eating holes in ripening fruit and swarming over picnics, making outdoor life almost impossible and occasionally downright painful.

You don't have to destroy wasp nests unless it's posing a risk to you or your family. But it's wise to keep the insects at bay using a combination of deterrents and traps.

Please ask the staff in our Henley on Thames garden centre for more information and advice about controlling wasps in your garden.