Maybe 2-3 wasps per hour are lazily coming down the chimney and into the house. I’m not climbing on the roof (wasps or not), and I’m not shooting pesticide up the flue. But… it’s a working fireplace. I have a collection of old newspapers and even a fire log or two (both natural wood and the fake Duraflame type). You can see the temptation.
My hope would be that by lighting a fire, the smoke/fumes (real wood, paper, or Duraflame?) would drive them abandon the nest and rebuild in parts unknown — outside a direct inlet to the house. I’ll then call a chimney sweep to take care of the nest.
On the other hand, my fear is that the nest will fall into the fireplace, and I’ll have a house full of pissed off, flaming wasps flying about the house, the only conciliation being a shiny new Darwin Award.
Only if you’re still jonesing for that Darwin award. Trying to start a fire with a screen over the flue isn’t a great idea - it could restrict airflow enough to send smoke into your house. Plus of course the danger of igniting the screen. Can’t you just close the flue & call an exterminator?
I think he meant a screen between the room and the firebox, not the firebox and the flue. I could be wrong, but I think if it slowed airflow if would just put the fire out. I’d be more worried about the screen getting REALLY hot and warping or falling onto whatever is in front of the fireplace.
BTW, IMHO I would close off the firebox to the house with a screen or cardboard of something and call an exterminator. I wouldn’t bother with a fire, that has the potential to make things much worse if it goes wrong (can wasps be vengeful?).
BTW2 there are some places that will come an remove wasp nests for free.
Regardless of whether the OP goes with screen+fire or just screen, I would not recommend a screen made of anything other than metal mesh. Wasps can and do chew right through paper products, drywall (I had this experience in a rental property - they gnawed right through the ceiling over one girl’s bed, that was quite exciting), etc.
A screen intended for use with a fireplace works just fine with a fire going, that being what it was designed for after all. Just make sure there are no gaps around the perimeter of the screen through which wasps could come.
I don’t see what the big deal is. Just burn them out. Most fireplaces have a glass door or mesh thing that you can close. If anything comes down it probably won’t make it past the fire, let alone the spark screen thing. If anything does just wait with a fly swatter.
I don’t think wasps would have a hard time getting through fire/spark mesh, it’s a pretty open weave, and you have to figure they’d be pretty pissed off.
I’d go with the fire and expect a very mild situation. The wasps will fly up away from the heat and probably abandon the nest. Its possible that some will be overcome from smoke or heat and fall down but I doubt that any of them will be in any frame of mind for attack.
I’ve taken out live nests on my eaves by waving a torch below them. (yes, the hose was on and ready in case the nest caught fire)
I second this. crank up the fire and let heat/carbon monoxide do the work. If you put window screening in front of the fireplace make sure it’s aluminum and not plastic or you’ll set the house on fire.