Wasps in bird box

" still remember the man from the the Council stating to me, that all wasps build their nests in their chosen place. It is the smell of their old lodgings that bring them back to the same spot each year. Miss a bit of the 'removed' nest and they will find it again.
I have heard of people removing 'old' nests, and make sure they are far away for their properties"

This is total rubbish, wasps do not return to redundant nests and there is no actual need to remove a dead nest. You may get a nest in a similar place a year or two later but this is chance based on he fact that the position (usual south facing) is good. There is no pheromone attraction.

The blokes insistence on nest removal was probably so he could charge a bit extra or just plain ignorance.

With Honey bees there is a pheromone attraction plus that of the honey so any trace of comb must be removed but not with wasps.

 

You are correct Paul they do not return to the old nest.

 

Last year i used to sit for weeks under a tree that seemed to make wasps drunk, as they used to fall out of my tree. I sat under that tree with dozens of wasps munching on stuff, but they never did me any harm. I'm wondering if there was a nearby nest then because they've not appeared this year by which time i thought they had before.

Dont kill them.