Households urged to spread £1.20 kitchen staple to get rid of wasps

Love them or loathe them, wasps are a valuable part of the garden's wildlife, pollinating flowers during the summer.

With their impressive narrow-bodied yellow and black stripy coat, the top species in the UK, the yellow-coats, are unmistakable - and look far more nimble than the fluffy bees of the UK. But they are primarily known for their painful sting, and tend to hover around open drinks where they can ingest sugar to stay alive.

So it's no surprise that many Brits will do anything to keep them away. As previously reported by , pest control Adam Juson from Merlin Environmental shared his top five affordable and simple tricks that will help you keep wasps as far away as possible. And instant coffee is one of them.

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Chances are you’ve already got instant coffee somewhere in your kitchen cupboards or even own a . If not, just pop to your local supermarket or convenience store where a tin of instant coffee granules will cost less than £2.

The best thing about it is that it’s not expensive, straightforward and doesn’t require a lot of effort or maintenance - and it does the job.

As per the instructions, you only have to put some instant coffee powder in a fire-proof container and ignite it until the granules glow. Adam Juson explained: “The burning coffee powder gives off smoke and scent that wasps can’t stand. Don’t worry about using fresh coffee - if you have a coffee machine, leftover grounds work just as well.

“Remember that coffee grounds will get very hot, so keep them out of each of the little ones," he added. “On the topic of smoke, almost all smoke will disturb wasps which means incense sticks are a great addition to your outside gathering. Plus, they smell great too!”

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Britain houses around 9,000 species of wasp, which means you'd be hard-pushed not to see one each summer. Among the various types are microscopic parasitic wasps that are so tiny they cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Coffee deters other insects too

Not only will it be keeping the wasps away, but also other insects such as ants, mosquitos and . This is because they dislike the strong smell of the coffee grounds, and when combined with smoke, they will be looking for other places to pester.

By using coffee grounds, it’s also a non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternative to using chemical wasp repellents that can also be harmful to your health.