Howdy all,

if this isn't an appropriate place for this pardon me, I'm new here. Just let me know and I'll be happy to post appropriately.

We appear to have a paper wasp nest inside the eaves over our back door. They are definitely not bees, yellow jackets, or mud daubers. If it were elsewhere in the yard I'd probably just leave it, but over the back door... that's tough to live with.

They've been flying inside a light fixture that's missing its cover... they got up inside one of the screw holes on the fixture. We taped up that hole one evening and heard buzzing but saw no escapees. I've seen no escapees since but haven't taken a whole lot of time to observe yet.

So my questions are... will they starve/dehydrate in there? How long will that take? We had a new roof put on literally two days before we taped up the hole, but will they still just find a different exit and continue nest building? (This is a 1960 house in decent shape)

I need to check on some things in the attic but don't dare go in there at the moment... any advice welcome. Thanks.