While repairing a gutter on my roof I spotted a small patch of what looked like tiny eggs under the brick eaves (see photo, left). The patch was no larger than 2 centimetres by 1 centimetre. Each egg was the size of a pinhead. What are they, what creature is responsible and are they common in the UK?Steve Roderick, Bishops Itchington, Warwickshire, UK
Common Houseflies lay small, pinhead-sized white eggs in sticky clusters (although usually on food), but given the size I think the most logical explanation is a fly or insect of some description. Without analysing the eggs and looking at the Larvae of the unhatched ones (I assume the full-white one are unhatched but cannot see from the resolution of the picture) or otherwise analysing the eggs, it is difficult to identify the creature responsible due to the vast number of potentials from House flies to Woodworm.
These look uncannily like the eggs of the Alien creature in the film of the same name. The real worry is that those creatures were able to grow at phenomenal rates with hardly any food. If I were you I would run like hell!
It does look like a wasp nest to me. Knock it down now, and check back in spring. Do not burn them out. Too many people have burned down their house that way. Use a high powered spray designed to kill wasps. Of course, if they aren't bothering anyone or getting into the house, leave them be.
It's nothing like an ordinary wasp's nest. Wasps start with one queen who starts a nest usually suspended under a wooden structure like a garden shed roof. It consists of a small canopy like an umbrella, 2-3 cm diameter, attached to the roof by a short stalk, initially containing 3-4 cells, each 5-6 mm diameter. The cells are open at the bottom. The queen raises a few workers. When they are able to help, she goes into full-time egg-laying.The image is nothing like that and the eggs are about 1 mm diameter. There is no canopy, too many cells for a wasp and they are the wrong way up.Without doubt it is something constructed by an insect that has learned to play "go."