Angry dad fizzing over wasp nest in the rafters.

AN ANGRY father believes health and safety rules prevented a council's pest controllers from using a step ladder to reach a wasps' nest above his baby daughter's bedroom.

David Roberts called the exterminators after the wasps set up home in the rafters of the bungalow he shares with his wife, Robbyn, and baby daughter, Ava.

But he claimed Sunderland City Council's pest controllers could not carry out the job because they were forbidden from carrying a step ladder.

He finally brought in a private pest destroyer who, he says, dealt with the nest in minutes.

The graphic designer, from Columbia, Washington, said: "You just couldn't make it up could you? "The thing that really concerns me is there was a child involved here.

"We rang the council and they sent pest controllers after a wait of about two days. And when they came we weren't in."

Mr Roberts said he believed they had looked at the problem from the outside and he thought that they must have decided they needed a step ladder. He said: "It's absolutely crazy.

"You'd think that'd be the first thing they'd be allowed to have, given that they're pest controllers."

The private pest controller who Mr Roberts called cost pounds 55, but he says he just feels grateful the wasps are gone because his daughter is only nine months old and believes babies can be vulnerable to the insects' venom.

"When I called the private contractor, I was at the end of my tether," continued the 45-year-old.

"The wasps had got into one of the bedrooms and you could hear the noise of them buzzing all the time.

"I phoned a private contractor up and he was panicking because there was a child involved. He said he would come out at 3am if there was a baby near the nest."

The council's pest controller left a note for Mr and Mrs Roberts, telling them "sadly we cannot treat this location". The letter adds that the wasps "will die off around" November or December and that "they will not return".

Marion Dixon, environmental health manager at Sunderland Council, said: "When the officer visited the property, Mr Roberts was not at home and treating the nest would have involved the officer scaling the slope of the roof carrying all his equipment with him to reach it.

"While the vast majority of nests can usually be treated with special long reaching equipment from the ground, that was not possible on this occasion because of the position of the nest.

"In Mr Roberts' absence, we left a note explaining this to him and describing the life cycle of the wasp with a request that if the wasps were gaining access to the property, he re-contact the department to arrange access for us to visit again. We were not contacted again."

The environmental health manager added: "Although most wasp nests are successfully treated, there will be a small number which present practical difficulties due to their position.

"We already use a number of alternative techniques involving extendable lances and CO2 propelled applicators to overcome many challenging jobs.

"But in a tiny minority of cases, such as this, treatment is not possible under safe working conditions."