WASPS, YELLOW JACKETS, HORNETS
"When the seasons turn from warm to hot, you better believe that flying insects are going to be feeding, building, mating, and stinging their way through the summer. They build nests in your house or shed eaves or even tunnel underground in your yard. They dance around your clover and lavender, and pester you at patio cook-outs or lawn games. Even people who generally don't mind insects will be doing the "Picnic Panic," flailing their arms and yelling "GET AWAY FROM ME!" when divebombed by a yellowjacket or wasp. Call Presto to remove and treat for wasps before your next event!
HOW We Treat For Wasps
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Find & Remove Nests- Wasps mark good build sites with pheromones, and their nests are just saturated with those attractant pheromones. When we knock down all possible nests (including those in high eaves), we reduce the amount of wasp odor identifying to their friends that the party has started.
Spray Common Nest Spots- Wasps desire the three W's: wood, water, and warmth. We often see wasps in high southern-facing eaves, but they will build anywhere they have access to wood and water to construct their paper nests, and some warmth. Using residual repellant products, we replace their pheromones in spots where wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets typically build or gather.
Baiting- If we've eliminated all nests from your property, but your neighbors keep sending stinging flyers your way, a good bait trap around your property can give your patio the relief you need.
How to prevent wasps
Because wasps need water and wood to build their nests, it follows that minimizing water features and raw wood would stop all wasp activity in its tracks. But there's wood and water everywhere. Monitoring wasp nests and knocking them down as soon as they begin building is a great place to start.
Flowering plants attract stinging insects. Even clover in the grass can be a huge attractant for bees, wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets. If you've got pollinators doing their business where you and your family are mixing it up, consider moving your plants to places where your family isn't trying to enjoy a picnic or a game of Frisbee.
Like so many other insect pests, Yellow Jackets are opportunistic and will build nests in any hole they can find. Filling holes in your siding or soffits makes your home a hard target for feisty flyers and aggressive aerialists.
"Murder Hornets" made the news a few years ago for their aggressive attacks and threat to bee populations in the US. While that kind of story is exciting for news junkies, most of us never would have the opportunity to worry about them for real. What we do deal with is wasps and yellow jackets dive bombing us during a patio cookout, or laying-in-wait in the shed until we have to go get the mower. At Presto we agree: getting stung or bit by flying insects is an awful experience that could be deadly for the 7% of the population who are allergic to stings. For the remaining 93% of the population, we love getting stung, right?
Wasps
You can probably think of half a dozen reasons to knock down wasp nests. Here's one more... I had been called to a home where the wasps had gotten into the attic through a hole in the exterior vent. By the time the homeowner realized they needed help, the wasps had established a significant presence in the attic and had eaten through the dry wall ceiling and were in the upper-level bedroom. The wasps were swarming outside, they were in the attic, they were in the kids bedroom. That night I went home and treated my own vents. I will never be the same having seen what I've seen.
Hornets
Hornets, while not as aggressive as other species, can still be a problem. Similar to wasps, some hornets nests can be found in high areas, such as treetops or even inside attics. However, they also nest underground, which makes them a real nuisance to areas with lots of human traffic. Hornet venom can be extremely potent, and if your child inadvertently disrupts an underground nest, say, in a rodent hole, the results could be tragic, especially to anyone with allergies.
Hornets are also a natural predator of bees. If you’re a beekeeper, hornets can be your worst enemy, and due to their significantly larger size, a single hornet can kill more than three dozen bees within the space of a single minute.
Yellowjackets
Have you ever been minding your own business at a picnic, sipping on a soda, when an uninvited guest flies down and lands on the lip of your can? Say hello to the yellowjacket. Named for their distinctive black and yellow pattern, yellowjackets are unique from other winged insect species because they can sting you multiple times. These stings are often very painful, and even if you don’t have an allergy to yellowjackets prior to being stung by one, you can develop sensitivity after the fact, making avoiding them at all costs even more important. Like hornets, their nests can be found in a wide variety of places, either above or underground.
All three species differ slightly in aggressiveness and where they form their habitat, and all of them can be a nuisance to you and your family when they are not dealt with properly. So what do you do if you have a problem with any of the aforementioned flying pests? Off the shelf sprays can help, but they usually don’t address the root of the problem. Besides that, the average person doesn’t have professional protective gear lying around, so if you upset a nest, and all you have is a spray can to defend yourself, things aren’t going to go well for you. Save yourself the trouble, and get professional help if you have a problem.
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