Pest of the Month: Wasps

Dealing with a wasp infestation at your home presents its own unique challenges. The most common types of wasps in our area include paper wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets. These insects will build their nests around the home, with up to 10,000 wasps living in the same nest. Dealing with these insects ranges from a minor annoyance to a potentially deadly problem. Learn more about wasps, and how to eliminate them from your yard, keep the wasps away, and to protect yourself and your family from their potentially dangerous and undoubtedly obnoxious presence around your home.

 Appearance

Learning how to identify both wasps and the wasp nests is critical. By spotting these disturbances early on, it will be easier to eliminate the problem before it has a chance to grow. Depending on the species of wasp, their build and color will vary greatly. Most of these insects will have two separate pairs of wings along with a pinched waist. Their colors will vary from the traditional black and yellow to metallic green and even blue.

Habits

Depending on the species of wasp they might be social or solitary. Social wasps are the more commonly thought of as they live in a colony. There can be thousands of wasps all living together in one nest, working together to survive. A solitary wasp instead does not have a colony. While they do lay their own eggs, these eggs are left to hatch on their own.

Wasps are either parasitic or predatory. Parasitic wasps will lay eggs inside other creatures such as spiders. Once the larvae hatch they will feed on the living host. Predatory wasps will attack and kill other insects, which they will feed to their larvae.

 Finding a Wasp Nest

Most of the time a wasp nest will be located in high hard to reach places. These nests will be grey or light brown and contain a swirl pattern around the edge. Chewed wood that has been stripped from various locations make up the bulk of the matter. Even if you are able to identify a wasps nest in your yard, it can be difficult to determine just how many wasps you are dealing with. Keep away from the nest and the area directly surrounding the nest as wasps will attack in large numbers if they think you are a threat. If the nest is far enough removed from your home, leave it alone and call a professional to take care of the problem. This will be useful in avoiding a negative reaction from these insects.