Center Harmony

Yellow jackets can build nests inside your house, in walls and in the attic, and getting rid of them can become much more than just a nuisance. It can be painful, take plenty of time or money, or all three together.

Useful Facts to Know about Yellow Jackets

Yellow jackets are also often called hornets. They are social insects, living in large colonies which include a queen and scores of workers and warriors. Becaufse of their size and coloring – alternating black and yellow stripes on the abdomen – the workers and the warriors are often confused with honey bees. In order to distinguish the honey bees, one must look for brown dense hair on the body and the flat behind legs that hold pollen. Honey bees can sting only once while the yellow jackets can do it time and time again, making them an even a bigger annoyance.

Yellow jackets are useful when it comes to farming because they kill harmful insects, but definitely don’t serve any good purpose around your house.
The good news is that colonies are seasonal and will disappear as the warm weather ends. Only fertilized queens live through the winter. They come out in April and May when the yellow jackets build their paper nests in your garden or house.

Use Expert Help

While there are many homemade and commercial methods to get rid of the pesky invaders, most of them work outdoors and do little inside. This is why, the best advice for those who end up with hornets nests in the house, is to call an exterminator. People who have used expert help say it is not that pricey and it ends up being money well spent. Many exterminators also offer pesticide-free methods such as vacuuming the nest in the wall through its entrance. It is not recommended that you ever attempt this on your own.

How to Deal with Yellow Jackets on Your Own

Prevention is a Must

For those not patient enough to wait for the chill to kill the colony, or not wanting to shell cash on professional help, prevention is the first thing to consider. Protein based food, including pet food, and sweets are the most attractive for these scavengers and should be kept secured and sealed. Opened soda bottles and cans, and anything of the sort, should never be left sitting on counters or the porch, empty containers should be properly disposed of, with garbage bins’ lids tightly closed. It is also crucial to caulk and seal holes in the siding or the roof of the house since this is how yellow jackets get inside and where they prefer to build their nests.

Locate and Eliminate the Nest

If yellow jackets in your attic are already a fact, the first thing to do is to locate the nest. A good method is to listen through the walls and the ceiling with a stethoscope. Once you find the entrance to the nest, it is recommended that you sprinkle powdery insecticide around the hole – it will kill the workers and the warriors that wander out. Some of them will also bring the poison inside, which will further reduce the hornets’ population.

The entrance hole should be patched and sealed, but not without first injecting, if possible, dust insecticide inside the nest or inserting the nozzle of an insecticide can and spraying. Otherwise some of the yellow jackets will chew through the wall and come out.

Use Caution and Common Sense

When dealing with insecticide, always keep in mind small children and pets and remember that hornets are aggressive animals. Again, if you cannot afford a professional, or there isn’t one around, you must wear protective clothing, avoid perfumes, hair spray or bright colors. Also, the best time to attempt and eradicate the problem is the evening, especially colder ones, since yellow jackets do not fly in low temperature or in the dark.

Traps

Traps – commercial and homemade work, but they will never get rid of the entire colony. They kill only the workers and the warriors, who leave the nest. The queen will remain inside and reproduce unharmed.

Homemade traps are best when they are made of protein (chicken meat, fish or liver) or sweets mixed with insect poison. For those who have small children and/ or pets, and want to do it completely pesticide-free, protein or sugary baits could be hung over a container filled with soapy water. The yellow jackets, taking a large piece of the bait, will fall in the water and drown.

Some say that protein baits work better in spring and summer when yellow jackets need protein to feed the young while the sugary baits are best for the fall. It is recommended that baits are put outside early in the spring because they will, most likely, kill many workers and reduce the number of future nests, which takes us back to the importance of prevention.

Commercial Insecticide Sprays

Despite the wide availability of insecticide sprays, always keep in mind that inside the house, they could be harmful and do very little to solve the problem and get rid of the intruders.

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