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The Different Wasp Species That You May Find In Your Garden

Wasps are annoying to say the least. They come on your property, bother you when you’re going about your day, and they may even attack you and sting you. Worst case scenario, you get an allergic reaction to the sting and you end up in the hospital. However, not all wasps are trigger happy. In fact, some wasps can’t even sting. And once you move past the whole “ruining your summer” issue, wasps can be quite interesting insects.

The scavenger species

You’re having a picnic and you start to hear that all too familiar buzzing noise. Not again! You have just been visited by the German yellowjacket, which is currently looking at all the food you brought and trying to figure out what to do with it. Should it steal some of your ham to take it back to the larvae? Or maybe it should take a sip of soda and get a sugar rush. Wine or beer would be even better, since they have the same taste as fermented fruit. Despite being a nuisance, the wasps are fulfilling their natural role as scavengers, removing leftover meat, sugar or fermenting plants from the environment.

The architects

What is that grey lump of mass up there in the tree? Closer inspection should reveal that it is a wasp nest, in particular the nest of a bald-faced hornet, which can be technically considered a yellowjacket. However, these hornets nest above ground. The nests themselves are quite interesting structures – construction begins in late springs with a queen building the core of the nest where it lays eggs. Once the eggs have hatched into workers, the hive gets busy, scraping up wood pulp, chewing it into strips, and then adding these strips one at a time building up the nest. Bald-faced hornets are often harvested and then shipped off to medical laboratories where they are used to create immunizations for people who are allergic to wasp stings.

The intelligent wasps

You’ve been waiting all winter to barbecue outside, only to open your grill and find a nest of paper wasps. These wasps live in complex, social structures that are sometimes started by multiple queens that battle it out for dominance. The winner of this struggle is able to lay the most eggs, while others help the rest of the colony with child care, nest maintenance and foraging. Paper wasps are also able to recognize individuals within the nest based on the unique markings on each other’s faces. Queens will also size each other up, and observe each other during struggles for dominance. Based on these observations, a queen will decide if she wants to challenge the dominant female.

While interesting, wasps can still be a giant nuisance, and they will attack if they feel threatened. Needless to say, you do not want them nesting on your property. If you have any problems with wasps, contact us today and we will help you remove them.

Why Should You Keep Your Distance from The Bald-Faced Hornet

Mother Nature must have some reasons to create the fearful insects such as bald-faced hornets that belong in our most lurid nightmares but always makes an appearance in the cold light day.

However, the pest controllers secretly question the motives of Mother Nature. Let’s understand the reasons why you should keep your distance from bald-faced hornets?

What is the bald-faced hornet?

Bald-faced hornets have a black and white long smooth body found throughout the USA. These wasps species are more aggressive and live in wasp colonies. They feed on nectar, other insects, and sweet fruits for their survival.

Habitat and nests:

The queen wasps build the nest around 3 feet off from the ground and as high as 60 feet. The nest has gray color with many compartments and a papery outer covering. The nest of these wasps species is visible on the trees, shrubs, vines, sheds, and utility poles.

Reasons to fear the bald-faced hornets:

As you have read, the habitats and nesting methods of these aggressive wasps, let’s understand the reasons to fear these wasp species:

Bald-faced hornets nests are fearsome:

The nest of these wasp species looks like an engineering masterpiece. They build small colonies, and it gets massive during the summer season. They develop their nests around three feet off the ground and as high as sixty feet. The papery gray nests made from the chewed wood and mixed with saliva contain multiple hexagonal combs.

The nest contains as many as 700 hornets, and only an experienced pest controller can remove these pesky pests.

Bald-faced hornets are aggressive:

Bald-faced hornets will attack anyone invading their colonies, unlike other wasp species who will sting if they feel threatened.

These wasps get agitated by outside noises and noise vibrations traveled through the air. For a homeowner who is moving on a lawn with a sweet voice singing and encounters a bald-faced hornet nest, the surprise waiting at the next corner will take to the trip of an emergency room.

The sting of a bald-faced hornet is wicked:

The sting of these aggressive wasps is painful, causing severe allergic reactions. If one shows severe symptoms, seek medical assistance immediately.

They have a good memory:

Bald-faced hornets can remember the faces, and unfortunately, there is no witness protection program to guide these wasps. So, if a human inadvertently returns to the nesting area of these wasps, they will wait with all the patience and target the victim. They are known to fly to the invader’s home or nest to sting them aggressively for committing the crime.

Bald-faced hornets prefer live prey:

Bald-faced hornets prefer to eat live prey or insects as they die while struggling for their lives. These wasps are highly efficient killing machines.

Bald-faced hornets love light:

Shut out the lights and open the windows if you want to remove the bald-faced hornets out of your house. These wasps get attracted to trash receptacles. Make sure to clear the clutter.

Wrapping up:

If the wasp nest does not endanger people, leave them alone, as wasps are beneficial for nature. However, make sure that the infestation does not increase as bald-faced hornets are aggressive, and there are high chances of getting stung. Call professional experts to know about ways to remove these wasps species.

This Louisiana Wasp May Keep Yellow Jackets In Check, But They Are Not Your Friends

Louisiana’s hot and humid climate makes the state an ideal home for all kinds of insect pests. Surprisingly, some insect pests in the state are partly beneficial to residents, as they kill other insect pests. While most insect pests within the state do not provide this free pest control service, but the bald-faced hornet happens to be one insect that is both dangerous and beneficial due to its habit of preying on other dangerous wasp species.

Despite being called a “hornet” the bald-faced hornet, and all other hornets, are actually just a particular group of wasps. The same is true for “yellow jackets,” as all yellow jacket insects are wasps. In fact, some wasps are considered both yellow jackets and hornets, and this is the case with the bald-faced hornet. The bald-faced hornet is related to the yellow jacket, and they are often categorized as such, but they are not “true” hornets, as their bodies are stout and lightly colored. These hornets are considered by experts to be beneficial due to their habit of hunting flies and other yellow jackets. However, experts are also quick to point out that bald-faced hornets are also extremely aggressive, and there have been reports of this species attacking people without provocation.

Adult bald-faced hornets capture and chew flies to pieces before feeding them to their larvae. These hornets can be found in just about every location of Louisiana including forests, backyards, meadows, gardens and urban areas. These hornets are, like most hornets, extremely aggressive and they will not hesitate to attack when they perceive a threat or when their nest becomes disturbed. Although bald-faced hornets can be found in most US states, they are particularly numerous in Louisiana, as the subtropical climate in the state allows these hornets to easily overwinter by hiding away within hollow logs and plant matter. This wasp species’ nest resembles a grey football and they are often found attached to tree branches, shrubs and the corners of a building’s exterior. If a nest is spotted, a pest control professional should be contacted for its removal in order to prevent attacks.

Have you ever sustained a sting from a hornet?

Are People With Venom Allergies The Only Victims Of Fatal Bee, Wasp And Ant Stings?

While there exists plenty of arthropod species that can inflict painful bites or stings to humans, very few arthropod species are considered medically significant. Almost all medical professionals agree that black widows and recluse spiders are the only spiders in the US that are medically significant, but most people who have sustained a bite from one of these spiders recovered without professional medical intervention. However, a little more than 100 people die from arthropod-related injuries every year in the US, and most of these fatalities result from honey bee and yellow jacket envenomations. But is venom really the culprit in these fatalities? After all, the exact cause of death in the vast majority of fatal wasp and bee envenomation incidents is anaphylactic shock, which is not technically death by venom toxicity.

Anaphylactic shock is an extreme allergic response to a foreign material, and this condition is fatal unless proper medical treatment is administered in time. Those with an allergy to Hymenoptera venom (bees, wasps and ants) are at high risk of experiencing anaphylaxis following one or a few stings. It is often assumed that most people are not allergic to arthropod venom, and therefore, most people are not at risk of anaphylaxis following bee or wasp stings, but this is not exactly the case. While some people are born with a sensitivity to certain arthropod venoms, those who are not can develop a sensitivity to venom in response to repeated stings, but others may become less sensitive with each sting sustained. It is not known why repeated stings cause some people to develop an allergy to venom while others become more tolerant of it, but those who have experienced a progressive worsening of envenomation symptoms with each successive Hymenoptera sting should visit an allergy specialist or immunologist for proper testing.

People who do not have a venom allergy can die in response to numerous stings inflicted by swarming wasps and bees. Wasp swarms are particularly dangerous, as each individual wasp inflicts stings repeatedly. Some experts believe that the rate of annual arthropod-related fatalities in the US may be higher than reported. For example, a small number of deaths that have officially been attributed to heat stroke or heart attacks may have been caused by arthropod envenomations, and some fatal car accidents may occur in response to drivers sustaining arthropod stings.

Have you ever sustained a painful spider bite?

Yellow Jackets Will Soon Be Scavenging In Residential Areas

Since Yellow Jackets Will Soon Be Scavenging In Residential Areas, It Is Important To Keep In Mind That Death Rates Resulting From Wasp Attacks Have More Than Doubled In Less Than 20 Years

With the exception of paper wasps (Polistes sp.), yellow jackets belonging to the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula are the most commonly managed stinging insect pests on residential and commercial properties nationwide. Given their preference for nesting and foraging in urban suburban areas where they benefit from human activity, the vast majority of medically significant and fatal yellow jacket envenomation incidents occur on residential properties, usually after individuals disturb nests. In the majority of cases, such nest disturbances are accidental, but it is not uncommon for homeowners to fall victim to attacks while attempting to remove yellow jacket nests without protective gear or professional pest control assistance.

Every year between 2000 and 2017, an average of 62 people in the United States succumbed to Hymenoptera envenomation, which is another way of saying they died from stings inflicted by wasps, bees and/or ants. Yellow jacket species were responsible for most of these fatalities, and nearly all died due to a severe allergic reaction to venom, or anaphylactic shock. Just last year in neighboring Mississippi, a 66 year old Adams County Sheriff deputy, Wayne Rabb, died due to anaphylactic shock caused by a single yellow jacket sting he sustained in his front yard. Despite being advanced in his years, Rabb was reportedly in good shape, and he had just learned of his allergy to insect venom not long prior to sustaining the fatal sting. Although the details leading up to Rabb’s attack were not reported, it seems likely that a wasp nest located nearby had become disturbed, and consequently, defensive toward outside threats.

A 2017 yellow jacket attack in Massachusetts occurred while the victim had been mowing his Foxborough lawn. The vibrations produced by the lawnmower likely disturbed ground-nesting German yellow jackets. Most yellow jacket species tend to nest in ground burrows as opposed to establishing aerial nests in trees, bushes, decks, and in structures. Yellow jackets excavate one or a few small holes in the ground to enter and exit their nest, and these holes are easy to miss, especially when obscured by long grass and other surrounding vegetation. Because of this, keeping lawns well groomed during the summer and fall seasons is tremendously important. Now that fall is quickly approaching, the flower nectar that yellow jackets rely on for sustenance will soon become scarce, and nests will become overcrowded with offspring. This will prompt yellow jackets to ditch their nests to seek out food scraps in residential and urban areas. When one or more foraging yellow jackets are encountered, it is best to let them explore and move on, rather than shoo them away.

Do you encounter foraging yellow jackets often during the summer and fall?

Archive for the ‘Wasps’ Category

The Different Wasp Species That You May Find In Your Garden

Why Should You Keep Your Distance from The Bald-Faced Hornet

This Louisiana Wasp May Keep Yellow Jackets In Check, But They Are Not Your Friends

Are People With Venom Allergies The Only Victims Of Fatal Bee, Wasp And Ant Stings?

Yellow Jackets Will Soon Be Scavenging In Residential Areas

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