Posts Tagged ‘Wasp Control’

3 Tips to Avoid Wasps This Summer

As summer arrives, so do the buzzing insects that can put a damper on outdoor activities: wasps. These stinging insects can be a nuisance and potentially dangerous, especially for those who are allergic to their venom. However, with a few simple precautions and proactive measures, you can minimize the chances of encountering wasps and enjoy a wasp-free summer. In this article, we will provide you with three effective tips to avoid wasps this summer.

Understanding Wasp Behavior

Before delving into the prevention and safety measures, it’s essential to understand the behavior of wasps. Wasps are attracted to sugary substances and food scraps, making picnics and outdoor dining areas particularly enticing for them. They are also territorial and can become aggressive if they perceive a threat to their nests. Wasps are known for their distinct yellow and black markings and narrow waists, distinguishing them from other flying insects. By recognizing these characteristics, you can be better prepared to avoid encounters with wasps.

Tips to Prevent Wasp Infestations

Clear Away Food Sources

One of the primary attractions for wasps is food. To minimize the likelihood of wasp infestations in your outdoor spaces, follow these guidelines:

Keep garbage bins tightly sealed to prevent odors from attracting wasps.
Promptly clean up food spills and crumbs, especially during outdoor gatherings.
Avoid leaving sugary drinks or open containers of food unattended.

By removing these food sources, you decrease the chances of wasps being drawn to your outdoor area.

Seal Potential Entry Points

To prevent wasps from building nests in and around your property, it’s crucial to seal any potential entry points:

Inspect your home for cracks, gaps, or holes in the walls, windows, and doors. Seal them using caulk or appropriate sealants.
Install screens on windows and doors to prevent wasps from entering.
Cover vents and chimneys with mesh screens to prevent wasps from nesting inside.

Taking these preventive measures significantly reduces the likelihood of wasp infestations.

Use Wasp Deterrents

There are several natural deterrents that can help keep wasps away from your outdoor spaces:

Planting mint, eucalyptus, or citronella in your garden can discourage wasps due to their strong scents.
Hang a fake wasp nest in your outdoor areas. Wasps are territorial and tend to avoid areas where they believe other wasps already reside.
Consider using wasp-repellent sprays or non-toxic traps strategically placed around your property.

Using these deterrents can create an environment that is less attractive to wasps, thus reducing the chances of encountering them.

Safety Measures When Encountering Wasps

Despite taking preventive measures, there may still be instances when you encounter wasps. Here are some safety measures to follow:

Remain Calm and Still

If a wasp is near you, it’s important to remain calm and still. Sudden movements or panic can provoke them and increase the likelihood of being stung. Stay relaxed and avoid making any threatening gestures towards the wasp.

Avoid Swatting or Aggravating Them

Resist the urge to swat at a wasp or try to shoo it away aggressively. Swatting at a wasp increases the risk of getting stung, as it perceives this action as an attack. Stay still and let the wasp fly away on its own.

Seek Professional Help if Necessary

If you have a severe wasp infestation or are allergic to wasp stings, it’s best to seek professional help. Pest control experts can safely remove nests and provide you with advice on long-term wasp prevention.

By following these three essential tips, you can significantly reduce the chances of encountering wasps this summer. Remember to clear away food sources, seal potential entry points, and use wasp deterrents to create an environment that is less attractive to these stinging insects. If you do encounter wasps, remain calm, avoid swatting, and seek professional help if necessary. Enjoy your summer without the hassle and potential dangers of wasp encounters.

How To Prevent Wasps From Building Nests On Your Porch?

When the weather is pleasant, we all like to sit on our porch and enjoy some sunshine while taking in the beautiful view of spring flowers blooming. Unfortunately, wasps enjoy the same things as us.

Known for hibernating during winter and thriving during the warmer months, wasps can become quite a nuisance to homeowners. Summer, spring, and autumn are the ideal seasons where wasps can be seen flying around houses. Wasps build delicate yet, large nests and hence are always on the lookout for a strong surface on which they can build their nest. Roofs, eaves, and corners of porches are ideal locations for wasps to build their nests.

How Dangerous are Wasp Nests?

Having a wasp nest on your porch can be dangerous and troubling for you as a homeowner. However, a porch is one of the most favored locations for wasps to build and expand their nest. Wasps like to build their nests in areas where they can have easy access to indoors and outdoors. With their liking for high protein meat products and sugary food, they utilize porches as a gateway to spot and attack human food.

Tips To Prevent Wasp Nests On Your Porch

Do not leave exposed food on your porch: If you have a meal on your porch, clean up right after you finish eating to ensure that there are no scraps or leftovers on the porch. Wasps can find themselves attracted towards such sources of food, in addition to being drawn towards pet food. It may be a good idea to feed your pets indoors unless your pet’s food bowl is clean and empty when left outside. Move your bird feeders from your porch to an open area in your yard so that the porch does not become a central source of food for wasps.
Cover your garbage bags and cans: Wasps don’t just attack cooked and fresh food. They can relish food from waste bags and cans just as much as fresh food. Your garbage cans can become a focal point for wasps if you do not cover them completely. Do not leave bags of trash open, as the sight and smell of food from garbage bags can attract more wasps towards your porch.
Grow wasp-repelling plants: Many plants are believed to act as a repellant for wasps and can be used to keep them away. The smells of certain plants such as basil, mint, and marigold can drive pests away with ease. This may be a better alternative to spraying chemical pesticides on your porch as they generally have an unpleasant odor.
Clean your porch regularly: Since your porch is exposed to a lot of natural elements such as rain, dust, and winds, it may accumulate waste without you realizing it. Small particles of sugar, pollen, or any food may not be visible to you but can be easily detected by a wasp. By regularly sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming your porch, you will be able to avoid attracting wasps and subsequent building of a nest.

Wrapping Up

Even with the best of precautions, you may find yourself in a situation where wasps have managed to build a nest on your porch. In such instances, you must tread delicately and call a professional pest control officer to assess and exterminate the wasps from your property. Trying to remove a wasp nest yourself can lead to the wasps getting agitated and attacking you, leading to severe stinging and pain.

How Wasps Build Nests

There are thousands of wasp species around the world, and not all of them are social insects. Some wasp species will live on their own, and they pose no threat to homeowners. Most of the trouble caused by wasps comes from the social species, which live in large colonies.

Social wasp nests

Different social wasp species will build their nests in different locations. However, these locations do have certain features in common – they are hidden and they are protected from the elements. Some species will build their nests inside tree or rock crevices, while others will build them underground. Some will even use elements of the home as a suitable nesting area, elements such as the eave.

Whatever location they choose, all nests start with a single queen, which emerges out of its winter hibernation in the spring. Like new ant and termite queens, the wasp queen will build the nest by herself at first, and it will use a malleable pulp that it creates out of wood mixed with its own saliva. The queen will then lay eggs in the cells that it created for the nest. These eggs will hatch, and the queen will feed the larvae to maturity. Once the worker wasps are fully grown, they will take over all the duties of maintaining the colony, and the queen will focus on laying eggs for as long as the nest remains active.

The nest will continue growing both in size and numbers from there. Workers will use the same pulp material as the queen, and the complexity and size of the nest will depend on the species that is building them.

Solitary wasp nests

Solitary species on the other hand will mostly build their nests in the ground, or in small holes or crevices that they may have found during their exploration. Most solitary wasp species are not considered pests, but their nests can sometimes be dangerous when they are underground, and you step on them or mow over them.

How to remove a wasp nest

If you spot a wasp nest on your property, it’s important to get it removed as fast as possible. To do this, you will need the help of a pro, since wasps will be extremely aggressive whenever their nests are threatened. Contact us today if you have any questions about wasps or if you have a wasp infestation on your property, and we will gladly help you out.

Why Yellow Jackets Are Considered Pests

Yellow jackets are common summer and fall stinging insects in the US. They are not the only stinging insects that will fly around and bother people. You also have bees. But while bees are considered beneficial insects, yellow jackets are considered pests. Why is that? Let’s find out.

The aggression of the yellow jacket

Bees are fairly docile insects. For one, they do not routinely bother people, and when they do, they hesitate to sting, because once they sting, they die. They are only really aggressive when their colonies are threatened. Yellow jackets on the other hand are known for their aggression, even when you compare them to other wasp species. They have the capacity to sting multiple times, and they will sometimes sting unprovoked. On top of that, they routinely approach people when there are food sources nearby, because their diet consists of sugars and protein. They are also fiercely protective of their nests, often attacking in swarms whenever their colonies are threatened.

The nesting behavior of the yellow jacket

Wild bee infestations are fairly rare. Most bee colonies that are in or near human settlements are domesticated and grown by beekeepers. Yellow jackets on the other hand are very active when it comes to building nests and expanding their territories. On top of that, their diet brings them closer to our homes, often scavenging in garbage containers. As such, wasp nests are quite common in yards, and even in the wall voids of the home, while bee nests are very rare

The life cycle of the yellow jacket

Bee colonies are able to survive the winter, because of their structure. Yellow jacket colonies on the other hand start to die out during the autumn as temperatures drop. By the time winter rolls around, most of the colony will be dead, with only a few queens surviving, which will hibernate for the winter and start a new colony in the spring. If however, a wasp nest is located in a warm environment, such as inside a wall void or an attic, it will be able to survive the winter, and even grow if the wasps have access to food sources.

How yellow jacket infestations are controlled

Yellow jacket infestations will require the help of a pro to be removed. If you would like to know more about what the yellow jacket control process entails, or if you currently have a yellow jacket nest on your property, give us a call and one of our team members will help you out.

Expert Tips To Avoid Summer Pest Threats

Expert Tips To Avoid Summer Pest Threats

Before heading to the beach or a backyard BBQ, J&J Exterminating in partnership with the National Pest Management Association, is warning that summer pests will be out and about looking to join in on the fun. From stinging insects that send over 500,000 Americans to the ER every year, to mosquitoes and ticks capable of transmitting diseases, experts are urging the public to take proper precautions before heading outdoors.

While it’s nice to relax and enjoy the summer sun, it’s important to not let your guard down when it comes to pest prevention. Taking proper precautions against mosquitoes, ticks, stinging insects and even some species of ants is crucial in protecting against a multitude of pest threats that can be dangerous to your health.

To help keep you and your family safe from pest threats this summer, J&J Exterminating sharing the following prevention tips:

While mosquitoes are active all day long, activity peaks around dawn and dusk so avoid the outdoors at those times to reduce the likelihood of getting bitten.
Be sure to properly apply an EPA-registered insect repellent with at least 20% DEET to deter biting pests.
Wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirts and closed-toe shoes when outdoors, especially in wooded areas or tall grasses, can help prevent tick bites.
Keep tree branches and other plants cut back from the house to deter pests.
Avoid wearing cologne, perfumes or other sweet-smelling products, as these could attract stinging insects and mosquitoes.
If you suspect an infestation of any kind on your property, be sure to reach out to us at for assistance.