How to Prevent Aggressive Fall Wasps

Learn how to prevent aggressive yellow jackets in the Las Vegas area during the fall - Western Exterminator of Las VegasHave you ever noticed that yellow jackets in the Las Vegas area are more aggressive during the fall? You’re not wrong! As summer comes to a close, these wasps notoriously become more hostile as they leave their nests and seek out resources to survive the winter. This is when they typically will invade outdoor barbecues and picnics in the fall. Because yellow jackets can sting more than once, it’s important to know how to protect you and your family from their aggressive behavior throughout the autumn months.

Yellow Jacket Life Cycle

During the spring months, a queen yellow jacket will begin to build a nest before laying her eggs. Once the eggs begin to hatch in the springtime, the wasp population can grow exponentially throughout the summer—colonies have been known to contain up to 5,000 members. When summer winds down, many yellow jackets leave the colony to mate, or are forced out due to limiting resources. This is often when these stinging insects are at their most aggressive as they fight to survive, which is when they frequent more residential areas.

Preventing Wasps in the Fall

Bees and wasps are a normal part of daily life and are valued in our environment. That said, they can also be dangerous, especially in the fall and even more so if someone in your family is allergic to their sting! For that reason, it’s important to know how to keep them away from your outdoor events throughout the fall. Some of the ways you can keep yellow jackets away include:

  • Cover all food and garbage with tight-fitting lids.
  • Don’t wear bright colors or wear fragrant perfumes.
  • Inspect your property for signs of nests in eaves or holes.
  • Never walk barefoot through grassy areas.
  • Get rid of sources of standing water and place covers on pools.

Professional Yellow Jacket Nest Removal

Because yellow jackets are so aggressive in the fall, it can be hard to stop them from invading your outdoor events. Especially when nests are involved, it’s best to contact a professional with experience controlling yellow jackets and safely removing nests. The team at Rentokil can not only control any current problems you’re having, but also help protect you and your family from future yellow jacket invasions.

Are Yellow Jackets in Las Vegas Dangerous?

Yellow jackets can be dangerous in the Las Vegas area. Learn how Western Exterminator can protect you!Everyone learns at a young age that yellow jackets are not to be trifled with. Unfortunately, everyone comes in contact with them at some point or another, especially during the spring and summer in the Las Vegas area. Unlike other small stinging insects, yellow jackets have the ability to sting repeatedly, making their venom especially dangerous to those allergic to the flying insect.

How to Identify Yellow Jackets

Because some types of stinging insects are more dangerous than others, it’s important to learn how yellow jackets differ from bumble bees, honey bees, hornets, paper wasps, and more. Some of the identifying characteristics of yellow jackets include:

  • They are typically between ⅜ and ⅝ of an inch, are yellow and black in color, and have a thinner waist than bees.
  • Yellow jackets prefer to nest on or near the ground and have nests made of paper carton.
  • They are known to be especially aggressive when defending their nest or population.

Why are There Yellow Jackets Near my Home?

Yellow jackets are known to be attracted to nectar or other sugary liquids, which is why they’re frequently found flying around outdoor trash cans, plants, and food. If your Las Vegas home has a lot of flowers outside or if you’re in the habit of leaving the lids of trash cans open, you’re likely no stranger to seeing yellow jackets each and every year as warm weather approaches. Other common attractants for yellow jackets include pet food, fruit trees or fallen fruit, and even other insects such as caterpillars, spiders, and flies.

Are Yellow Jackets Harmful?

It’s always best to err on the side of caution when you witness a yellow jacket in or near your home. When threatened or seeking out sources of food, they have been known to chase and hover around their victim. As mentioned previously, yellow jackets do not lose their stinger after one attack as some other stinging insects do; instead, they are capable of repeatedly stinging and their stings are known to be painful. While a couple of stings aren’t harmful to most people, anyone allergic to yellow jackets may be in extreme danger if stung and must immediately seek medical attention.

Yellow Jacket Prevention Tips

The best way to control yellow jackets during the spring and summer in Las Vegas is by preventing them from being attracted to your home in the first place. To keep yellow jackets away from your property, make sure to implement some of the following tips.

  1. Remove or maintain their sources of food, including other insects, nectar-filled flowers, fruit trees, and more.
  2. Cover trash cans with tight-fitting lids and do not leave food, drinks, or garbage out.
  3. Have any nests or suspected nests removed promptly by a professional pest control company.
  4. Keep a clean, tidy yard and remove debris that could attribute to the establishment of nests.

Professional Yellow Jacket Control

At Western Exterminator, we know how scary yellow jackets can be, especially if you or a family member are allergic to their sting. It is absolutely essential to call a professional when dealing with a yellow jacket infestation, as trying to remove a nest yourself can lead to a disastrous outcome. The experts at Western Exterminator can be trusted to promptly and reliably remove yellow jackets from your property; give us a call today to learn more!

Why Do I Have Wasps in Winter?

Western Exterminator provides exceptional paper wasp control and removal in Las Vegas Nevada.The last thing you expect in the dead of winter is to witness wasps in or around your home. If they are seen, they are most likely paper wasps and are probably the future queens of a new colony. During the early fall, paper wasps begin to die off. Some of the females, however, remain alive in order to seek out new places to nest in a few month’s time. If you notice one of these wasps in your Las Vegas home during the winter season, it’s important to understand why it’s there and what you should do about it.

Paper Wasps in the Winter

After their male counterparts have died off, some surviving female paper wasps will begin to seek out a protected place to overwinter. Their winter survival guide includes some of the following behaviors:

  1. Because your home is a safe, warm escape from the dropping temperatures outdoors, female wasps often enter a house through small crevices near the roof lines.
  2. Once inside, they will often take up residence inside attics or in wall voids.
  3. When they have settled in, they will enter a state of diapause in order to suspend their development through the coldest months of winter.
  4. They likely won’t be active again until spring, but warmer winter weather can compel them to awaken early.
  5. When they do become active again, they’ll start to fly around looking for an escape route to start a new nest outside. This is when homeowners are most likely to see them inside the house.

Preventing Wasps in the Home

Thankfully, winter paper wasps inside homes are often sluggish and can easily be removed. However, populations are still known to occasionally grow in the winter, in which case you need to call a professional. Wasp stings can cause pain and irritation, so removing wasps from inside the home is of the utmost importance. The best way to avoid dealing with wasps inside your home is to implement preventative measures to keep them outside:

  • Inspect your property to identify and seal any cracks or holes in your home’s building.
  • Pay attention to any openings in porch ceilings and around roof eaves, attic rafters, windows, and door frames.
  • Be vigilant about checking your attic and walls for signs of nests of all pests throughout the year.

Professional Wasp Services

If you notice a wasp inside your home during the colder months, it’s smart to call a professional who can check for signs of nests and populations. At Western Exterminator, we are dedicated to helping our customers stay pest-free during the winter and year-round!

Why are Yellow Jackets So Aggressive in Late Summer?

Everyone in Las Vegas has had at least one picnic ruined by yellow jackets. Whether they’re defending a nest or swarming over your backyard barbeque, most people can recognize this species instantly. Yellow jackets are a type of wasp, and their stings can be deadly. By understanding the behavior of yellow jackets, and wasps in general, you can minimize the risk of getting stung. Protect your yard, yourself, and your family from harm!

Late Summer Wasp Behavior in Las Vegas

Both yellow jackets and wasps hatch in spring, and by mid and late summer, their populations are beginning to outgrow the nest, and winter is coming. Because they’re close to the end of their lifecycle, they are more aggressive than ever. Yellow jackets also look for both sugar substances and protein, looking for extra resources to support themselves and the nest itself. The yellow jackets are forced to look even further for food because of their high numbers.

Here are some basic sources of wasp attraction:

  • Your picnic or backyard barbecue: yellow jackets will eat anything they can land on, and your hamburgers, soda, and watermelon are ideal food sources for wasps.
  • Clothing: bright colors look like fruit, and perfume can mimic flowers.
  • Eaves and holes: if you see a yellow jacket nest early in spring, and it’s still small, have it professionally removed. Wasps aren’t going anywhere unless you kick them out!
  • Your swimming pool: believe it or not, wasps love swimming pools. All wasps and bees need water, and they will use your pool to get it! 
  • Hummingbird feeders: yellow jackets are desperate for food, and they will drink the sugar water in bird feeders.
  • Grubs in your lawn: this may be surprising, but because of their intense need for protein in late summer, wasps will also graze for grubs within your lawn.

Steps to Prevent Yellow Jackets

The following tips are excellent year-round, but they are especially important in late summer.

  1. Keep food (and garbage) covered.
    • If you’re having a cookout or backyard event, make sure food stays contained or covered. Any drinks should be covered at all times, because wasps will go inside a cup or can.
  2. Don’t wear perfume if you’re going to be outdoors for a considerable amount of time, and keep bright colors to a minimum.
  3. In spring, make sure you inspect any holes, burrows, eaves, and loose siding or stucco around your home.
    • Seal any holes, loose siding, stucco voids, or other potentially attractive spaces for nests.
  4. Hang a wasp-trap. Be sure to hang it away from any high-traffic areas, and away from the house.
    • Don’t hang it near your hummingbird feeder, or consider placing your hummingbird feeder away from your house.
    • If wasps are a serious problem, you may need to remove the hummingbird feeder entirely.
  5. Don’t walk barefoot through the grass. Wasps and yellow jackets love hunting for grubs and other insects.
  6. Eliminate sources of standing water, and cover your swimming pool. 

Prevention is really the key here. If wasps can’t find shelter or food around your home, they won’t want to be there!

Professional Removal for Wasps and Yellow Jackets

Sometimes it’s not enough to prevent yellow jackets, and by late summer, you may have a serious problem. Call a professional pest control company! The trained technicians with Western Exterminator Pest Control can inspect your property and remove wasp nests safely. Because we focus on prevention instead of just treatment, we’ll be able to give you specific recommendations on how to prevent wasps in the future, protecting your home, your family, and your backyard!

5 Tips for Avoiding Insect Stings

Stinging insects such as yellow jackets, wasps and hornets send more than 500,000 people to the emergency room each year. And, if that’s not bad enough, in Las Vegas and Henderson neighborhoods, they become extra feisty in late summer and early fall when their colonies forage for food to sustain their queens during the winter months.

While the thought of encountering a bee hive in a sprinkler valve box or a hornets nest under the patio is enough to make anyone want to stay indoors over the next few weeks, don’t fret. There are a handful of ways to ensure these pesky stingers won’t ruin your fun in the sun.

Seal cracks and crevices

One effective way to prevent an infestation of these insects and most other pests is to eliminate access and harborage sites around of the home. Stinging insects often build their nests inside block walls and valve boxes, behind patio lights and under decks or eaves. Homeowners should seal all visible cracks and crevices to keep these pests from moving indoors, and regularly inspect around the yard and along the perimeter of the house for nests.

Keep food covered

Have you ever been to an outdoor gathering where bees are swarming around the table of hamburgers, chips and fruit? Stinging insects are attracted to exposed food and open garbage cans. To avoid an unwanted encounter with a yellowjacket or bee during a picnic or cookout, cover all food when outside and be sure to keep tight fitting lids on trash bins.

Avoid excessive use of fragrances

Yellowjackets and other stinging insects are attracted to sweet-smelling fragrances. If spending long periods of time outdoors, avoid excessive use of perfume or cologne. When possible, also choose unscented shampoos, soaps, lotions and sunscreen.

Adjust your wardrobe

Avoid wearing dark colors and floral prints, since these patterns are known to attract stinging insects. It’s also important to wear closed-toe shoes, especially in grassy areas as bumblebees and some hornets often nest there.

Remain calm, cool and collected

If a stinging insect is flying nearby, many people’s first reaction is to either swat the insect away or flail their arms in panic. However, these movements may actually provoke an attack. Do not swat the pest, but rather remain calm, slowly walk from the area and it should fly away without causing any harm. If you do get stung, carefully remove the stinger and seek medical attention, as reactions can be severe in some cases.

Contact a pest professional

If a nest is found on the property, keep yourself and other members of the family away and do not attempt to remove it on your own. Depending on the species, a nest could contain hundreds (if not thousands) of stinging insects, which could swarm and sting en masse if they are disturbed or feel threatened. Instead, contact our pest professionals at Western Exterminator, and we will be able to identify the species and aid in stinging insect control by either removing the colony or destroying the nest.