How to get rid of wasps without getting stung

Key points

• Wasps are typically more aggressive than honeybees and other common backyard insects.

• Yellow jackets, bald-faced hornets and paper wasps are all species of wasp that form nests in the spring and summer.

• Removing a wasp nest requires a professional pest control service.

Wasps help the ecosystem with pollination and pest control, but unlike other creatures, these insects are not friendly neighbors. Unlike honeybees, butterflies or other winged pollinators in your backyard, many types of wasps don’t have an easygoing nature. If they feel their hive is threatened, they will sting repeatedly.

While wasps and bees do look somewhat similar, there are some visual cues to tell them apart. Wasps, such as yellow jackets and paper wasps, are skinnier and more segmented than bees. Honeybees also have a distinct fuzzy appearance.

Although known for their aggression, wasps don’t merely exist to ruin your al fresco dining experience. The Vespidae family helps with pest control and pollination. Without parasitic wasp species, pests such as aphids and caterpillars would take over crops and gardens, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Still, yellow jackets in your backyard are not only a nuisance, but can also be dangerous if you have a venom allergy that could trigger an anaphylactic response. Read on to learn how to get rid of wasps on your property and keep them away.

Should you get rid of a wasp nest?

Before you call an exterminator requesting wasp nest removal, ask yourself if the wasp colony’s location poses a real threat or is merely a mild inconvenience. Whether you should get rid of a wasp colony depends on the nest’s location. If the wasp nest is near children or pets — playground equipment or a dog house – the insects might feel threatened and amp up the likelihood of stings.

“If you have a wasp nest where there’s a lot of foot traffic, that’s a situation you’d want to take care of,” said Phil Frank, a certified master beekeeper in Bethesda, Maryland. “If you have a wasp nest in the back of your yard and nobody really goes back there — well, indiscriminate killing of anything is never a good idea.”

Like honeybees, a wasp colony won’t stick around forever and will die off once the cold season begins, according to the Michigan State University extension program.

Some species (paper wasps, for instance) do not bother humans much. Mud daubers, also known as potter wasps, are another example of a species that mind their own business and have no plans to sting you.

Pesky yellow jackets and aggressive bald-faced hornets (a type of yellow jacket), on the other hand, can bug you. Call a professional if you think a yellow jacket nest is too close for comfort.

What is the fastest way to get rid of wasps?

Wasps start new nest construction in the late spring and continue into summer. A wasp nest can be in the ground, under gutters or eaves, in a tree or in an attic. Once you identify the type of wasp nest, decide on a plan.

Call up an exterminator or a pest control company

For the avid DIYer, suiting up in protective clothing and long gloves to move a wasp nest yourself may seem like a good idea. But experts say the DIY route will likely end up with a few stings and may not resolve your wasp problem. Call a pest control company for aggressive bald-faced hornets and yellow jacket nests.

The professional exterminator will have different methods at their disposal, such as insecticide and pesticide applications. While wasp sprays and other spray bottle pesticides are widely available for purchase at hardware and home improvement stores, a professional will know how to apply them to minimize harm to other species of insects or bugs.

DIY approach

While professional pest control is your safest, smartest option, not every wasp problem involves an inconveniently located hive and an angry infestation. Here are a few options most homeowners can handle:

Set up a wasp trap

Steer the stinging insects away from your outdoor activities by deploying wasp traps. Wasp traps attract individual wasps, so you’ll want to place them further away from your outdoor gathering spot to prevent errant wasp stings.

“If you don’t have a visible wasp colony, but you do have some wasps hanging around that would be a good instance to use a wasp trap,” said Jody L. Gangloff-Kaufmann, an urban entomologist and senior extension associate for the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Remove enticing food sources

Wasps love sugar. Food sources include soda, uneaten desserts or an outside trash can full of food. Rotting fruit from trees could also pose a problem. Flowering crabapple trees could attract wasps in the fall when the fruit drops and transforms into a sugary buffet for wasps. Clean it up promptly.

Implement home remedies

Try to repel wasps with essential oils. Research shows that clove, pennyroyal, lemongrass, ylang ylang, spearmint, wintergreen, sage, rosemary, lavender, geranium, patchouli, citronella, Roman chamomile, thyme, fennel seed, anise and peppermint oil were useful as a repellent against yellow jackets and paper wasps.

Furthermore, two essential oil mixtures were found to have “totally blocked the attraction of vespid workers”: a mixture of clove, geranium and lemongrass, and a mixture of clove, geranium, lemongrass and rosemary.

Try dish soap

Wasp nests aren’t only found up high in eaves and crevices; they can also be found underground. If you find wasps are nesting underground — say next to a child’s playground set or your front door — mix water with several tablespoons of dish soap and pour that into the hole.

“Soapy water reduces the surface tension and drowns out ground wasps,” Frank said. He adds that you’ll want to do this at night or before dawn, when the wasps are less active, and lay a screen down to prevent any vexed vespids from going on the offensive.

Use pesticides (with caution)

Small paper wasp nests can be handled with direct aerosol wasp spray application. Such wasp control and other deterrent chemicals need to be used judiciously, however. “Pesticides are not insect-specific, so once you introduce them to an environment, you’re risking killing many beneficial insects,” Frank said. “For example, if you spray and it’s a windy day and it travels, you could kill all kinds of native honeybees.”

How do you prevent wasps from nesting on your property?

If you live in an ecologically vibrant area or have a healthy garden, odds are you’ll encounter wasps from time to time. But there are some ways to ensure you don’t end up with a larger infestation or wasp colony at home.

• Remove attractive food sources, such as sugary fruits, snacks and drinks.
• Caulk up or otherwise fill cracks and crevices in your eaves, overhangs, attics and other structures.
• Don’t let trash — especially trash with food — pile up. Keep garbage cans tightly shut.

What’s next?

A wasp colony doesn’t have to be a pest control problem. If it’s not in the way, there’s nothing you need to do about it per se. You only need to make a wasp control game plan if you find a nest in heavily trafficked areas of your home or back yard.

Finding a wasp nest in your attic can signal that your roof has openings or cracks. Check that there are no leaks during rains or call a roofing company for an inspection.

Otherwise, let nature take its course. “Wasps are essential to our North American ecosystems because they’re tremendous predators,” Gangloff-Kaufmann explained. “Unlike bees, wasps primarily feed on other animals’ protein and help keep other things in check.”