Spring is in full swing, which means that a lot of household pests are getting more active than they were in the cold months of winter. This includes paper wasps.
Paper wasps have a habit of building nests under soffits and porches. Naturally, this is probably not where you want wasps to be, especially if you have little ones running around or if someone in your home is allergic to wasp stings.
Learn how to help get rid of a wasp nest if a queen decides that your porch is the place she wants to start a new colony.
Identifying a Paper Wasp Nest
Before you figure out how to remove a wasp nest, you need to make sure paper wasps are the insects you’re dealing with. Some wasp nests are similar in appearance to bees, which may require different removal techniques. In fact, the yellow-faced bee and the rusty-patched bumblebee are protected under the Endangered Species Act, which means you could face a large fine for killing one or even disturbing its habitat. Therefore, it’s important to be 100 percent certain that the nest you’re trying to remove belongs to a wasp.
So what does a paper wasp nest look like? It resembles a round, umbrella-shaped cone that’s attached by a single stalk to a horizontal surface in a protected location. There are several places a wasp might choose to hang its nest from, including:
- Attics
- Tree branches
- Soffits
- Porch ceilings
- Window corners
- The undersides of porches and decks
- The insides of grills or hose reels
A professional pest control specialist can help you accurately identify if your problem is a paper wasp nest or something else.
How to Remove a Wasp Nest
If you find a paper wasp nest on or near your home, you’re probably going to want to get rid of it. Although it’s not a paper wasp’s mission in life to hunt you down and attack you, stings are possible.
When determining how to get rid of a wasp nest, you need to be aware of the fact that the queen is the key to the colony’s survival. That means that if you try to knock down, dismantle or even apply spray to the nest, the wasps will think you’re attacking them. In an effort to protect their queen, they’re going to use the only defenses they have, which are their stings.
In addition, it’s important to know that removing a paper wasp nest on your own can put you in the path of dozens of paper wasps, and each wasp can sting you multiple times. Because of this, wasp nest removal is best left to a pest control professional, such as a trained Terminix® specialist.
A professional will be better able to determine whether the nest belongs to a bee or a wasp and will also know what to do with a wasp nest. After evaluating the issue, your technician can then help you tailor a wasp control plan, so that hopefully, you don’t have to worry about new wasp colonies in the future. If you think you have a paper wasp nest near your home, contact Terminix today.
