Wasps In Terre Haute: Friend Or Foe?
It is a mixed bag when wasps come into your yard. Wasps are mostly beneficial insects because they help pollinate flowers and plants, and they hunt spiders, centipedes, and other common household pests. Sadly, there is a downside to having wasps in your yard, depending on the types of wasps you're seeing. Wasps can sting you, and some species are prone to sting. The worst outcome of having wasps in your yard is that they can get into your home.
Join us today as we discuss wasp behavior and what may cause them to make a nest in your home. We'll tell you why wasps sting and how to avoid getting stung. If you stick with us to the end, we'll look at the best way to get rid of wasps in Terre Haute. If you have an immediate wasp problem and require wasp removal, jump to our contact page for pest control in Terre Haute. We can get your wasp problem sorted out. With that said, let's dive in and look at the dynamics of a wasp nest and how nests on your property increase the likelihood that you'll get stung.
What Are The Typical Dynamics Of Wasp Nests?
The life of a wasp is one of imminent doom. In winter, almost all wasps die off. The only wasps that remain in spring are the female wasps that were prepared for their role as new queens. In spring, these females become active and begin to gather materials to make their nests. It is essential to understand the dynamics of a wasp nest because there are two things you can count on. They are going to grow, and as they grow, you'll have more wasps on your property.
Some wasps create aerial nests you can see. You'll find them under the roofline of your shed, attached to the ceiling of your porch, or in some other high and somewhat protected location on your property. They may also create a nest in trees or bushes. You can remove tiny starter nests with a broom, but make sure there are no wasps around to see it.
Some wasps create nests in voids. A common location to find these wasps is in ground holes, particularly in landscaping. Your landscaping provides food and water for wasps. Unfortunately, when wasps live in your landscaping, they can accidentally establish themselves in the voids of your home if you're not careful. They can slip in through tiny gaps or cracks and build a nest in your walls, floors, and ceilings.
The queen will start by making workers. These are sterile females that help with all the labor required, including building the nest and finding food. They take their job seriously and can sting humans and animals that appear to threaten the nest.
When the nest is complete, fertile females are created along with male wasps, which are called drones. The drones are not able to sting. Their job is to mate with the females and prepare them for their winter slumber.
In fall, when wasp nests are fully formed and fertile females are prepared by drones for winter, you do not want to get near these nests! The fertile females understand the importance of their role. They have to fatten up so they can survive without food until warm temperatures return.
When winter comes and the wasps die off, only the fattened-up, future queens remain. They hide in sheltered locations and enter a low-energy state called diapause. It is like hibernation with one key difference; the wasp can wake at any time. It does not have an internal clock that goes off in the spring. It is revived when conditions are once again conducive. Sometimes, the weather patterns trick some queens into reviving too early on an unnaturally warm winter day, or they may come to life when they sense heat inside a house during winter. But most of the time, they're not tricked.
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Why Do Wasps Sting?
Let's start with the basics. Female wasps sting because they have an ovipositor (stinger) and can inject venom from their venom glands. The male wasps don't have an ovipositor or venom glands, so they are unable to sting you. But that doesn't stop them from trying. Males behave similarly to the females, they also look similar, and they can add to the scary appearance of a swarm by adding their numbers to the size of the swarm. Male wasps will even land on you and try to sting you. But it is all for show.
Another reason wasps sting is that some wasps are born to sting. There are basically two types of wasps: social and solitary. The social wasps are the ones to watch out for because they're the ones that gather into a swarm. Solitary wasps don't do this, which is a good thing; some solitary wasps are gigantic. The last thing you would want to ever see is a swarm of cicada killer wasps. A cicada wasp is around two inches long. Fortunately, they rarely sting and are considered lawn pests because they excavate large amounts of soil, creating unsightly mounds.
The social wasps in Terre Haute are Eastern yellowjackets, bald-faced hornets, and European paper wasps. Yellow jackets (which are the black and yellow wasps) typically create nests in voids. The other two typically create aerial nests. All of these wasps can surprise you in your yard or home by appearing in large numbers to sting you. What's worse is that they do not have barbed stingers and are able to sting repeatedly.
Social wasps aren't always prone to sting. There are primarily two reasons they'll sting you. They may sting you because they feel threatened, which can happen when you make fast movements such as swinging your arms quickly. Fast motions set these wasps off. But, most of the time, they sting in defense of their nests. You probably won't get stung when a wasp is away from its nest. Troubles begin when wasps create nests in your backyard. They don't take kindly to you coming near their nests and will let you know by pouring out, gathering into a swarm, and attempting to sting you. They don't understand that it is your property, and they have no concept of how rude it was for them to create their nest on property that does not belong to them.
The primary threat wasps represent is linked to nest establishment. Their nest-protection instinct is strong, and it gets stronger as the nest grows and winter approaches. It is almost as if wasps know that they aren't long for this world. In the fall, they become more aggressive. That last thing you want is to have a nest on your property that has grown all year long and is filled with desperate wasps preparing their potential queens for the survival of their species.
Help! There's A Wasp In My Home!
How concerned should you be about finding a wasp in your home? Often, a random wasp will find its way past a screen and get inside. You have little to fear if you have one random wasp, but seeing more than one is cause for concern as it may mean you have an indoor nest. If so, it is time to contact a licensed professional. Wasp control can turn into a painful encounter. It is also possible to make a wasp problem worse by applying incorrect control products or methods. We've heard all kinds of unpleasant stories. The worst part is that these unfortunate encounters could have been avoided. If you have wasps in your house, contact your local pest control provider to perform an inspection, identify the wasps, and remove the nest(s). It is the best way to get rid of wasp nests.
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