Yellowjackets belong to the wasp family and are especially aggressive. They are typically seen during your outdoor barbeques, and often they seem to attack for almost no reason at all. Their diet consists of sugars from nectars and fruit, and carbohydrates from meat and other insects. They are easily identified by their distinctive bright yellow and black coloration, their aggressive behavior, and their fast and precise flying abilities. Unlike honey bees that can only sting you once, a single yellowjacket can sting a person or animal multiple times.

Overwintering queens will emerge in the late spring in search of new nesting locations. She will develop an initial brood of 30 to 50 cells for 18 to 20 days, before taking on the sole purpose of egg laying. A full-size yellowjacket colony will reach up to 5,000 workers. As the colony begins to die off in the fall, newly developed queens will find a safe place to overwinter to start the process again next spring.

Bald-faced hornets are members of the wasp family and are not true hornets. They are known for their exceedingly large nest sizes, which can grow to be the size of a basketball or larger, and are easily identified by their large body size, painful stings, and distinctive white and black body coloration.

A single bald-faced hornet can sting a person or an animal several times, due to their smooth long stingers. They also possess the unique ability to shoot venom from their stingers into the eyes of intruders. Their colonies can reach up to 700 workers, but usually do not appear until late summer. Nests are usually located at least three feet off of the ground in bushes, trees, or on structures. They are omnivorous, with a diet consisting of insects like spiders, flies, and caterpillars.

Paper wasps are easily identified by their long legs, bright yellow and black coloration, and their exposed nests with no protective shell and easily visible cells. Wasps can be excellent predators of other undesirable insects and can sometimes show aggressive behavior toward humans. Their nests are built in areas of high heat and no direct exposure to sunlight.

Paper wasps are semi-social, with smaller nests numbering less than 50 workers, and are generally just a nuisance pest due to their many small golf ball-sized nests that they build under the eaves of houses or in roof structures. They also have an amazing ability to perform their own pest control by secreting a chemical at the base of their nest which repels insects such as ants. All female paper wasps have the ability to lay eggs and become a queen; however, the queen function is usually only performed by the most aggressive and dominant female.

Honey bees play a critical role in the pollination of over 30% of our world’s crops and they cross-pollinate 90% of the world’s wild flowering plants. Due to a recent increase of a phenomenon termed Colony Collapse Disorder throughout the farming industry worldwide, every effort should be made to preserve honey bee nests when they are found. Honey bee nests can pose a structural concern for homes and businesses. When nests are built inside a building, it requires that the nest be physically scraped and removed.

After the honey bees within a nest die, the honeycomb will begin to melt, resulting in structural damage, re-infestation by other bees, secondary pest infestations like ants or rats, and even additional damage from large animals like racoons that are attempting to eat the honey. Honey bee removal often requires the services of a beekeeper. Typically, companies in our industry will only destroy a honey bee nest if it is posing a direct threat to your safety. Honey bees are usually very passive, and stings often occur by accident or when the bee is attempting to defend itself or its nest.

Like honey bees, bumble bees are another very useful pollinator, easily identified by their large oval shaped body and long fuzzy hair. They keep colonies much smaller than honey bees, usually no larger than 50 workers. They are often recognized by their black and yellow coloring; however, their coloration can vary drastically from one species to another.

Bumble bees are not aggressive insects, but they will defend themselves when threatened. Their pollination is valuable to the environment and should be preserved whenever possible. They are not valued by the beekeeper industry, however, so if a nest must be removed, it will usually require its destruction.

Mud daubers are non-social members of the wasp family. They do not rely on colonies for survival, as do social insects like ants and honey bees. Mud daubers are considered a nuisance pest, and rarely sting even if their nest is disturbed. They can be easily identified by their long legs and long skinny waist that is stretched out between their thorax and abdomen. Mud daubers are considered beneficial insects, as they prey on undesirable spiders and other household pests, but their mud nests can be very unsightly on a nice house.

Just like their name implies, they build their nests out of mud, creating multiple short tubes about an inch long placed adjacent to each other. The purpose of each tube is to house a single egg. The queen will sting and paralyze a spider, remove, or cripple the spider’s legs, then place the body into the tube as a food source. She then seals off with the mud tube until the growing wasp completes metamorphosis and emerges as an adult. Removal of the nest is recommended and can usually be performed without chemical treatment.