Wasps, Hornets, and their nests can become a major problem in your home. The majority of wasp species are parasitic and usually rely on a host to lay their eggs. The most familiar wasps have a venomous sting, although a great many species don’t actually sting. Wasps are commonly mistaken for bees and vice-versa. The various species of wasps fall into one of two main categories: solitary wasps and social wasps. Adult solitary live and operate alone, and most do not construct nests; all adult solitary wasps are fertile. By contrast, social wasps exist in colonies numbering up to several thousand strong and do build nests- but in some cases not all of the colony can reproduce. In more advanced species, just the wasp queen and male wasps can mate, whilst the majority of the colony is made up of sterile female workers.
The type of nest produced by wasps can depend on the species and location. Many social wasps produce paper pulp nests on trees, in attics, holes in the ground or other such sheltered areas in access to the outdoors. However, solitary wasps are generally parasitic or predatory and only the latter build nests at all, hence they do they are most commonly found in sheltered places typically on the side of walls.
Hornets are the largest species of wasps reaching up to 2.2 in. in length. A hornets’ nest is founded in spring by fertilized female queen. The queen generally selects sheltered places like dark hollow tree trunks. At the peak of its population, the colony can reach a size of 700 workers, which occurs in late summer. The adult male hornets will die off shortly after mating, the workers and non fertile queens survive at most until mid to late autumn; only the fertilized queens survive over winter.
Both a wasp and hornets sting can be very painful to humans and allergic reactions (fatal in severe cases) can occur. All wasps and hornets can sting multiple times; they do not die after stinging a human as is typical for a worker honey bee, they can also bite and sting at the same time unlike bees. Hornets, like many other social wasps, can mobilize the entire nest to sting in defense, which is highly dangerous to humans, therefore it is not advisable to kill a hornet near a nest as this can alert the rest of the colony to attack.
We offer a ride range of residential solutions at Patton Termite & Pest to help you maintain a safe and healthy home environment. With each visit we provide identification of common pest conditions that invite infestations. We offer many residential solutions from interior service to key areas, insect and rodent monitoring/trapping, to exterior perimeter power spray and/ or baiting. With our Premium Residential Solutions we can offer many services that aren’t commonly found with most pest control companies. We also provide a targeted follow up in a timely manner to ensure the remediation of pest problems.
We at Patton use the top technology to make sure we can eradicate your wasp/hornet infestation. We bring into your home over 75 years pest control experience so that you can be assured that we are doing everything in our power to help you to maintain a safe and happy home.
