Finding yourself in a situation of having to battle with yellow jacket infestation, the first question that comes to your mind is how to find a yellow jacket nest?
The best way to get rid of yellow jackets from your property is to find the yellow jacket nest on your property and eliminate them.
In this article, you will learn how to find a yellow jacket nest, possible reasons you’re having a yellow jacket infestation, and how to get rid of yellow jacket and their nest.
Before proceeding, let’s check out what a yellow jacket is and how to identify yellow jacket and their nest.
What is a Yellow Jacket?
A yellow jacket is a predatory social wasp of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula mostly found in North America. The term “wasps” is used in other English-speaking nations to refer to the yellow jacket.
The eastern yellowjacket, the airborne yellowjacket, and the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata, are all black-and-yellow.
Others may choose red instead of black as the backdrop color for the abdomen. When they land, they perform a rapid side-to-side flight pattern that may be recognized by their distinctive patterns.
The fact that they only occur in colonies at any given time. It is true that all females have the ability to sting.
Read also:Â How to Get Rid of Yellow Jackets With Dry Ice
How to Identify a Yellow Jacket
Wasps other than yellow jackets, such as hornets and paper wasps like Polistes dominula, can sometimes be mistaken for yellow jackets.
A typical worker yellow jacket measures around 12 millimeters in length and has alternating bands on its abdomen. In comparison, the queen measures about 19 millimeters in length.
The diverse patterns on their abdomens are useful for distinguishing between the different species.
Yellow jackets feature yellow or white markings on their bodies, and they do not have a dense covering of tan-brown hair anywhere on their bodies.
Even though they are capable of pollination, yellow jackets do not have the characteristic flattened, hairy pollen-carrying rear legs of honey bees. Instead, yellow jackets’ hind legs are more like regular legs.
How to Identify a Yellow Jacket Nest
Nesting can take place either above or below ground for many different species of yellow jackets.
They will sometimes even make use of abandoned rodent burrows as nesting sites, extending the chamber as the colony grows larger. These are some of the likely locations where the yellow jackets’ nest is located.
Look for small stones and dirt mounds that have accumulated near the entrance of a burrow to spot a yellow jacket nest that has moved underground.
Picture of a Yellow Jacket Nest
Below are pictures of a yellow jacket nest.
Read also:Â What Do Yellow Jackets Eat?
How to Find a Yellow Jacket Nest in 10 Simple Steps
Finding a yellow jacket nest will be made easier if you know what a yellow jacket nest looks like. So, do you know how to find a yellow jacket nest?
Below are 10 steps on how to find a yellow jacket nest.
- Yellowjackets are known to construct their nests not just in gopher holes but also in dense vegetation, wood piles, utility vaults, and other enclosed locations.
- The gopher hole is the most common location for yellowjacket nests.
- Depending on the weather, the most active time for yellowjackets is between 10 am and 4 pm.
- The activity of yellowjackets will slow down significantly when the temperature is either too cold or too hot.
- The optimum time to search is after the sun has begun to warm the day, which typically occurs after 10 a.m. because this is when the yellowjackets are most active in entering and exiting their nest.
- Conduct a hole search all around the outside of your home.
- Be on the lookout for yellowjackets that are flying in and out of the aperture, as well as a cluster of yellowjackets that are protecting the opening.
- If you are fortunate enough to uncover an active nest on your first pass through your land, don’t stop there, continue investigating the remainder of your property for more nests because there may be more nests than you initially thought.
- Keep gazing in the same general area even if you catch a glimpse of an insect flying by rapidly. If you notice more yellowjackets flying over in the same area, it’s likely that you’ve located their nest because they’re going to and from it.
- Keep up with them until it becomes clear where they are entering and leaving the building.
Read also:Â How to Get Rid of Yellow Jackets Naturally; Yellow Jacket Infestation
Why do I have Yellow Jackets Nesting on my Property?
Yellow jackets cannot survive without protein and must provide it for their young in order to build their nests, and they will do it wherever they can locate it.
Yellow jackets will come to your property if it has any preferred insects as food, such as spiders, caterpillars, flies, or other insects. They will feed on those preferred food sources.
If you don’t get rid of their food sources by eliminating these common household pests, you will be having lots of yellow jackets nesting on your property.
Read also:Â Bald-Faced Hornet Nest Removal
How to Remove Yellow Jacket Nest
Removing a yellow jacket nest could be challenging in the sense that most people are scared of getting stung.
Following these steps below, it doesn’t matter if you’re a professional or not. You can remove a yellow jacket nest without being stung.
1. Use your Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Dressing as though you are going to be attacked by yellow jackets is the best way to prevent getting stung by them.
Before approaching the nest, ensure that you are properly attired by donning boots, thick long pants, a jacket, hooded sweatshirt, hat, work gloves, and goggles.
Use rubber bands as an additional layer of protection against shirt and pant leg holes by taking the necessary precautions.
2. Thoroughly Inspect your Property
It’s possible that yellow jackets are actually doing you a favor by controlling the population of unwanted insects like mosquitoes and other pests.
Even while the sight of yellow jackets on your property can be unnerving, it may not be necessary to destroy their nest if it is located in a part of the land that is inaccessible to humans or that sees very little human activity.
3. Apply Insecticides and Sprays
It is not a good idea to use an insecticide that may be purchased over-the-counter to spray a nest of yellow jackets.
Not only does it have the potential to enrage the nest and bring about an attack, but almost all of these sprays are contact insecticides, which means that the insect must come into direct contact with the substance for it to have any effect.
4. Do your Search at Night
If you have no choice but to get close to a yellow jacket nest, you should do so at night. They are at their most active during the day and then retreat to their nest at night, which means that the likelihood of being stung is lower when it’s nighttime.
5. Seal all Nest
Yellow jacket nests should never be covered up. It’s possible that doing so will drive the pest insects to look for another way out, which could very well lead them into your living space.
6. Consider Using Insects Traps
Commercial stinging insect traps are available for purchase; however, you should be aware that using these traps will bring in new insects to your property that were not there before.
Also, even if you may catch multiple yellow jackets, the population of yellow jackets will continue to increase as long as the queen is still in the nest. She will continue to spawn as long as she is there.
Conclusion
Having a yellow jacket nest on your property is a sign of serious infestation. Keeping up with the steps on how to get rid of yellow jacket nests, we guarantee a complete nest elimination, preventing future infestation.
We believe reading to this point, you must know how to find a yellow jacket nest and eliminate them completely. Do well to reach out for further assistance.
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