Everything You Need To Know About Wasp Nest Removal

Wasp Infestation Pest Control

Often vicious, wasps are a dreaded pest that nobody wants near their home. After they’ve established a nest on your property, wasps see it as their territory, which means they view you as the invader.

Because of this, getting too close to the nest can result in dozens of stings. That’s bad enough—and worse if you’re allergic to them.

Fortunately, removing a wasp nest from your property is doable. While there are some products available to consumers that can help temporarily mitigate wasp activity, professional wasp nest removal is the best guarantee for safe, effective, long-term results.

Can Wasps Really Hurt Your Home?

An aggressive and territorial pest, wasps have the potential to cause havoc throughout your home.

The majority of wasps prefer to build nests on old wood, but they can—and will—infest new wood, too. The longer a nest remains attached to a structure, the more difficult it is to remove and the more damage it can cause.

One of the major difficulties associated with wasp infestations is wasps’ innate tendency to attack. At the bare minimum, if you get in their way they’ll attack, potentially in swarms, with painful stings. At the worse end of the scale, their stings can trigger allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis.

The presence of a wasp nest restricts your enjoyment of your home, but it doesn’t have to. First, know what to look for.

How to Spot a Wasp Infestation

Wasps prefer to build their nests on wooden structures that give them easy access to the outside. Some of their preferred locations include:

Wall cavities

Roof spaces

Beneath eaves

Porches

Sheds

Garages

Birdhouses

Wasps build their nests using a combination of saliva and chewed wood. This gives the outside of the nest a papier-mâché texture with walls looking like layered paper with small ridges.

If you see one of these nests, stay back to prevent accidentally antagonizing the wasps. From a safe distance you can see if the nest is active or abandoned. Wasps rarely occupy old nests, but observing the nest from a safe distance will help you determine if there’s a colony inside. If you see a few wasps buzzing around the nest, that’s a strong indicator that the nest is active. You’re also likely to see wasps coming to and from their nest in a similar fashion to the way birds go to and from their homes.

Some of the less common signs of a wasp infestation include chewed holes or tunnels appearing in wood structures. These are likely to be close to the nest itself.

If you suspect an active wasp nest but you’re not sure, do not approach it for further clarification and instead call a pest control professional.

Avoid These “Nest Removal” Strategies

As tempting as it may be to try removing an active wasp nest on your own, do not try these methods:

Setting the nest on fire/smoking wasps out

Attempting to set a wasp nest on fire is likely to trigger their aggression. Smoking the wasps out has a similar effect—it stirs them up and greatly increases your chances of getting stung en masse. Both of these measures are also dangerous to your home and can easily cause damage.

Smashing the wasp nest with a blunt object

Using blunt force to remove a wasp nest is extremely dangerous. It’s unlikely to succeed and highly likely to anger them.

Blasting the nest with water

Water may be an effective way to knock an inactive nest off an exterior wall, but it should never be attempted on an active nest. If you’re at all unsure as to whether wasps are in the nest, do not attempt this method and call an expert.

Wasp Removal and Prevention with Moxie

At Moxie Pest Control, we use professional measures to remove active wasp colonies for you. Our professionals are able to rapidly identify a wasp nest and use the most cost-effective and efficient means of removing them. Using a pest control service to remove wasps guarantees your safety and significantly reduces the likelihood that these pests will return.

If you’re looking for a wasp removal service near you, contact us today. A member of our friendly team will assess your infestation and quickly help you become wasp free again!

TALK WITH AN EXPERT

Wasps