How Dangerous Are Yellow Jackets In Nassau County?
August 13, 2021 - Yellow Jackets
Yellow jackets are beneficial insects with a side of danger. They prey on harmful caterpillars and flies that eat your flowers or vegetables. They help pollinate plants when they feed on the pollen. However, they can be deadly when they sting people in Nassau County, NY.
Description Of Yellow Jackets
These insects have paired wings, six yellow legs, and two thick black antennae. The head is black, but at the back of the head where it joins the waist and abdomen, alternating yellow and black stripes start and continue to the end of the abdomen.
Lifecycle Of Yellow Jackets
The fertilized queen yellow jacket survives the winter in a decaying log or some such safe place. In the spring, she emerges and looks for a good place to build a nest. Old nests are not reused. An abandoned mouse hole or another cavity in the ground is often used.
Yellow jackets will also establish nests in attics, porches, eaves, wall voids, or sheds. The queen builds a small paper nest out of chewed wood fibers. She creates cells in it and deposits eggs in the cells. When the larvae hatch, she takes care of them until they reach adulthood. After that, the workers take over all the tasks such as nest enlargement, finding food, defending the nest, and caring for the larvae and eggs. The queen just lays eggs.
By late August, the colony may contain thousands of adult wasps. In late summer/early fall, the queen lays eggs that become reproductive males and females. They leave the nest and mate, then the male dies. The females find sheltered places such as rotting logs to overwinter. The original colony, including the old queen, dies at frost.
Dangers From Yellow Jackets
Yellow jackets are very aggressive when they are defending their nest. If the nest is in the ground, and you mow over it, they will pour out and sting you until you are in a closed shelter where they cannot reach you. If you get too near an aerial nest, such as under the eaves, the same thing happens.
The venom is poisonous to humans and if you get too many stings, it can kill you. Small children and frail elderly are most at risk. If you are allergic to yellow jacket venom, one sting can kill you. Since it is hard to see underground nests, be careful of areas where you see lots of wasps.
Prevent Yellow Jacket Problems
While you can’t totally prevent having a wasp nest on your property, you can do some things to lower the possibility of one, such as:
- During the winter seal any cracks in walls and foundations that yellow jackets may use to access the wall void or attic.
- Use a power washer to knock down small nests each spring.
- Keep your trashcan lid closed since wasps are attracted to rotting organic matter.
- Hang wasp traps around the house and empty them regularly.
Get Professional Help
Yellow jackets are too dangerous to tackle on your own. EM Pest Control can help. Our experienced professionals can remove nests hanging in or on buildings or homes. We can also safely destroy nests in the ground. When you contact us, we will send a trained and certified technician to your home.
The technician will perform a comprehensive inspection in your home and along the exterior. They will also inspect your property. The technician will then develop a customized home pest control treatment plan to get rid of yellow jackets and any other pest problems. After the initial treatment, our technician will follow up to make sure all the pests are gone. Contact EM Pest Control today to get rid of your yellow jacket problem on your Nassau County, NY property. We also offer commercial pest management services for businesses.
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