Have you come across a wasp’s nest around your home? Perhaps you’ve seen the insects buzzing around. If so, ensure that you know what wasps and their nests look like. That way, you can better identify and control them so they don’t pose a danger. Discover more about various wasps in this blog post.

Paper Wasps

Paper wasps are social wasps, which means they live together in large nests. Paper wasps are small, only growing up to an inch. They have small, slender bodies with blackish wings.

Paper wasps make their nests out of plants, dead wood, and saliva. Their nests often look like spheres with open cells and often look like upside down umbrellas.  They are usually built in eaves, doorframes, or windows. The nest itself can hold up to 60 wasps.

Yellow Jackets

Yellow jackets are commonly associated with bees, but yellow jackets can sting multiple times and are slender, sleeker, smoother, and shinier than bees. They also can be smaller than paper wasps, growing up to 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Yellow jackets are often aggressive.

Yellow jackets’ nests are often on farms or in woodland. Like paper wasps’ nests, they contain open cells to house new larvae. The nests can be found in many places, including in the ground in rodents’ burrows, hanging in trees, in the walls of structures, or inside logs, and they can become quite large, as they often host over 100,000 wasps.  There is always a danger that if a yellow jacket nest that is being continually expanded in a homeowners outside wall of breaking through the drywall and all of those wasps coming into your home!

Bald-Faced Hornets

Bald-faced hornets look almost completely different from other wasps because of their white and black coloring, including the distinctive white stripes on their face and abdomen. Their face markings give them their name. They are often aggressive, can sting repeatedly, and may even spray venom into the eyes of anyone who gets too close to their nest.

Bald-faced hornets can build nests with a circular chamber and a tube extending downward. Their nests can also look like eggs or footballs and are usually in trees. Unlike some other wasps’ nests, their combs are almost entirely inside the nests. The nests can grow large in both length and width.

Mud Daubers

Mud daubers can range in color. Some have the common yellow and black coloring, while others have completely black bodies. They can grow up to about an inch in length. Mud daubers can sting, though they are rarely aggressive. They tend to favor stinging spiders, as spiders are often their main meal.

Mud daubers are solitary and have distinctive nests that are usually small and slender, with chambers that are built side by side. Their nests have no combs, and many mud daubers have nests that look like either urns or pipes. Their nests are usually around porches or barns, though these wasps can build inside the holes of electrical equipment. The number of nests can become extensive as the number of mud dauber wasps grows.

Cicada Killer Wasps

Cicada killer wasps are among the biggest wasps, getting up to an inch and a half or even larger in size. They look like many other wasps, with yellow markings as well as brown or black bodies. Despite their name, they are not aggressive, though they can sting when feeling threatened. The stings may not be too painful, but people or pets who are allergic might experience more adverse reactions.

Their nests are usually in sandy ground, with an opening into the tunnels. The tunnels extend for many inches, both vertically and horizontally. These often-large tunnels can disrupt the soil and anything above it, including sidewalks, patios, grass, and gardens.

If you have noticed wasps on your property, don’t wait. These pests can become a threat to you and your home, especially if their nests get too large or unwieldy. Contact Guardian Pest Control today for wasp control services. We treat for all wasps and will climb to out-of-the-way places with ladders to ensure their complete extermination.