Skip to content
Close
We'll get rid of whatever's bugging you. Guaranteed. Get A Free Estimate
Crying girl sitting on a meadow full of buttercup

Wasps, Hornets, Yellow Jackets

Don’t put up with biting or stinging pests any longer. If mosquitoes, ticks, or wasps are taking the fun out of your yard, call Adam’s Pest Control today. Our highly qualified technician will eliminate pests that are menacing your family.

We’ll get rid of
whatever’s bugging you.
Guaranteed.

Wasp Nest Extermination That Doesn’t Sting Your Wallet.

When nuisance wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets become a safety threat, it’s time to call Adam’s.
Bees, wasps, and yellow jackets are beneficial to the environment and generally do not sting unless handled, disturbed, threatened, or harmed. But when they do sting, it hurts! Allergic reactions to stinging insects can vary from minor irritation to life-threatening anaphylaxis. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control more people die from wasp or bee stings in the United States each year than from shark attacks, alligator encounters, and dog bites… combined.

Safely killing a wasp nest is best left to the professionals at Adam’s Pest Control. Most over-the-counter products only work on contact. So, any wasps that aren’t in the nest when you spray it may not be killed. And depending upon the location of the nest, getting close enough to effectively spray it could be close enough to provoke an attack. Never spray wasp nests while on a ladder.

The best way to get rid of wasps safely, is by dialing 763-478-9810.

How To Tell The Difference Between A Honey Bee And A Wasp.

At Adam’s, we want to keep you safe from wasp stings, but we also want to protect and respect our honey bee pollinators! Generally, bees have fuzzy bodies that are great at collecting pollen. Wasps have hairless bodies. If you need help identifying whether bees or wasps are pestering you, please email us a description and/or photo.

Adam’s is an advocate for protecting bees and other pollinators.

Learn more

Watch the TCL Bee Video (opens page at Twin Cities Live website)

Learn more about common wasps and bees in our area:

Wasps, Hornets, Yellow Jackets Treatment Options

One-time Perimeter Stinging Insects

Adam’s licensed pest management professionals have the training and equipment to safely kill nuisance wasp, hornet, and yellow jacket nests up to 25’ in height in or around structures that pose a threat to people. We apply a proven insecticide directly into the nests and also into holes, cracks, and gaps where an active nest may be hiding. Adam’s treats up to 5 nests for the same low price. Adam’s guarantees that no new activity will be present in any treated nest for 3 months.

Premier Perimeter Stinging Insects

Need to prevent more pests than just stinging insects? Adam’s Premier Perimeter Program includes a minimum of 3 preventive barrier treatments around the exterior perimeter of your home for year-round prevention of common household bugs, including insects, spiders, boxelder bugs, and wasp nests. Your Pest Management Professional inspects for pests, and then applies a season-specific, non-repellent, residual material to control common household pests before they can get inside. The service comes with a 12-month guarantee for all existing and new wasp nests.

Premier Home Pest Prevention

Adam’s best value for prevention and control of common household pests, including stinging insects like wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets! Adam’s Premier Home Pest Prevention service provides year-round prevention of pests with a minimum of four visits throughout the year. Service visits focus on the exterior of your home, where most pest problems originate. And should a pest problem ever occur between scheduled visits, the plan includes additional treatments at no additional charge. This program includes common household pests like spiders, centipedes, and roaches and seasonal pests like multicolored Asian lady beetles, ants, and mice, as well as wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets.

More About Wasps, Hornets, Yellow Jackets

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE BEES, WASPS, OR HORNETS?

  • The presence of many bees, wasps or hornets flying around your home or the observance of a nest is the main indicator of a problem.

  • Bees are beneficial to humans because they pollinate plants, whereas wasps and hornets help out by feeding their larvae on various insects, mites or spiders. Therefore, unless the nest is close to a door or activity area in your yard, it is better to avoid the nest than to remove it.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEES, WASPS, AND HORNETS?

  • Bees are fuzzy pollen collectors with yellow and black stripes.

  • Wasps are members of the family Vespidae, which includes yellow jackets and hornets.

  • Wasps generally have two pairs of wings and hairless bodies.

  • Wasps are about 1/3” to 1” and some species have black and yellow rings on their bodies.

  • Common wasps are paper wasps and yellow jackets

  • Hornets are a large species of wasps and can be extremely aggressive.

  • The only true hornet found in North America is the European hornet or brown hornet. Common wasps referred to as hornets include the bald-faced hornet.  

  • Hornets are larger and typically brownish and have dull orange stripes on their bodies.

Additionally:

  • Bees collect pollen; wasps do not

  • Bees store food; wasps do not

  • Bees make honey; wasps do not

  • Bees nests are made of wax; wasp nests are made of paper

  • Bees mouth parts are designed to lap liquid; wasp mouth parts are designed to chew food

  • Honey bees can only sting once; wasps can sting more than once

WHY DO BEES, WASPS, AND HORNETS STING PEOPLE?

  • Generally, bees, wasps, and hornets do not sting unless handled, disturbed, threatened, or harmed.

  • Wasps sting to defend themselves, to subdue prey to feed their developing larvae, or to defend their nests

  • Due to their barbed stingers, honey bees sting only once and die because they leave their stingers in the victims’ skin.

  • Wasps can sting more than once because they have a lance-like stinger without barbs; thus wasps are able to pull out their stinger without injury to themselves.

  • Only female wasps and bees have stingers.

  • When they sting, wasps and bees inject venomous fluid that creates allergic reactions to sensitive people. Individual response to a sting may vary from a brief swelling of the immediate area of the sting to a more severe, and potentially fatal, allergic response involving the entire body.

  • It is estimated that close to 100 people die annually in the United States from the reactions produced by wasp and bee stings.

WHERE DO WASPS LIVE?

  • There are two types of wasps and bees, solitary and social.

  • Solitary bees and wasps, by far the largest subgroup, do not form colonies. Depending on the species, solitary wasps live in holes that are already in existence, build nests from materials they collect, or dig a hole in the ground for their nests.

  • Social wasps build nests of chewed up fibers or decaying woods mixed with saliva. The nests are usually found in sheltered areas outdoors in gardens, hedges, forest edges, and other similar locations.

  • In urban settings, wasps can also nest under stairs, in fence posts, in brick walls, under eaves, under porches, and in discarded mattresses, carpet, or boxes.

WHY IS THERE A NEST IN MY HOUSE?

  • Wasps and hornets build nests in protected and easy to get into places, such as attics and under eaves.

  • Wasps like other insects cannot regulate their body heat. They depend on the surrounding environment to warm them up. They are active at warm temperatures and slow down otherwise.   

CAN MY HOUSE BE DAMAGED BY BEES, WASPS, OR HORNETS?

  • Yes, some wasp species can damage your home.

  • Carpenter bees can tunnel into decks, porches and other wood structures. If you see what looks like a bumblebee emerging from a hole in your porch or the siding of your house, it may be a carpenter bee.

  • Wasps and bees can nest inside wall voids and make a hole in the wall to enter or exit from.

  • Also, wasps that nest inside may damage the wallboard or ceiling.

  • Another problem associated with nests inside wall voids is the possibility of scavenger pests that infest abandoned wasp nests.

WHAT DO BEES, WASPS, AND HORNETS EAT?

  • Wasps feed on pollen and nectar from a variety of flowers. This helps move pollen from one flower to another, pollinating various crops.

  • Besides pollen and nectar, adult wasps feed on sweet materials such as honeydew, fruit, and other sweet resources, and feed their larvae on paralyzed bugs.

  • Since wasps enjoy sweet food, they often invade honey bee nests to steal the honey and sometimes the bee larvae.

  • Female wasps have stingers that they use to subdue and capture prey, such as insects and spiders, which they use as protein food for their larvae.

  • Yellow Jackets eat just about all “human food”.

WHAT IS THE LIFE CYCLE OF BEES, WASPS, AND HORNETS?

  • Nuisance wasps and bees can be categorized as either solitary or social insects.

  • Solitary wasps, as the term implies, live a solitary life without the company of other wasps. They do not build their own nests, and they are all fertile.

  • Social wasps, on the other hand, can live in colonies of thousands; they build their own nests and have three castes: the egg-laying queens (one or more per colony), male drones, and sterile female workers

  • During the late fall and early winter, as harsh weather approaches, newly fertilized queens seek protected habitats to spend the winter. Overwintering places may differ depending on the species. However, overwintering locations are normally located under tree bark, woodpiles, stumps and logs, and inside walls of structures.

  • In early spring, every queen will build a new nest. She will not use an old nest, but may build a new nest on the side of an old nest.

  • The storage of sperm inside the female queen allows her to lay eggs without the need to mate again with a male wasp.

  • Initially, the queen lays approximately 10-20 eggs. These eggs will develop into sterile females or workers that take care of the colony (raising, feeding, cleaning, fixing, defending, and construction).

  • Thereafter, the queen’s only job is to lay more eggs.

  • By the end of summer, when the colony is mature and enlarged in size and number, males and new queens are produced in a large number to fly out and mate.

  • Males die soon after mating; while, the newly mated queens seek protected areas for overwintering, and repeat the life cycle.

  • With the onset of cold weather, workers, immature stages and the original founding queen die.

  • Usually, social wasp workers live for 12-22 days, and the average lifespan of queens is about one year.

NINE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BEES, WASPS, AND HORNETS:

  • There are approximately 75,000 species of wasps and 20,000 species of bees worldwide.

  • The paper-like nest of social wasps (family Vespidae) consists of chewed plant material or wood pulp mixed with saliva and arranged in adjacent hexagonal cells.

  • Unlike the honey bee, wasps do not store food for the winter, and this is why their colonies only last for one season in temperate regions.

  • Despite beekeepers’ efforts, wasps impact honey production by reducing nectar and honeydew supplies for honey bees.

  • Wasps will attack honey bee hives in the spring to take away foraging worker bees. Later in the year, wasps will also steal honey and carry off bee larvae and pupae.

  • Dragonflies, robber flies, centipedes, birds, and badgers eat wasps.

  • Bees and wasps use visual and audible communications for mating and defense purposes.

  • Chemical stimuli (pheromones) are used for maintaining the social behaviors and tasks of the colony members. For example, queens produce a pheromone to regulate workers’ behavior and to inhibit the development of their sexual organs. In case of danger, wasps also produce an alarm pheromone to provoke aggressive behavior towards the intruder.

  • Foraging worker wasps bring raw food that they cannot digest into the nest and pass it to other workers to feed the larvae. In response, the larvae release a creamy drop of predigested materials that contains all necessary ingredients for the workers to eat.

* If Adam’s is unable to schedule a service appointment within 2 business days (48 hours excluding weekends) then Adam’s will discount the regular 1-time service price by $48 on the vector or stinging insect service that is scheduled and performed outside of the 48-hour time period. If the customer does not accept an appointment time, or cancels or reschedules an appointment that is scheduled within 2 business days of scheduling, no discounts will be applied.