These stinging insects can be a big, big problem and despite their being considered essentially the same, they’re distinctly different and must be handled with specific care.
Let the stinging insect extermination experts at Aspen Pest Control help you rid your home and life of stinging insects.
Don’t let stinging insects ruin your summer
We don’t want to brag, but the spring and summer months in the Pacific Northwest are some of the most gorgeous displays of nature imaginable. The sun-soaked mountains, the sparkling Pacific Coast, and, naturally, the abundance of seemingly endless, colorful blooms pepper the landscape in a way that would make anyone who didn’t live here jealous.
Of course, the spring and summer months are also an incredibly fertile period for pests, too. Stinging insects like paper wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets, given the right conditions, can pretty much take over your yard if they’re not dealt with properly. And due to their ability to sting, they can cause a lot of pain.
Unlike many types of bees, paper wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets can sting repeatedly, increasing their ability to protect their nests, but cause their victims a lot of pain in the process. In some cases, their stings can cause allergic reactions in some people, which if left untreated could even be fatal.
Long story short, these creatures can cause some real damage. They’re disruptive to your ability to live the sort of life you want to, whether it be just hanging out with the family, hosting friends for an outdoor get together, or trying to enjoy simple but fulfilling tasks like gardening.
Effectively removing these creatures from your property is no easy feat, either. Eradication of stinging insects like wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets requires nest removal, which means disturbing potentially hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of the prickly little beasts.
At Aspen Pest Control, our team of local, certified, trained, insured, and effective extermination experts has the experience and the commitment to help you solve your stinging insect situation.
What makes our team so successful in helping our clients rid their homes and properties of these prickly creatures? We take the time to understand the differences between these insects, explore all the possible areas they could be nesting on your property, and tenaciously treat those areas until you’re completely satisfied with the results. That’s the Aspen way!
Yellow jackets, hornets, and paper wasps — know the difference!
Yellow jackets in Oregon City
Allow us to let you in on what seems to be a little-known fact: yellow jackets and hornets are types of wasps. The term wasp is often used to describe many types of insects. The specific wasps we usually encounter and treat are called paper wasps, whereas hornets and yellow jackets are distinctly different creatures.
Yellow jackets are particularly fascinating to us as exterminators. These are the insects that you’ll often see invading an outdoor party that is serving drinks and food, or swarming around trash cans. This is due to their diet, which, in addition to feeding on grubs, caterpillars, and other insects, will also include nectar, fruit, and even meat.
They’re also incredibly evasive and downright aggressive. They’re evasive in the sense of where they build their nests, which can be as large as basketballs and house up to four thousand yellow jackets! They’re able to create nests of this size and caliber because they build them in hard to find places, like underground in abandoned animal dens, deep inside of thick bushes, or in hollowed out logs or trees.
You need to be extremely careful around yellow jackets. They are aggressors, meaning that just being near their nests will cause them to attack, and their stings can really, really hurt. (Not to mention potentially causing an allergic reaction in certain people and animals.)
Never approach these colonies or try to locate or remove their nests without professional assistance!
Hornets and paper wasps in Oregon City
Hornets, like paper wasps and even yellow jackets, are stinging insects that build their own nests through a rather impressive process: by combining their own saliva with plant matter and wood pulp to create a building material very similar to paper.
The distinction between this and the yellow jacket is where the nests are built. Unlike yellow jackets, who go to great lengths to hide their nests, hornets and paper wasps will often build their nests in high, hard to access areas like on the eaves of houses, on tree branches, on the underside of covered patios or decking, soffits, or even on overhead piping — whatever strong materials there are that keep them out of the reach of predators and protected from harsh weather conditions.
Another distinction between these creatures is their diets. Hornets typically eat flies, grasshoppers, crickets, bees and other small insects. Occasionally, they’ll eat tree sap and nectar.
Paper wasps prefer nectar, but are also prone to eating insects like caterpillars, larvae, and flies. Neither seems to have the same love of scavenging as the yellow jacket.
While hornets and paper wasps are less aggressive than the yellow jacket, this does not mean that they won’t act aggressively, especially if they feel threatened. Not only can these creatures cause physical harm and allergic reactions in some, their nests can cause aesthetic damage to your home. Aspen Pest Control includes nest removal (up to the second story eaves) as a standard component of our yellow jacket, hornet, and paper wasp services.
Tired of having your yard overrun by stinging insects?
Then you deserve Aspen Pest Control!
Contact us today to learn why your friends and neighbors in Oregon City and beyond choose the Aspen team to deliver them the area’s most reliable and effective extermination services. Contact us today!
