Do you know bee’s? To reduce your chances of being stung this summer it’s best to know the stinging insects in Anne Arundel County – Wasp, the more common  Yellow Jackets and Hornets.

While hornets are commonly thought to be different from wasps, in fact they’re just a larger-sized sub-set of the wasp family. Like yellow jackets hornets are social creatures, which means they live in hives. The only difference is in the number of roommates they have, as paper wasps tend to number a dozen or so to a nest, while hornets and yellowj jackets can grow their nests to as many as four or five thousand individuals. Needless to say, the thought of 5,000 hornets buzzing around your home or business is likely to give you some serious nightmares.

Wasps can be a huge nuisance and are generally aggressive when provoked. Old Bay Pest Control’s wasp exterminators safely remove wasp and hornet nests from your home or business.

Nest Removal

For the most part, people don’t pay much attention to wasps and hornets except when they start to invade the picnic or barbecue. Then the hands start swatting and the homemade wasp traps come out. If the situation is bad enough the next outdoor event will likely feature a few store-bought contraptions designed to take care of that wasp or hornet problem.

Wasp Life Cycle and Behaviour.

A queen goes dormant in the winter months, and emerges from her hiding place in the spring when the weather warms up. She selects a place to begin a nest, gets it far enough along that she can lay her first eggs, then feeds her first group of larvae to the point that they can begin the process of expanding the nest – typically the papery-looking  structures that are so common under the eaves of homes. Sometimes the nest is located inside an alcove, or in a tree, or any place that is somewhat sheltered from the elements.

The queen continues to lay eggs while the workers guard the nest, expand it, and feed the young. The drones, males developed from unfertilized eggs, will have one job come fall – to mate with the new queens that are hatched at that time of year.

When mating season is done, all but the new queens die, the nest is abandoned, most likely never to be reused, and the queens go into hibernation once more.

What do they eat? Workers eat nectar, tree sap and fruit pulp, apples are particularly delicious to hornets,  For wasps it’s generally anything with sugar and carbohydrates is sought out as a welcome part of the wasp diet.

For many people, one of the most interesting things about wasps is that they’re attracted to meat and fish. However, the wasps that collect the meat aren’t actually eating it themselves… they’re taking it back to the nest for the larvae to feed on.

Now, while meat forms the diet for the larvae the vast majority of this food is gathered as a result of the wasps hunting and killing other insects; the steak at your barbecue is just an added opportunity.

Which brings us to interactions with humans. Wasps are prone to building nests near human habitation, which is why wasp control services are in high demand.

If you need expert help just give us a call. Be wasp, yellow jacket and hornet free tomorrow.