Yellow Jackets in Your Walls? What Central New York Homeowners Need to Know
Late summer and early fall are prime yellow jacket season in Central New York. By August and September, nests that started small in the spring have had an entire summer to grow.
And sometimes, that nest isn't hanging from a tree where you can see it.
It may be inside the walls of your home.
How Do You Know If Yellow Jackets Are in Your Walls?
Yellow jackets can enter through surprisingly small openings around siding, soffits, rooflines, vents and utility lines.
Seeing an occasional yellow jacket around your house isn't necessarily cause for concern. What you want to watch for is repeated activity in the same spot.
From a safe distance, look for:
Yellow jackets repeatedly entering and leaving the same opening
Activity underneath siding or around soffits and rooflines
Yellow jackets suddenly appearing inside your home
Buzzing or rustling sounds coming from a wall or ceiling
Heavy activity around one area of the house, especially on warm afternoons
One important thing to remember: the hole they're using to enter your house may not be where the actual nest is located. They can travel through a wall or ceiling void before reaching the nest.
Whatever You Do—Don't Seal the Hole!
This is one of the biggest mistakes homeowners make.
It seems logical: They're going into that hole, so I'll just seal it.
Please don't.
If you seal their exterior entrance while the colony is still active, the yellow jackets are still inside your wall. Now they need to find another way out—and that new exit could lead inside your home.
The rule is simple:
Treat first. Make sure the colony is gone. Seal later.
Skip the DIY Wasp Spray
Spraying a can of wasp killer into the opening may kill some of the yellow jackets you see, but it may never reach the actual nest.
And please don't remove siding or open drywall trying to find it. You could suddenly expose yourself to a large, defensive colony.
Yellow jackets inside a wall are a good time to call a professional.
Not All Wall-Void Treatments Are the Same
When calling a pest control company, don't be afraid to ask how they plan to treat the nest.
One great question is:
“Do you use an Actisol® machine or a similar system that can deliver treatment throughout a wall void?”
Equipment such as an Actisol system uses high-volume airflow to help carry an appropriately labeled treatment into cracks, crevices and difficult-to-reach structural voids.
That's important because the nest may be several feet away from the opening you're watching.
Simply treating the yellow jackets at the entrance isn't necessarily the same thing as reaching the colony inside the wall.
A licensed pest control professional should be able to evaluate the activity, determine where the colony is likely located and choose the appropriate treatment and equipment for the situation.
Seeing Yellow Jackets Going Into Your House?
Don't seal the opening. Don't start pulling off siding. And don't wait until yellow jackets start showing up in your living room.
Call a professional and ask how they treat yellow jacket nests inside structural voids.
At Gannon Pest Control, our technicians have the professional equipment and experience needed to handle those hard-to-reach yellow jacket colonies.
If you're seeing yellow jackets repeatedly disappearing under your siding, into a soffit or through another opening in your home, give us a call.
Gannon Pest Control
Serving Central New York
315-454-8672
bugs@gannonpestcontrol.com
If the bugs come back, so do we.