Don’t you hate it when you hear a buzzing sound, look over your shoulder, and see an aggressive yellow jacket wasp? Even worse is the discovery that this wasp isn’t alone and that there’s an entire nest hidden away in your home. Discover how to remove yellow jackets from inside a wall permanently and with the utmost safety in mind.
Yellow jackets are a type of stinging insect classified as wasps. There are over 30,000 unique species of wasps and several common varieties you might see. The docile paper wasp lives in a small nest with about 20 residents. Yellow jacket nests are often hidden in dark places, like the wall, and each nest houses a few hundred wasps.
Hornets have larger nests, commonly hanging from trees, a roof overhang, or porch pillars. Of course, wasps have their place in the food chain. They help pollinate flowers, control insect populations, and provide food for birds. However, you’re entitled to a safe place to live and sleep, meaning the wasps have got to go.
Discover How to Get Rid of Wasps in Walls
Wasps differ from your average carpenter bee, honey bee, or ground bee in social habits and aggression. When bees sting, they die, whereas a wasp sting can be inflicted repeatedly, like a bed bug bite. Getting rid of a wasps nest in a wall is an important priority.
Know Your Pests and Proper Pest Control
Removing yellow jackets from a house wall starts with positively identifying the pest you’re dealing with. Ensure you fight wasps or hornets, not a beneficial bee’s nest. Wasps can’t produce wax, so their nests are paper; a paper nest is a sure sign you are dealing with wasps.
Common pests like the yellow jacket wasp, mud dauber wasp, bald faced hornet, and German yellowjacket, look very different from bees. They’re slimmer, less hairy, and often have bright, distinct stripes on their abdomens.
When dealing with foraging yellowjackets, choose a wasp or hornet spray that offers an instant, paintless death and deters others from returning to the nest entrance.
How to Remove Yellow Jackets From Inside a Wall
The key to successful wasp removal is treating the nest with an insecticide before disturbing the nest opening. Crushing a wasp causes a chemical alert that attracts other wasps, which you want to avoid at all costs.
Explore how to get rid of wasps in walls safely. Plan your attack at night or in the morning when the yellow jackets nest will be calm; choosing the middle of the day when they’re at peak activity levels is just asking for trouble.
Find the location of the hornet nests or German yellow jackets hiding in your walls. Pierce a small hole through the drywall or plaster, and insert the tip of the pest control spray bottle. Fill the cavity with insecticide or Delta Dust and tape the hole with duct tape to prevent escape.
Getting Rid of a Wasps Nest in a Wall With the Vacuum
It’s time to bring out the Shop-Vac and suit up with serious safety gear; learn how to get rid of wasps in walls with suction. A powerful vacuum works great for hornet nests or ground nests causing trouble.
Always use proper safety equipment for yellow jacket removal or dealing with a yellow jacket infestation. Wear work gloves, long pants, and a helmet. Get an extension for the vacuum to distance yourself from the yellow jacket activity.
Find the yellowjacket nest, cut a small hole in your wall with the key saw, and start vacuuming; suck the wasps from the nest and air. Pull the paper wasp nest pieces out of the wall and dispose of them in a garbage bag.
Call a Professional Pest Control Service
Just because you know how to remove yellow jackets from inside a wall doesn’t mean you should. Getting rid of a wasps nest in a wall is dangerous work. Wasps sting and swarm in numbers, and you may have an unknown allergy to an accidental yellow jacket sting.
Call your local pest control company; they’re well-equipped to deal with wasp control or a yellow jacket infestation.
We hope you benefit from this tutorial on how to remove yellow jackets from inside a wall safely. Plan your escape route before you take on the wasp’s nest, and always wear appropriate safety gear; multiple stings can cause a reaction even in those who aren’t naturally allergic.
For the future, deter wasps by eliminating food sources in your yard. Wash and disinfect your trash and recycling cans regularly; sugary food remnants send out a signal to wasps. Avoid the classic funnel yellow jacket trap because the bait brings more wasps to the yard.
Scale back the bird control measures in your yard to allow natural insect control. If the wasp nest poses no threat, leave it alone until the wasps abandon it in the winter to hibernate, then dismantle and destroy it.
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