Pests We Treat - Paper wasps in Lawrence Township invade shrubs.

A homeowner who resides in a community serviced by Cowleys in Lawrence Township, NJ found out the hard way that there was a yellow jacket infestation on her property. Yellow jackets are social wasps that live in large colonies. A single colony can easily grow into thousands of workers if the problem is not resolved! Almost all of us have had a close encounter with yellow jackets and whenever we see its distinctive warning yellow and black stripes, we instinctively know to back off as far away as we can from these ornery insects. 

While watering her plants, this homeowner inadvertently came across a ground wasp nest. Yellow jackets, unlike other wasps like baldfaced hornets and paper wasps out on the open, tend to build their nests in hidden locations like wall voids and holes in the ground. I’ve often seen them exploit gaps around pipes going into homes and attach their nest to siding or soffit areas. These wasps are aggressive and highly territorial. Even worse, a single yellow jacket with its unbarbed stinger is capable of stinging multiple times. This homeowner informed me that she received multiple stings Fortunately, although the stings were painful, she was not allergic to the venom. For those allergic to insect stings, this situation could have easily turned into a serious medical emergency. 

I did not want this frightened homeowner to be terrorized by these stinging wasps ever again, and I vowed to take care of the problem for good. The best way to approach a yellow jacket nest is carefully. You don’t want to upset these wasps and have them consider you an intruder. I applied a residual dust into the nest opening. Dust works well in these situations because it flows into the nest cavity and sticks to the nest and all of the wasps hovering around inside. It works silently and does not repel the insects. This way, foraging wasps returning to the nest have no idea what’s waiting for them. As soon as they arrive, they’ll come into contact with the product. The nest is usually destroyed within a couple of hours after the application.