How to Get Rid of Yellow Jacket Nests in Your Siding
When yellow jackets create their base around your home, expect their presence to bother you and your family. These insects can affect your outdoor activities and turn your home area into a highly hazardous experience. When they set their hive on the siding of your house, it will become a dangerous zone to visit and bother them. Occasionally they will find a way and get into your home and bite you when you are sleeping or deep asleep. Yellow jackets don’t fancy extreme weather conditions, especially the cold season.
They always die when the weather turns cold. During this period, their food sources always disappear, and this insect will begin to starve and eventually die. When they starve, they become furious and aggressive. During their breeding season, which is in late summer, their colonies grow and become huge, and they will frustrate you with their constant buzzing noises. When you notice the presence of their nest in your siding, it would be a good idea to destroy their colony before they become hazardous to your family. Employ these simple methods to get rid of them;
1. Use Insect Dust
These are the simple steps to follow when you choose to use insect dust:
- Step 1: Find the entry point where these annoying insects are using to access your siding. According to Hunker, it would be a good idea to take your time during an afternoon when these insects are active and trace them to find where they are disappearing and finding their way into your house siding. It can be a good idea if you could even mark off any available channel hole that comes across so that you can focus on them.
- Step 2: Apply a speck of insect dust recommended by a professional to kill these insects on the entry point that you spotted and marked. You can buy these insect specks of dust online or visit your nearest hardware stores. Please, before buying any type of dust to use at your home, enquire with a professional exterminator about your issue to get advice on which type to buy. You can also ask employees at the hardware question about these dust and insects, they have ideas, and they may help you.
- Step 3: You can use either a homemade applicant like an empty bottle or a duster to apply the dust on the entrance path for yellow jackets. When dusting those available entry points, if you notice any cracks or crevices around the entry points that these insects might try to divert and use, ensure that you fill them or dust them too. When these insects are making their entry or leaving their nest through the dusted holes, they will be carrying the applied dust with them and eventually spread to the others inside the hive. As a result, this dust will eliminate the entire nest in your siding.
- Step 4: Please remember to go back to the entrances to supervise what happened after two to three days. If you notice the yellow jackets hovering around, ensure that you reapply the dust again. According to Orkin, on instances where the nest is oversized, you may require reapplication of the dust for about two to three times to eliminate all the Yellow Jackets.
2. Apply Bee Killers to eliminate them
Bee killer is another effective pesticide that you can consider eliminating yellow jackets when they begin to cause havoc around your home. Use these steps to apply Bee killer;
- Step 1: Buy a bee killer or wasp killer from your area hardware stores or any convenience store that sells them. A general insect killer that you will get is good for this job. But if possible, ensure that you buy a product made to deal with wasps and bees. They are usually adequate.
- Step 2: After getting your wasp or bee killer pesticide, you can go and find out where these yellow jackets are gaining access to your siding and observe their behavior during the afternoon. This is their most active time. Follow their disappearance area without provoking them as they can sting you. While you are at it, ensure that you mark all the entry points that you will come across and don’t leave any unmarked, you will use these points to apply your bee killer.
- Step 3: After preparing your bee or wasp killer, spray all the entry points that these insects use to access their nest and pour a sufficient amount to eliminate them. Also, remember not to forget to coat even the sides of the entry points.
- Step 4: After spraying the entry points, ensure that you plug their entry point using old rags or clothes that you don’t use so that the insect may remain inside. These also prevent them from flying away or being washed or blown by the wind and prevent them from escaping to come back later and restart building their nest.
- Step 5: After about two to three days, go back and check if all the yellow jackets were eliminated. If you notice, their activities are still going on. Please continue with the application about two to three times again to eradicate the nest if it is big.
3. Set out Bait
Yellow jackets may interfere even with your sleep or when you are enjoying your favorite meal. Therefore, you should use any means to destroy their colony. Another method to use is setting a bait station around your home. According to Your Nifty Home, these insects’ presence can spread everywhere and infest the entire area, causing an unhealthy environment. Setting baits around places you have spotted yellow jackets can attract them. You can use meat during spring or summer. During fall, carbohydrates will work. Then apply an effective insecticide on the beef or carbohydrate and apply to die.
Takeaway
Overall, getting rid of the yellow jacket can be effective when you do it at their entry and exit point, using an effective method like the above mentioned. When you decide to use bait or set traps, it is essential to know that these two methods will not eliminate the colony of these insects. When you notice the presence of these insects on your home siding, you can invite a trained pest specialist to assess the situation if you can’t handle it, and they will come up with the best treatment method to eliminate them.
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