Winter Wasp Woes

I have wasp problems. At least, I think they’re wasps … could be hornets, I hope not. Anyway I know I have nests in the porch ceiling pretty bad, but it’s possible they are also in the walls too. How bad? I’m afraid to know, but the real problem started last year on New Year’s Day, a couple hours into 2013.

I found a lone wasp crawling across my home-office floor, I was surprised, but took care of it. No other instances until nearly a year later, I find another one crawling in the same office, then a few days later another flying around the office, then the next week another crawler, and now I’ve captured my fifth one, (pictured). I was working and heard a noise, there was one at the window. Since I was working I quickly let it between the gap in the inner and outer window. I came back later, opened the window and found it stopped moving because of the cold, so I snapped the picture seen above and took care of it.

So, I’ve done a little research, basically, it’s winter, it gets warm in the house, wasps investigate, I find, I remove them. It’s become a nuisance and I fear it’s only going to get worse. In the summer there has been more and more activity and I’m pretty sure their colonies are getting larger in my house. So I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to hire a pest control company to take care of the issue as I can’t get in far enough with store-bought remedies. So my question to you fine PDD citizens: What’s a good business to call in the Duluth area? Trusted, knowledgeable, all the good stuff. Thank you.

P.S.: Last fall one was actually guarding one of their entrances into the porch roof, and a bigger wasp, or probably a hornet came near and the guard attacked it, and the both fell to the pouch deck. It’s becoming more and more difficult to enjoy my porch in the summer. Fun.

3 Comments

ElPete

about 10 years ago

I am by no means an expert on the subject however, I did have a wasp problem a few years ago. For whatever reason, simply removing the nest was not enough. They kept coming back and rebuilding. After a small amount of research I learned the nest had to be burned to be effective, in keeping the wasps away. I did this and the wasps moved on. Unfortunately, I don't have a pest control reference for you. My guess is that their approach would be to kill as many of the suckers as they could find.  Locate the nest and burn it or destroy it with chemicals and/or smoke. Although, if you haven't tried setting their house on fire I'd recommend trying that first.  Good luck!

Fitz

about 10 years ago

I used Guardian last summer and was very happy with them.  I had a large number of teeny ants in my tiled shower and couldn't figure out where they were getting in.  I tried a couple of natural remedies first, then a couple of borax-based commercial products, then finally gave up and called in the big guns.  I hated to do it, but there were so many I couldn't use the tub.

wormbreeder

about 10 years ago

I have had very good luck with advice and products from bugspray.com. They are located in suburban Atlanta and I used to live near there. They carry the high power products that are often not available at the home centers. Give them a call before ordering to ask for advice. They really seemed to know what they were talking about when I visited their store.

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