West Palm Beach’s Ultimate Wasp-Prevention Handbook

Wasps send over 500,000 people to the hospital each year. While wasps have earned a bad reputation, wasps are beneficial to the environment and to you! But how do you keep them out of your West Palm Beach yard?

Wasps 

Wasps are from the same sub order as ants and bees. This makes sense. They share a body composition, possessing a head, abdomen, and thorax. Wasps have more elongated bodies that come to a point as well as a petiole or waist between a wasp’s thorax and abdomen. Like ants and bees, wasps can be social and organized into caste systems.

Wasps prey on all insects but they don’t actually eat the insects. Adult wasps feed on sugary nectars. Their young, however, receive delivered forms of protein like spiders and roaches. Wasps feed insects to their larvae to help them grow.

The wasp family is incredibly diverse. There are over 5,000 species in the U.S. alone. They vary in color from the bright warning shades of yellow, red, and blue that indicate stinging wasps to the more conservatively hued wasps that are brown or white. Wasps can be solitary or social. Social wasps build colonies consisting of sterile female worker wasps, a reproductive queen, and the drone males. Only 1,000 species are social wasps including hornets and yellow jackets. These wasps are best known for their aggressive swarms and painful stings. Wasps can be potentially dangerous in the yard and can threaten day-to-activities like outdoor recreation and yard work.

Six Wasp-Prevention Tips For Your Yard

Wasps can be attracted to several things in your yard. For one, social wasps like to nest in gutters or underneath roof awnings. Meanwhile, solitary wasps will nest in holes in the ground. For this reason, we have some landscaping tips that will deter wasp activity around your West Palm Beach property.

1. Clean up: Wasps are attracted to sugar, so keeping your home and outdoor areas free from soda spills, crumbs, and other sweets will help deter wasps. Hummingbird feeders, the yard’s fruit tree, or berry bushes might also become an attractant for wasps.
2. Plant wasp-repelling plants: Avoid planting flowering plants nearest your property where you spend the most time. Wasps feed on the sweet nectar of flowers. A porch full of flowers is like an invitation to wasps to come to enjoy a nice meal. Instead, consider bordering your yard with plants like lemongrass, basil, wormwood, and marigold. The plants’ fragrances can drive wasps away.
3. Address pest problems with professional help: Since wasps feed on other insects, an effective way to keep them away from your home is to address any pest problems you have. The best way to manage pest problems is with professional assistance.
4. Install screen doors and windows and eliminate other entry points: Seal cracks around porch areas. Install screen doors and windows that will prevent wasps from accidentally finding their way into your house!
5. Fill in holes in the yard: Solitary wasps build nests underground. A hole can indicate an entry to the wasps’ home. Evict the wasp by filling the underground nest entry with dirt or gravel.
6. Remove trash and store properly: Regularly remove trash from your property. Cover compost piles and seal trash or recycling receptacles to keep wasps out.  

When Wasps Are Ruining Your Yard

If you find a wasp’s nest, don’t attempt to remove it yourself. Wasp stings can be extremely dangerous. When wasps are threatened, they emit pheromones for other wasps to attack. Keep you and your family safe by reaching out to the professionals at Empire Pest Defense. For more wasp prevention assistance or for the safe removal of an active nest, contact the professionals at Empire Pest Defense.

Tags: pest prevention | stinking insects | west palm beach pest control |