Stinging Insect Control

When nature’s balance gets out of whack, outdoor pests can become a problem for humans. In most cases, people call exterminators to help get things back to a balanced state (and give people back their living spaces).

Things get a bit trickier, however, when the pest you’re dealing with is a stinging insect. Stinging insects, such as honeybees, are crucial to maintaining balance in nature, and are largely beneficial to the environment. Nevertheless, a stinging insect infestation can be dangerous; there are certainly times when the risk to human health outweighs the insects’ ecological importance.

Reasons To Call For Bees, Wasps, and Hornets

Wasp and Hornet Pest Control Services in Cleveland, Ohio.

Most people are well aware of honeybees’ important role in the delicately-intertwined ecosystem. For the most part, people don’t consider them pests. However, honeybees occasionally take up residence within structures, which can sometimes create issues. Ideally, homeowners and business owners who have a honeybee problem would call local beekeepers to safely relocate honeybee colonies.

Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to relocate nests once they’re established inside buildings or homes. Honeybee hives, as you may have guessed, produce large amounts of honey. When honey is left within a structure, it invites all sorts of subsequent problems. It attracts wildlife, such as raccoons. If raccoons don’t get to the honey, you can bet that ants and cockroaches will — and then you’ll suddenly have more than one pest problem on your hands! Extracting bees often pays for itself, considering possible alternative scenarios.

There are many native species of yellowjackets in Ohio, but the dominant species is the German yellowjacket. They often make their nests within wall voids. There can be 5,000 adults inside a mature colony. Yellowjackets are more than just a nuisance, and can create huge issues for homeowners and businesses. In fact, most of the calls we receive for stinging insect control are in regards to German yellowjacket nests.

Yellowjacket season in Cleveland, OH runs from August – October. They remain relatively unnoticed until then. In late summer and autumn, the yellowjacket’s diet changes from proteins to carbohydrates. That’s why you’ll often spot them dive-bombing your Labor Day picnic. Their insatiable taste for sweets turns them into a formidable threat to outdoor living. Keep an extra close eye on your pop can during this time — there’s little worse than going for a swig and kissing yellowjacket tail instead!

Paper wasps are generally less aggressive than yellowjackets. During springtime, you’ll frequently notice them emerging from hibernation in attic spaces. Our office receives a number of stinging insect control calls when paper wasps start to swarm about rooftops. After their post-hibernation celebration, native paper wasps usually blend back into nature. You may never see a native paper wasp up close unless you find yourself in a meadow.

The European paper wasp gives other paper wasp species a bad wrap. They are much more aggressive than other species. European paper wasps have black and yellow coloration and look a lot like yellowjackets. Paper wasps, however, have longer legs. These pests build open comb nests in fences, sign posts, exterior light fixtures, playground equipment, and window frames

Unlike honeybees, bald faced hornets can sting their victims repeatedly. Take it from us — it is bloody painful to get wrapped up in their onslaught. It goes without saying that not many people enjoy discovering their basketball-sized nests in their yard!

The funny thing about bald faced hornets is that their nests are rarely noticed until after the leaves fall in Autumn. People stare in disbelief at huge nests dangling off low-hanging branches on their lawns. How did they survive cutting the grass there all summer long? They risked an onslaught of stings and, without a doubt, a trip to the emergency room every time they mowed the lawn. Yet most people escape this fate. Bald faced hornets are high-risk, low-probability pest!

Mud daubers are prolific stinging pests in Cleveland, OH. While they don’t usually sting humans, they’re often considered pests due to their activity in and around the home. Lots of people see them buzzing around in high numbers, but are unsure where the nest is. There are three kinds of mud daubers in Cleveland, OH: the yellow-and-black mud dauber, the organ pipe mud dauber, and the blue mud dauber. All are solitary stinging insects.

These mission-oriented predators go around collecting spiders and mud. They use their stingers to paralyze the spiders and entomb them in a mud gallery, along with one of their eggs. Once the egg hatches, the larva feeds on the living, yet still-paralyzed spider. After dinner, the mud dauber larva pupates within the mud nest. Finally, it emerges as an adult mud dauber.

Homes are great spots to build mud nests. If you have evergreen bushes with lots of spiders, and an irrigation system, mud daubers will love your house. They are most troublesome when located in window frames or in soffits. Emerging adults often venture inside instead of out.

Carpenter bees are important pollinators. Nonetheless, they can also be very destructive to a home. They bore into porch ceilings, cedar siding, arbors, and trim — basically anywhere with a shoddy paint job. If you have carpenter bees, it probably means you need to paint or stain certain parts of your home. You can deter carpenter bees from nesting by covering any exposed wood with a thick coat of paint. The bees simply cannot chew their way through a well-painted wood surface. Porch ceilings are prime nesting spots because they are often stained instead of painted. They also find places that are not painted at all, like the underside of porch railings. People with cedar trim or cedar shake get hit with carpenter bees the worst. To add insult to injury, the real damage comes when woodpeckers retrieve the larvae from inside the wood.