Yellow jackets are often categorized with paper wasps, hornets, and mud daubers as “wasps,” but each of these stinging insects has their own preferences and behaviors. Instead of building nests underneath the eaves of your Conroe home and other buildings, yellow jackets nest in the ground. And they don’t necessarily need to be provoked to attack you or one of your family members. Not only do they sting, they can also bite.
Why Are Yellow Jackets So Aggressive?
Yellow jackets are stinging insects and pollinators, and they can be attracted to anything that smells sweet, like garden flowers. They can also be attracted to anything sweet such as a juice spill, perfumes, and lotions.
The best thing you and your family can do to avoid unpleasant and painful experiences with yellow jackets and other social wasps, is to do whatever you can to avoid them.
- You can inspect your yard and other playgrounds, ball fields, picnic areas, etc., to see if there is are any stinging insect nests. Remember that yellow jackets tend to nest in the ground. Be sure to avoid these nests and have your children do the same.
- Avoid wearing bright colors (especially yellow), or floral patterns that may attract yellow jackets.
- Avoid trying to kill and squash yellow jackets. When squashed, yellow jackets release a pheromone that attracts other yellow jackets, inciting them to attack you.
- When going outside in the summertime and the fall especially, minimize the use of sweet smelling personal care products like lotions, soaps, perfumes, shampoos, etc., as these also often attract yellow jackets.
Yellow Jacket Stings and Symptoms
Yellow jacket problems are most common in the late summer and fall, but they usually do not attack while foraging for food (unless you physically threaten them). These stinging insects are very sensitive to being disturbed and are aggressive in protecting their nests–if a nest has previously been disturbed, just coming near to it may provoke an attack.
Yellow jacket stings are a more serious threat to you and your family than bee stings. Bees can only sting you once, because their stinger is barbed, and gets ripped out after they sting you. Yellow jacket stingers are not barbed, so they can sting you multiple times. Being stung by a yellow jacket can be traumatizing!
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Some individuals with allergies are much more sensitive to yellow jacket stings. Those who have such allergies to yellow jacket venom may go through very severe reactions.
Your first impulse may be to bolt away running, but it’s best to avoid sudden, jerky movements, and rather to slowly back away from the colony/nest until the yellow jackets stop attacking you.
Do you have yellow jacket problems in your yard? If you’re dealing with large numbers of yellow jackets, or with multiple nests, you should consider calling a pest control company. You will likely end up saving yourself a lot of painful encounters, as well as time, money, and stress. Contact our Conroe, TX pest control experts today! We can help you and your family enjoy your yard without worrying about yellow jackets and other stinging insects.
