How To Keep Wasps Away
The most commonly known types of wasps are hornets and yellow jackets. While wasps can be invaluable for natural pest control – eating dead insects, spiders, and flies – their potential to injure people and pets makes them something most people want to eliminate. Apart from stinging, their persistence can be irritating and present a serious threat to those who are allergic.
Before you turn to chemical treatments, realize that chemical management of wasps and wasp nests is difficult and dangerous to attempt by yourself. Using chemicals can also harm the health of you and your family, as well as your pets and the environment.
Prevention
Prevention is always the first step in keeping wasps out of your home and yard. Wasps buzz in and out of people’s yards and decide to form nests in any opportune spots your home might provide. Keep them away by removing tempting food/beverage, especially sweets like soda, and covering trash cans. Think about anything and everything they may be attracted to, which includes pet food and even bird food.
Home maintenance
It’s also important to maintain the structure of your home and its fixtures by walking around it and checking for any areas that need repair. Broken siding or panels, or any other type of crevices, make ideal places for a wasp to build her nest. Be sure that all of your screens, windows, and doors are in proper working order to keep out insects. Check around your yard too, searching for rodent holes and potential burrows that could make a perfect home for wasps. Fill the hole with dirt so they can’t use it.
Decoys
Wasp decoys are especially effective for paper wasps, which are territorial and generally won’t build a nest that’s within 200 feet of another one. Placing a decoy on each side of your home can deter them from moving in.
Grow wasp-repelling plants
Plants like spearmint, thyme, citronella, eucalyptus, and wormwood serve as natural wasp deterrents. Grow them in your yard or garden in an area you’d like to enjoy wasp-free. In addition to their ability to chase the insects away, they naturally add beauty and fragrance.
Use peppermint essential oil
Not only do wasps stay away from spearmint, they don’t seem to like any type of mint, which is why peppermint oil can be so effective at repelling them.
A study published in the Journal of Pest Management Science in 2013, reported outstanding results with peppermint oil. In addition to planting any type of mint in your garden, you can simply add a few drops of peppermint oil to cotton pads and place them strategically around the outside of your home where wasps like to build nests, such as porch roofs, under eaves, and other crevices and ledges. Target spots where you’ve discovered nests in the past, because some types of wasps repeatedly build new nests in the same locations.
A wasp repelling essential oil blend
The same research referenced above, also found that a blend of lemongrass, clove, and geranium essential oils completely repelled worker wasps. Apply a mix of several drops of each of the oils in a spray bottle filled with water and add a few squirts of dish soap. Coat the areas outside of your house in places wasps are known to build nests.
Sugar & water wasp traps
These traps work by attracting wasps to fly inside a container that offers a tempting treat like sugar water, but they aren’t able to escape once they make their way in. You don’t need to buy one, you can make your own in just minutes by cutting the top from a two-liter bottle and inverting it inside the bottom. Once the wasps go in the bottle they can’t figure out how to get out, so they get trapped and die. You can increase the odds of success by locating the trap near a nest entrance.
We can help
No matter how intimidating or pervasive your wasp problem, you can trust that Amco Ranger knows exactly how to handle it and make sure they don’t return. Give us a call today if you need help getting rid of wasps at your home or business in Cottleville, St. Peters, O’Fallon, St. Charles, St. Louis, and surrounding communities.
Have a wasp nest? Check out easy ways to get rid of wasp nests.
