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Wasp Nests: Everything You Need To Know About Them

Living around wasps is never a pleasant experience. Apart from being invasive and attracted towards human food, wasps also come with the threat of stinging people around them. If you live near wasp nests, it is essential to understand some basic things about their nests to protect your home and your family from the risks of living near wasps.

Why do wasps build nests?

Most types of wasps are social wasps, which means that they prefer to live and work with their family of wasps. To enable this, wasps build nests that can house their entire colony. The queen wasp of each colony uses this nest as a place to lay eggs and further increase the colony’s strength. Apart from these functions, nests also protect wasps from external and environmental elements such as winds and dust.

What are wasp nests made out of?

Wasp nests are made out of a pulp, which is formed by mixing chewed wood with the saliva of wasps. This pulp can look and feel like paper to the naked eye, but upon further examination, one can note that wasp nests are far more complex than what they look on the surface. On the inside, wasp nests have multiple hexagonal cells that have been carefully built by the worker wasps. Some types of wasp are known to use mud to improve the strength of their nest.

How do wasps build their nests?

The building process of a wasp nest is truly intriguing. It starts with a queen wasp identifying a suitable site for building her new nest. Once she has identified an appropriate site, she goes to nearby sources of wooden fiber such as trees, branches, logs, and even products made out of wood such as cardboard and discarded furniture. After scraping wood from these sources, the queen wasp consistently chews it to mix it with her saliva, resulting in the formation of a pulp. This pulp is then spat out by the queen wasp and used as the primary material with which the nest is shaped and created.

Where do wasps build their nests?

Wasps aren’t very selective about where they like to build their nests. They generally look for a strong structure that they can hang from. They also prefer corners of structures, such as ceilings and roofs, as they find these locations safe and easy to protect. Most wasps rely on wood fiber for creating their nest, they usually pick locations near abundant sources of wood. A few examples of such sources would be trees, branches, roof edges, or inside of furniture.

How do I get rid of a wasp nest?

If you spot a wasp nest around your house, the best thing to do would be to call for professional help. You may be tempted to go closer to the nest to see what is going on, but doing so might endanger you. Wasps are aggressive and defensive by nature. If they sense any form of threat from a person approaching their nest, they will swarm and attack the person in no time. Wasps are known to sting their victim multiple times, resulting in mild to severe reactions. Removing a wasp nest requires technical expertise, chemicals, and tools, which is why it is advisable to call a professional pest management agency. Once a wasp nest is removed, a professional pest control officer will be able to treat the original area of infestation to ensure that no parts of the nest are left behind. Using specific insecticides, the pest control officer will treat the impacted area, so that future infestations can be avoided.