Wasps, Yellow Jackets, and Hornets in Alabama: Which One Is on Your House?

Every August the same three calls come in, and people use the three names interchangeably. Wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets are not the same insect, they do not nest in the same places, and the stinging insect that sends people to urgent care is usually not the one on the porch. In Alabama it is most often the yellow jacket nest in the ground. Knowing which one you have decides whether you knock it down with a can of spray on a cool evening or leave it alone and call someone.

Paper wasps: the umbrella under the eave

The nest is an open, upside-down umbrella of gray paper cells, usually a few inches across, hanging from a soffit, a porch ceiling, a deck rail, or the inside of a mailbox. The wasps are long, thin, reddish-brown or dark with yellow markings, and their legs hang down in flight. Paper wasps are the less aggressive insect of the three; they defend the nest if you swat at it, but they are not looking for you. A small nest in an out-of-the-way spot can be treated at dusk with a wasp spray. A nest over a door or a walkway, or one you cannot reach without a ladder, should not be. Falling off a ladder is the injury, not the sting.

Yellow jackets: the yellow jacket nest underground

Yellow jackets are shorter and thicker than paper wasps, banded bright yellow and black, with a narrow waist. Most of the yellow jackets you meet in an Alabama yard belong to the genus Vespula, and they do not hang a nest where you can see it. They move into a cavity that already exists: an old rodent burrow in the lawn, the gap under a landscape timber or a concrete step, the space behind a retaining wall, a wall void, the dirt under a deck. Inside, the colony builds tiers of paper comb from chewed wood fiber, and the cavity keeps getting dug out as the nest grows.

What you see from the outside is small: a steady line of insects flying in and out of one hole, sometimes no bigger than a coin, often low in the grass. If you notice more yellow jackets than usual cruising low over one part of the yard, there is probably an entrance close by.

By late summer an average nest can hold several thousand workers, which is when yellow jackets become a nuisance, and they are aggressive around the nest. They will pursue, and unlike a honeybee a yellow jacket keeps its stinger, so one insect can sting again and again. These are also the ones that show up at the picnic and the trash can, working sweet drinks and meat as the season winds down. A ground nest near a walkway, a play area, a dog run, or the mower path is the nest that gets people hurt, and it is the one we treat most.

What sets off a ground nest

Do not disturb the nest to investigate. These are the usual triggers:

• A mower or string trimmer passing over the entrance. The vibration alone can bring hundreds of workers up at once.
• Digging, edging, or pulling weeds in a bed where the colony has set up.
• Kids or pets running back and forth across the same spot.
• Poking a stick in the hole, flooding it with a hose, or stamping on it to see what happens.

What does not work

Do not pour gasoline in the hole. It does not work well, and it is a real fire and groundwater problem. Do not set it on fire, plug the entrance with a rock, or cover it with dirt; the workers simply dig a new exit, sometimes into a crawlspace or a wall instead of the yard. And do not walk out at noon with a can of spray. Daytime is when the most foragers are out and the colony is most alert.

Perennial yellow jacket nests: the Alabama exception

Normally a yellow jacket colony is an annual. The workers and the old queen die with cold weather, and only newly mated queens survive the winter to start fresh colonies in the spring. In Alabama that pattern does not always hold. Entomologists at Auburn University and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System have documented perennial yellow jacket nests: colonies that live through a mild winter, often have multiple queens, and keep growing into a second season. Auburn University tracked about 90 such nests in 2006, and more turned up in later years.

A perennial nest, sometimes called a super nest, is a different scale of problem from a normal yellow jacket nest, and the risk of being stung goes up with every worker. Some have grown to fill a large underground space or spill out under a house, with reported sizes in the range of a small car and worker counts in the tens of thousands or more. Researchers point to two conditions behind them: a mild winter that never delivers the cold that normally ends the colony, and an abundant food supply that keeps the workers foraging. If you see an unusually large mound of comb, traffic from several openings, or heavy activity in March or April when nests should be tiny, treat it as a possible perennial nest. Keep everyone away from it and call a licensed pest control company.

Bald-faced hornets: the gray football in the tree

Bald-faced hornets build the nest everyone photographs: a closed, gray, papery football, sometimes bigger, hanging in a tree, a shrub, or under an eave, with a single entrance near the bottom. The insects are black with white faces, and they are actually a kind of yellow jacket, not a true hornet. They are large, they defend a wide radius around the nest, and a colony in a shrub next to the driveway is a problem every time a car door opens. These nests are not a spray-can job. A nest away from any activity can simply be left alone until the first hard cold; one near the house needs professional treatment.

The Alabama calendar

Queens emerge in early spring, March and April, and build nests alone. Through May and June the nests are small and easy to deal with. July and August is peak growth, and by September a colony is at maximum size and maximum aggression, which is exactly when people notice it. After the first hard cold in November an ordinary colony dies; only new queens survive, and they do not reuse the old nest. So a typical nest you find in October has weeks to live, and whether to treat it depends entirely on where it is. The perennial nests above are the exception to that rule, which is one more reason a big ground nest late in the year deserves a professional look.

Around the lake

Boathouse rafters, covered slips, and the underside of a dock are prime real estate for wasp nests, and a nest you did not know about is the reason a lake weekend ends early. Routine exterior visits for Lake Martin accounts knock down webbing and new building along the eaves, and an active nest found there can be treated as an add-on. For the other dock regulars, see spiders on boat docks.

Stings and allergies

For most people a sting is painful and short-lived; for some, stinging insects are a serious medical risk. Know whether anyone in the household, including a visiting grandchild, has a known sting allergy, and keep their prescribed plan close during yard season. If you disturb a nest, walk away fast in a straight line and get indoors or into a car; swatting only draws more of them. If someone shows signs of a severe reaction, such as trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, or dizziness, call 911.

When to call

Ground nests near where people walk, play, or mow. Any nest inside a wall or an attic, because the wrong treatment drives them into the living space. Anything that looks like a perennial nest. Bald-faced hornet nests near the house. Any nest you would need a ladder for. And anyone in the household with a known sting allergy, in which case none of this is a DIY job.

When we treat a yellow jacket nest in the ground, our technicians wear protective gear, locate the entrance, and apply EPA-registered products according to label directions directly into the colony, usually when most of the workers are home. Customers on the bi-monthly pest plan get eave treatment that discourages wasps from building, and routine visits knock down webbing and new building along the eaves. Treating an active wasp, hornet, or yellow jacket nest, including a ground nest, is an add-on at an additional charge; it is not part of the standard plan. See our pricing page for plan details. Honeybees are a different story: we do not treat them, and a local beekeeper can often remove a swarm. Carpenter bees are handled as an add-on for existing customers; see carpenter bees in Alabama. For the other seasonal arrivals, see stink bugs and lady beetles.

If you have a line of yellow jackets coming out of the ground by the mailbox, leave it alone and let us look at it. Call the office nearest you: Birmingham (205) 991-2882, Alabaster (205) 940-6360, Lake Martin / Alex City (256) 234-6162, or Huntsville (256) 937-7676. Or request a free quote and we will take it from there.

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