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. They are not the same insect, they do not nest in the same places, and the one that puts people in urgent care is usually not the one on the porch. 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 least aggressive 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 hole in the ground

Yellow jackets are shorter and thicker than paper wasps, bright yellow and black, and they nest in cavities: an old rodent burrow in the yard, the gap behind a retaining wall, inside a wall void, under a deck. The nest is hidden; what you see is a stream of traffic in and out of a single hole. By late summer a colony can hold several thousand workers, and they are aggressive around the nest — they will pursue, and they sting repeatedly. Yellow jackets are the ones that show up at the picnic and the trash can. A ground nest near a walkway, a play area, or the mower path is the nest that gets people hurt, and it is the one we treat most. Do not pour gasoline in the hole. It does not work well and it is a real fire and groundwater problem.

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. 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 March and April and start 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 the colony dies; only new queens survive, and they do not reuse the old nest. So a nest you find in October has weeks to live. Whether to treat it depends entirely on where it is.

Around the lake

Boathouse rafters, covered slips, and the underside of a dock are prime wasp real estate, and a nest you did not know about is the reason a lake weekend ends early. We check these on every routine visit for Lake Martin accounts, which is one reason the exterior program exists.

When to call

Ground nests near where people walk. Any nest inside a wall or an attic — the wrong treatment drives them into the living space. 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. Wasps and hornets are covered on the bi-monthly pest plan; nests within reach of the structure are treated on routine visits. For the other seasonal arrivals, see stink bugs and lady beetles.

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.

No One Cares Like EnviroCare.