In our last blogpost, we discussed the fact that fall weather ushers in more yellow jackets than the summer heat of Alabama normally allows. So, we wanted to give some additional information about yellow jackets in Alabama and some tips about how to handle them.
Yellow Jacket–Fast Facts
Yellow Jackets Nest Underground
Yellow jackets will often inhabit abandoned animal burrows underground to avoid predators, to ensure protection from harmful weather, and to provide a space in which they can continually grow their colony.
Yellow Jackets Can Sting Multiple Times
Unlike their cousin, the honeybee, yellow jackets do not die soon after stinging, but are able to sting several times in a row. So, if you are stung, you should still seek to flee the area where the yellow jacket stung you to ensure that you are not stung a second or even third time.
Yellow Jackets Are Omnivores
Yellow jackets feed on a variety of plant products like fruit, sap, and nectar. When it is time to feed their larvae, yellow jackets turn to food with higher protein levels like caterpillars, insect larvae, flies, and dead animals.
Yellow Jackets Are Often Beneficial to Humans
Though we often recoil in fear at the sight of a yellow jacket, these tiny creatures generally benefit humans more than harm them. If you are a gardener, you may consider leaving these insects alone because they are known to eat large amounts of garden pests and are also prolific pollinators.
What to Do If You Find a Yellow Jacket Nest
If you can generally avoid the area where the nest is located, it is best to do that. Yellow jackets will mind their own business if they do not sense an immediate
threat to the colony.
If, however, you find a nest near a location that you or your family often walk around, play in, work at, etc. then you will likely want this nest removed.
First, be sure to keep away from the nest until it is removed.
Then call a professional pest control company, like S&S Termite and Pest Control, to safely remove the nest from your property.
What to Do If You Get Stung by a Yellow Jacket
Use Ice to Ease Pain and Swelling.
This helps to immediately relieve pain by numbing the area of the skin that was stung and it helps to reduce swelling that happens as a result of the sting.
Take an Over-the-counter Antihistamine.
An antihistamine will act as an anti-inflammatory alongside the ice and will also alleviate some of the itching that is associated with yellow jacket stings.
Click here for more yellow jacket sting treatment tips.
If you are looking to exterminate a yellow jacket nest in the Auburn and Opelika, Alabama area, contact S&S Termite and Pest today!
