Although there are many species of wasps on the planet, pest controllers in Phoenix are largely only concerned with 3 different types of wasps species: the Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris, the German Wasp Vespula germanica, and the Dolichovespula media.

All three species are social nest builders constructing their nests from paper which they make by mixing rotting wood with saliva.

Only the newly hatched queens survive the winter after mating with the males in the autumn. A typical nest will produce around 2000 new queens to overwinter.

They emerge from their hibernation in spring and after feeding commence nest building. The queen will build a small nest around the size of a golf ball in which see lays 15 -20 eggs which hatch into wasp larvae.

The queen then feeds these larvae on insects until they are ready to pupate and metamorphose into adult wasps.

Once the first batch of wasps is hatched, the queen devotes herself to egg-laying and the worker wasps, which are sterile females, take over the enlargement of the nest.

As this process takes time you will not see any wasps other than the queens much before June of each year. Any ‘wasps’ seen before this time will undoubtedly be solitary bees which do bear a passing resemblance to wasps.

By the end of summer and average wasps’ nest will be about the size of a medicine ball can contain 5-10,000 wasps although in good years much larger nests are seen. In autumn the nest begins production of the new queens and the males.

Once this process has finished the worker wasps start to become antisocial as they seek sweet sticky foodstuffs and assume the aggressive behavior which we all associate with wasps in autumn.

With the first of the cold weather the worker wasps and the males all die off and the queens go into hibernation to start the process again the following spring.

The nest itself is then spent and can never be used again. For this reason, it is not necessary to remove a wasps’ nest and pest controllers will leave a nest in-situ rather than risk falling through ceilings, etc. to try and remove it.

Although it is not immediately apparent wasps do quite a bit of natural pest control, their diet being aphids and grubs they do assist the gardener in keeping these pests in check but for many people, their habit of stinging outweighs any benefit.

A wasps’ nest should never be approached as wasps’ are most dangerous in the immediate vicinity of their nests and it is possible to sustain hundreds of stings in a very short period.

For this reason, it is advisable to engage the services of a professional pest controller who will have the necessary protective clothing for the task.

The pest controller will spray a small amount of insecticidal powder into the entrance of the nest and returning wasps will carry it into the nest. Within an hour all the wasps will be dead.

Not so much is known of the warrior wasps. But there is enough to know that they have one of the worst stings you can ever hope to endure. If you have ever inadvertently walked into what is known as a vespine wasps nest and got stung by even one wasp, then you know this things can really mess up your day.

The sting of a vespine wasp will fell like a day at the spa compared to the sting of a warrior wasp. The brutal sting of a warriors wasp is something special and in a class of it’s own. For reference and context, take the pain of being stung by a vespine wasp and compound that several times over. We shall revisit in more horrid detail the pain of the warrior wasp sting in a bit.

The Swarm-founding warrior wasps have particularly pricked the curiosity of ecological scientists because studies show that some of their colonies contain multiple queens as opposed to the single queen as often found with Vespine wasps nests.

Scientists also mention that although the species has a caste system, one can barely tell the workers and the Queen’s apart as they are morphologically identical or in other terms look very similar to one another.

Incase you are wondering what the warrior wasps look like, they have a distinctive blackish or dark blue metallic-like appearance. While species like vespine wasps may be feared, warrior wasps are revered by the local people in various geographies due to their defensive display which is both intimidating and unsettling. It involves drumming on the nest surface before a full scale stinging attack ensues.

Warrior wasps are from the genus Synoeca are commonly found in South and Central America, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Their nest often not overly hidden and is made on the face of a tree trunk underside of major branches or constructed on the face of a rock. They are relatively easy to find and fairly common throughout their range.

The nest is built as a single comb and resembles an armadillo. The outer surface is ribbed with lines running across the hive from side to side.

Colonies consist of anything from 50 to 500 warrior wasps and have an average lifespan of 16 years. Every so often a queen will fly off accompanied with a few workers to start a new colony elsewhere. In the event that a queen dies, she will be swiftly replaced by another.

Warrior wasps sting

When the hive is threatened, the warrior wasps will beat their wings simultaneously producing a drumming sound to deter an intruder. Hence the nickname ‘drumming wasp’ the drumming will continue and grows louder as the hundreds of warrior wasps begin to emerge from the hives envelope. The sound is menacing and the sight brings of terror about to unfold. Only if this striking display at intimidation fails to deter the intruder will the warrior wasps strike in droves as an absolute last resort.

Warrior wasps die after stinging once and perhaps explains why the elaborate drumming in hope of not having to engage. On the Schmidt sting pain index, a warrior wasp sting has been given a pain rating of 4. Schmidt describes the pain as ‘torture’ and not far from being chain to the floor of an active volcano’

For context, on the same pain index, red ants have a rating of 1.

The only other bug that has a rating of 4 on that index is the bullet ant. Not so much because the pain of a bullets ant supersedes that of a warrior wasp, although it does comes close, but simply because it lasts for a continuous 24 hours. While a warrior’s sting is much more painful than a bullet ant, the agony passes quicker.

Conclusion

If you happen on a warrior wasps’ hive, it’s most advised to back away and find another route before your day becomes really, really bad.

It is hard to find someone who does not likes honey. But the same bees that produce sweet smelling and tasting honey are also capable of stinging you senseless. Some species of honey bees can be more aggressive than others.

Getting close to a hive without adequate protective clothing can be a fatal mistake. While most people can get through being stung by a bee or two, being stung by a horde of bees can be catastrophic.

Bees often sting to protect their hives or in self-defense when they have been provoked. A single be will sting you and emit a hormone known as pheromone which alerts other nearby bees to come and join in the fight.

One to two bees can quickly turn into hundreds and that can be a major problem. Bees are only capable of stinging once and then they die. The sting that resembles a tiny wood splinter gets embedded in the skin and deposits a venom. It is this venom that causes irritation and itchiness.

Remove the sting from the skin by scraping it off with your fingernail or credit card. Removing the sting from the skin is imperative because that reduces the itching and swelling significantly.

After that, there are many remedies that can be applied to help ease the discomfort.

1. Wash with clean water

The sting area should be washed using clean soapy water if possible before applying anything. Also the sting should be removed to ensure no more venom from the sting is being deposited in the skin

2. Honey

Ironically honey applied to bee sting, after removal of the sting from the skin, will help calm the sting area by reducing itchiness and soothing the skin.

2. Essential oil

Certain essential oils are known for their antiseptic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and skin soothing qualities which can be helpful in restoring balance to a bee stung area. Such essential oils include:

• Lavender oil
• Thyme oil
• Rosemary oil
• Tea tree oil
• Witch hazel

As a rule of thumb, when using any essential oil for topical use, it should be diluted with a carrier oil such as almond, coconut or olive oil

3. Calamine lotion

If the itchiness on the stung area is persistent despite having removed the bee sting, rubbing some calamine lotion to the wound will help bring relief.

4. Toothpaste

The rationale behind using some toothpaste on a bee sting wound, is that the alkaline contained in the toothpaste should neutralize the acidic venom of a bee sting.

5. Aloe vera

If aloe veragrows in your area grabbing a leaf and cutting it in half will reveal the Aloe Vera sap. Dabbing a bit of that sap on a bee sting can help soothe the pain and calm the surrounding sting.

Conclusion

So the next time you or your child gets stung by a bee, it is important to clear the area quietly but quickly to safety. Once safe, remove the bee sting if you can, then wash the stung area with clean soapy water. After that, you can apply any of the above remedies to sooth the area.

Incase your home or compound has a bee hive of aggressive bees, call a licensed pest officer to inspect and share with you what possible solutions to employ for the sake of safety

Millions of homeowners need help to deal with a wood issue in their home that not much is really known about, so when you discover you have timber work is riddled with holes and you just can’t figure out where they came from and why then you may just have a carpenter bees nest problem.

Sadly, these holes are a problem for many residences around the world where there is much natural wood and timber work about the home in various types of settings. This can vary from furniture, window fittings, skirting boards, floorboards, structural joists, banister railings, to wood cladding that has the type of wood that carpenter bees prefer

Indeed the type of timber that they prefer is wood that has not been treated or painted in any way shape or form and remains untouched and natural.

If you do have this type of wood or timber in your property they will be drawn to it as much as a honey bee is to honey and they will not discriminate on where it is located or what it is used for.

If it is not been painted it treated in any way then they will go for it and attempt to bore holes into the timber which will cause a lasting effect to the timber

The reason that carpenter bees seek to do this is the way they build their nests in order to live and rest after a hard day’s work foraging in the area. While normal bumblebees look to build their nests from all kinds of natural elements like mud, they will seek to make their nests in timber work.

This marks then out as quite an unusual specimen in their species as they are the only type of bee that builds their nests like this or is able to bore into wood or timber.

Indeed after they have built their nests like this then they will seek to bring their young into the nests so that they might live there and grow up.

Once the young are in the nests the worker bees will look to build partition cells in the nests with the particles if timber that have been removed from boring the holes.

Once they have done this, the young can grow up and mature into strong worker bees that will help the colony grow larger and stronger.

It is knowing how they behave that can make controlling a carpenter bee problem that much easier because you know who they are and what they do.

So, if you find a section of timber work in your home that is riddled with holes, then you know just what to do.

Hiring a professional to inspect your home for pests may cost a bit upfront but it’s far cheaper than not doing anything or attempting to inspect the perimeters yourself.

Unless you’re well versed in the various signs of infestation, you won’t know what to look for when it comes to various types of pests, such as termites, roaches or even rodents. Pest professionals know all the signs and just the right method of dealing with the invasion.

Seeing different kinds of bees is normal and you shouldn’t worry too much about this behavior. While they pollinate there is not much to worry about unless you and the Bee are getting too close. They will try to avoid danger. Bees will be bees and normally you can go on with your outdoor activities without concern.

Unfortunately, bees build small to very large hives in or around your home. These hives small or large can bring great danger to your family, pets, and neighbors.

A common misunderstanding is that Africanized Honey Bees are out to sting everything in sight. Both European and Africanized can be dangerous when in defense mode.

Both look alike to the naked eye and there is no difference in the shapes or the look of the hive they build.

The type of carpenter bee most frequently found in the United States of America is the common eastern carpenter bee; you will find it is quite often thought to be a large bumblebee because of the similarity in their color, size, and stature.

This is a mistake that many people who first see make and thus causes much apprehension because they think that they will behave much like their bumblebee cousins.

They are extremely effective pollinators and do very much like flowers that are open-faced although they also enjoy making holes in the sides of flowers that have quite deep corollas in order to get nectar.

You will often find that they bore holes in untreated timber and wood and can become a pest to household dwellers because of the damage they can cause.

As they bore the holes into this untreated wood they use the chewed wood to create partitions in order to make cells for them to nest. If you were to compare them with a bumblebee, you would find that the most noticeable difference would be the shiny abdomen with only yellow hair located at the base next to the thorax.

Bumblebees have a very fuzzy abdomen. In some species, though, there is plenty of yellow hair across the middle.

You will also find that the female eastern carpenter bee also has a much larger head than bumblebees which is quite a marked difference between the two species.

You can often also tell males and females apart as males have a patch of white cuticle on the face, as opposed to females, whose faces are black. Males also unable to sting, since a bee’s stinger is a modified ovipositor.

Unlike bumblebees, wasps, hornets and other insect cousins, they will not attempt to sting you unless they are gravely threatened by you in some way.

That means they have to safeguard themselves and fight against you in order to protect themselves and their offspring from danger.

When boring holes into timber or wood, carpenter bees will not cause damage to the property’s floorboards or joists.

The hornet sting is believed to be the most painful insect sting in the entire bee family, with a good reason behind this. More often than not bees will land before they use the stinger.

However, for the most part, this is the general rule the hornet sting is more painful because it is administered while the insect is in flight.

Most report a sensation of being hit by the hornet, with the stinger going deep into the skin on impact. This is a realistic report of the hornet sting because that is precisely what they do.

Wasps can be slightly more aggressive than can hornets, but the territorial nature of the latter causes them to chase down and attack anyone or anything that causes a disturbance or threat in their area.

And because the hornet’s nest is nearly always so secretive, we very rarely have a warning that we have crossed the line in the sand until it’s too late.

Those who have reason to believe that they are allergic to the common bee sting will also be allergic to the hornet sting, so immediate medical attention will be necessary should you have the misfortune of being introduced to the hornet and his friends.

They chase in groups, as the scouts who are sent to investigate any disturbances will emit endorphins to the rest of the nest, causing a wave of angry hornets to respond in defense.
The hornet does not die after stinging, as his stinger is not barbed and is easily pulled from human skin without injuring the tip of the abdomen.

This means that one hornet can sting multiple times if he is angry enough, or if you stick around for too long.

If you are faced with a hornet sting and are not allergic, the pain will still need to be addressed. If by some chance the stinger is lodged within your skin, you will need to remove it, as it will continue to pump poison into your skin as long as it is left there.

Do this by pinching it with your fingernails or some fine tweezers. Ice can be very helpful with the pain and swelling from this point, and you can alternate it in increments of ten minutes on, ten minutes off until the pain is managed.

Baking soda, when formed into a very dry paste, can do wonders for the pain of a hornet sting. This element can draw out the poison, and is best used before any ice or creams are applied to the sting. Once these two remedies are utilized, you can use a hydrocortisone cream to help keep the area clean and to speed up the healing process.

If your sting is one that can be relieved with first aid, then these are the steps that you can possibly follow. The aim of this treatment is to relieve the swelling and pain and to arrange removal in a hospital with your doctor if it is necessary.

To the untrained eye, it’s easy to confuse bees and wasps. But, bumblebees should never be in doubt.

A wasp is any insect that is neither a bee nor ant. However, in terms of common understanding, we are dealing with just three species: the common wasp, German wasp, and the median wasp.

At the beginning of warmer weather, the young queens come out from hibernation and start the daunting task of nest building, mixing rotten wood with saliva to make ‘wasp paper’ with which to make the nest.

She will lay 15 – 20 eggs in cells inside the nest and tend these until the first workers emerge to take over the nest-building process.

Any reports of wasps’ nests prior to June, and certainly any in late April or May will always turn out to be a bee species of which there are many.

Wasp nest building continues throughout the summer and in the autumn the nest produces immature queens and males which then mate. A single wasps’ nest may produce over 2000 new queens.

The bee which makes the honey unsurprisingly is the honeybee (Apis mellifera) but a staggering number of people confuse the honeybee with the bumblebee (Bombus spp.)

The honeybee has an altogether different lifecycle to the wasp, the entire colony surviving the winter, and hence are seen much earlier in the year.

The honeybee is known for the way in which new colonies are built. In late spring and throughout the summer the colony will produce new queens which split or ‘bud’ from the old colony taking several thousand worker bees with them; these are called swarms and can actually be heard in flight.

This causes alarm in many people who will then ring a pest control company and declare that a ‘wasps’ nest’ has just arrived.

Clearly we know immediately that we are dealing with a bee swarm and can often point them in the direction of a beekeeper who may be able to remove the swarm unharmed.

Frequently, they establish a colony or ‘hive’ in a chimney stack and where this is venting a gas fire this is clearly dangerous and it is often necessary to destroy the colony.

After destroying the colony the owner of the property has a legal and moral duty to have any honeycomb removed from the stack as if it is left in place it will be taken out by wild or commercial hive bees, causing the death of those colonies.

A responsible pest controller will not destroy a colony unless arrangements to remove the honeycomb are in place.

The bumblebee has a lifecycle similar to a wasp in that only the new queens survive the winter and start new nests in spring. A bumblebees’ nest is an insignificant affair, now where near as intricate as a wasps’ nest and rarely contains more than 300 workers at most.

Whereas a honeybee colony or wasps’ nest may have upwards of ten thousand inhabitants.

Although there are many species of wasps on the planet, wasp control and removal experts are mainly only concerned with three species: the median wasp, the German/European wasp, and the median wasp.

These three wasps look so similar with similar similar life cycles that it is not necessary for a pest controller to identify the species in order to deal with it.

All three are known to be social nest builders. They build their nests from paper which they make by mixing rotting wood with saliva.

Only the newly hatched queens survive the winter after mating with the males in the autumn. A typical nest will produce around 2000 new queens to overwinter.

They emerge from their hibernation in spring and after feeding commence nest building. The queen will build a small nest around the size of a golf ball in which see lays 15 -20 eggs which hatch into wasp larvae.

The queen then feeds these larvae on insects until they are ready to pupate and metamorphose into adult wasps.

Once the first batch of wasps is hatched the queen devotes herself to egg-laying and the worker wasps, which are sterile females, take over the enlargement of the nest.

As this process takes time you will not see any wasps other than the queens much before June of each year. Any ‘wasps’ seen before this time will undoubtedly be solitary bees which do bear a passing resemblance to wasps.

By the end of summer and average wasps’ nest will be about the size of a medicine ball can contain 5-10,000 wasps although in good years much larger nests are seen.

In autumn, the nest begins the production of the new queens and the males. Once this process has finished the worker wasps start to become antisocial as they seek sweet sticky foodstuffs and assume the aggressive behavior which we all associate with wasps in autumn.

With the first of the cold weather the worker wasps and the males all die off and the queens go into hibernation to start the process again the following spring.

The nest itself is then spent and can never be used again. For this reason, it is not necessary to remove a wasps’ nest and pest controllers will leave a nest rather than risk falling through ceilings, etc to try and remove it.

Although it is not immediately apparent wasps do quite a bit of natural pest control, their diet being aphids and grubs they do assist the gardener in keeping these pests in check but for many people, their habit of stinging outweighs any benefit.

It is advisable to engage the services of a professional pest controller who will have the necessary protective clothing for the task.

The pest controller will spray a small amount of insecticidal powder into the entrance of the nest and returning wasps will carry it into the nest, and will be exterminated within an hour.

For beekeepers, the swarming of bees is definitely a blessing but for the ordinary citizens who know nothing about beekeeping, a bee swarm is a curse; and when they see plenty of them in their residence, they often resort on ways on how to get rid of bees.

The swarm is even more dangerous if these bees are the widely known Africanized bees. This is because these kinds of bees are capable of killing a person.

This is actually one of the common concerns in some communities. There are reports that there are cases wherein the victim of the bee attack is killed because of the sting.

When it comes to the behavior of bees, you should know that bees are not actually hostile insects. They show aggression only when disturbed. This is because they think of moving towards their hive as a threat.

So naturally, they are going to protect their house by taking the initiative to attack the moving object that for them brings danger.

When bees attack you in hundreds while you are not wearing any protective suits, do your best to get away from the hive or swarm as much as possible. There are victims of bees that died due to bee stings.

If you are among those people who have little knowledge about beekeeping and you happen to stumble upon a group of bees bustling around with a very disturbing noise, this is a bee swarm that you should avoid. As much as possible, just run away from the bee swarm.

Don’t try to approach the bee swarm by spraying the bees with liquid or shelling poison as this is not effective to remove them.

Instead, you will only be faced up with the worst-case scenario particularly when they caught you without wearing any protective coverings. The best option is to run away or stay at a far distance from the beehive.

However, if the bee swarm seems to settle in your backyard, just wait without disturbing them until they are going to move to another location. But if there are little children, better to call for professional assistance.

However, before calling any professional assistance, you must determine first if the bee swarm is a group of honey bees or Africanized bees.

This will provide information for the bee removal team to bring the appropriate materials to be used.

Also, describe the location of the bees and how long the bee swarm has been settling in that area. If you know someone in your area who is engaged in beekeeping, you can also call his attention to help you with your problem.

In actuality, a bee swarm is not a real threat to individuals. They only attack when their hives are being disturbed. This is simply their way of defending themselves and protecting their hives from the intruders.

So if there is any moving object going near to their hives, which are usually humans, guard bees are ready to die in an attempt to protect their house for the danger that they sense.

Ground wasp

These types of wasps are also known as digger wasps or sand wasps. Most people associate wasps with nests hanging off the roof and in the trees and rightly so. This is where the majority of wasps tend to make their home. But some species have an affinity for ground dwelling and these are known as the ground wasps.

Are they aggressive?

The ground wasps come in different species. Some are not typically aggressive towards human beings like the cicada killing wasps unlike their high dwelling cousins who are more prone to attacking people. Other species like the yellow jackets, however, likely to sting you if you come close to their dwelling. Ground wasps are also excellent at getting rid of pest insects and caterpillars that are a major problem in gardens where people are growing different types of crops. If you are an avid gardener you will most likely find yourself grateful for the presence of ground wasps nearby.

Solitary or social ground wasps

Ground wasps are categorized as either social or solitary species. The social ground wasps are part of larger colony ad behave much like bees, they have a queen whom they will protect at all costs. These are the species that can get aggressive the minute they see you coming close to them. The queen will direct the worker wasps. Yellow jackets are social wasps. Interestingly, the yellow jackets exist as ground nesting wasps and they are also have a species that lives in the trees.

The solitary ground wasp is more concerned with finding its own food and feeding its own larvae. It will build a solo nest and when its life cycle is done it will die in the nest and not vacate it like the social ground wasps vacate theirs. The eastern cicada killing wasps and the great golden digger wasps are solitary wasps.

The great golden digger wasp is orange and black in color. They are one inch in length and prefer to excavate in the sandy soil so you most likely find them near flag stone or patio stone. The eastern cicada killer wasp is big in size with a length of 1.5 inches. It is a mixture of yellow, orange and black, the wings are orange and abdomen in black with yellow. Their females are the ones that dig the burrows in order to be able to stash their eggs in there. They can dig burrows up to 10 inches into the ground.

The ground nesting yellow jackets can be found in over 30 states in the United States so their habitats can be very varied. When they are not able to burrow underground they comfortably establish their nests above.