WATCH: Calvin To caught up with pest control experts to get some tips on how to deal with wasps.
Gordon Conrad, who owns Garden City Pest Control, says calls for wasps are fewer than last year, though the hot weather is driving the insects’ cycle.
He recommends killing wasps with an appropriate insecticide spray.
“The worst case scenario is the baseball bat or the garden hose,” he said.
“Just by destroying the nest all you’re going to do is make them mad, basically, because they’ll rebuild because they’re territorial and they’ll try and maintain that nest they’ve already got started.”
He says most wasps will be killed within a few hours, although it could take three to five days to kill them all simply because some may be away from the nest at the time the spray is applied.
Logan Smith, who works for the company, says people can spot the nests by their characteristic appearance.
“When you see that big paper ball, that’s the most obvious one. You’ll see them in tree branches or on the side of the house,” Smith said.
“But the other type is what we call a cavity nest where they’re going into a small hole. It can be about as small as a pencil, but sometimes larger. And then you just watch for the wasps flying in and out. It’s what we describe as a flight path.”
Smith says cavity nests cannot be eliminated with a spray found in a hardware store because the sprays do not penetrate as deeply.
In those cases, a pest control expert can be called to kill the wasps.
Calvin To
