Stinging Insect Identification & Prevention
What are stinging insects?
Insects with stingers at the end of their abdomens used for paralyzing prey or defending themselves are called stinging insects. We see these insects buzzing around our yards and gardens throughout the spring and summer months, searching for food. While they help us by feeding on nuisance insects, stinging insects become a threat to us, our kids, and pets when they decide to nest in our yards.
Some of the most common yet unwelcome stinging insects in Idaho Falls yards are wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, mud daubers, and ground wasps.
Are stinging insects dangerous?
Stinging insects are social and work together to care for their colonies and defend them from threats. When a nest has been placed on your property near your home or in a high traffic area of your yard, the potential for a sting to occur is relatively high. Just day to day activities like gardening, mowing the lawn, or playing with your kids or pets in the yard can put you near aggressive stinging insects and their nests.
Stinging insects are also responsible for ruining outdoor parties and gatherings by swarming around us as they forage for food from our plates and drink containers.
If you have ever been stung by a stinging insect, you know just how painful it is. Not only is the sting itself unpleasant, but stinging insect venom is strong enough to trigger allergic reactions that, in some people, are life-threatening.
Where will I find stinging insects?
Stinging insects will create a nest on any property that provides them with a safe place to build a nest and is near food and water sources. Stinging insects mainly build their nests outside but sometimes will exploit openings in the exterior of homes and build a nest inside, usually in a wall void, chimney, or attic space.
Yellow jackets and ground wasps prefer to create their nests in or on the ground. Ground nests are difficult to spot and pose a significant danger in our yards. They build nests in the abandoned nests of rodents, naturally occurring ground holes in lawns, and spaces under rocks, woodpiles, landscape timbers, or dense shrubbery. They may also nest in the soil next to the foundations of homes, sheds, garages, and other outbuildings.
Hornets, wasps, and mud daubers nest up off of the ground in protected areas to keep their nests out of the way of curious predators. Tree branches, utility poles, play structures, bushes, roof eaves, window shutters, and outdoor light fixtures often become nesting sites for aerial stinging insect nests.
How do I get rid of stinging insects?
Stinging insects can take over our yards and make it a place we can’t fully enjoy. The safest and most stress-free way to get rid of stinging insects from your yard is to reach out to Falls Pest Services. Using our customized and affordable pest control services, we will solve your property’s pest problems. We are a local, licensed, and insured pest control company that you can count on to provide the services necessary to keep your family safe from stinging insects.
Don’t share your property with stinging insects for another day! Take back your yard from stinging insects by calling Falls Pest Services to learn more about our pest management options in Idaho Falls!
How can I prevent stinging insects in the future?
The best way to prevent problems with stinging insects is to partner with a professional. In conjunction with professional home pest control and commercial pest control services, the following tips can help you avoid attracting stinging insects to your yard and home.
- Don’t overplant flowering vegetation near your home’s exterior, walkways, and deck areas.
- Cut shrubs and tree branches back from your home’s exterior walls.
- Remove water sources from your property; turn over wading pools, keep gutters clear, and repair leaking outdoor fixtures and hoses.
- Keep scavenging stinging insects out of trash cans and recycling bins by always keeping lids on them.
- Maintain outdoor eating areas and keep them free of food debris.
- Keep lids on the top of sugary drinks when consuming them outside.
- Keep screens in open windows and doors to stop stinging insects from moving into your home.
