Although they can be quite annoying pests to have near your home, mainly due to the painful stings they can inhibit on people, wasps actually provide more benefit than they do harm. Feeding primarily on other unwanted pests around the home, having wasps present is actually a great natural pest control method, without any effort required from you. Regardless of the benefit that they provide, wasps near the home can be quite a nuisance and potentially dangerous if you or one of your family members is allergic to wasp stings. They usually try to avoid human contact but often times build wasp nests in Mississauga residential properties making it nearly impossible to avoid an interaction with them. Even scarier is the fact that wasps are very territorial pests meaning that if a wasp nest is built near your house there will be a much higher chance that you will make them angry simply by walking near the nest.
The best method to minimize your contact with wasps in Mississauga is to avoid them in the first place by using proven preventative measures. If they do, however, make a nest on your property there are several things that you can do to safely get rid of the problem. In more serious situations, for example, finding a wasp nest built into an exterior wall of your home, it is highly recommended to hire a professional wasp nest removal company.
How to Avoid Wasps in Mississauga
Similar to most pests in Mississauga, the best method for preventing a potential problem with wasps is to avoid them in the first place. They are very important creatures for a healthy ecosystem so completely getting rid of them would not be a good idea and is a nearly impossible feat anyways. Here are some useful tips to prevent wasps from building nests on your property and how to avoid coming in contact with them:
Eliminate potential food sources
Depending on the time of the year, wasps prefer different types of food to bring back to the nest. During spring and the beginning of summer, wasps are more inclined to search for foods high in protein such as meal scraps and pet foods. Since you would normally put these scraps in your compost or garbage containers, it is important to properly seal these containers to eliminate any scents that may be picked up by nearby wasps.
Later on in the year, during the end of the summer and early fall, their appetite turns into a sweet preference. Remove any sweet food sources around your home such as open juice containers, fallen fruits from nearby fruit trees and any other sweet food source that may attract them. Also cover your recycling and compost bin which are likely to have remnants of sweet food sources.
Install a fake wasp nest on your property
As mentioned above, wasps are territorial pests meaning that they try to avoid contact with other wasp colonies. By placing a fake wasps nest somewhere on your property it is very unlikely that a competing wasp colony would decide to also locate on your property. These fake nests can be purchased online or at most hardware stores and are a very effective way of keeping wasps away from your family and home.
Avoid coming in contact with wasps
Even if you practice preventative measures to reduce the likelihood of wasps building a nest near your home, there is still a high chance that you will come in contact with individual wasps from time to time considering that they are a common pest in Mississauga.
Luckily there are some things you can do to remain unattractive to wasps minimizing your chances of feeling the pain from a wasp sting, such as:
- Minimize the use of sweet smelling perfumes – Near the end of the summer wasps become attracted to sweet smells and also become more aggressive. By wearing sweet perfumes you become a prime target for worker wasps that are searching for food.
- Don’t wear bright colours – This can be a tough one in the summer but keep in mind that bright colours are associated with plants full of delicious nectar that wasps love to eat. By wearing bright colours you look like a flower in the eyes of a wasp making them much more attracted to you.
- Avoid swatting them when they come around – Even though you may be afraid of being stung when a wasp is buzzing around you, swatting at them is one of the worst things you can do. When wasps are in danger or when they are killed, they release a pheromone which attracts other nearby wasps from their colony to come to the rescue. By swatting or killing a wasp you may be opening the door for many more wasps to get into attack mode.
How to Exterminate Wasps From Your Home
If it is too late in the season to try any of the preventative measures listed above, or you have tried them but a wasp nest has been built on your property anyways, you may want to turn your focus toward getting rid of them. The method you must use to get rid of the wasp nest on your property will depend on where the nest has been built. To find where the wasp nest has been built, follow the flight path of a wasp that is travelling in a straight line which is usually their flight pattern when they are going back to the nest. Regardless of where the nest is located, be sure to wear protective clothing that is thick and covers every part of your body or else you run the risk of getting stung by many angry wasps. Another recommendation for removing a wasp nest is to only take it down at night when they are in a more relaxed and drowsy state.
Getting rid of a ground nest
Finding the entrance to a wasps nest in the ground can be quite difficult, and often times they may have more than one entrance into the nest. If you manage to find the entrance to the ground nest, place a clear bowl over the entrance with caution and make sure it is tightly fit over the entrance to eliminate any cracks they can squeeze through. The clear bowl will allow them to still see the entrance but block them from getting in, confusing them and reducing the likelihood that they will dig a new entrance. Make sure you leave the bowl in place for several week so that the entire colony dies off before you remove the bowl.
Getting rid of aerial nests
For this one you will definitely need a helper to hold a flashlight for you while you do the dirty work. Using a ladder, slowly make your way toward the nest trying to minimize your vibrations which can wake up and aggravate the wasps making this task much more difficult. Once you get to the nest, quickly put a cloth bag with a drawstring over the nest and tighten the string to trap the entire nest inside the bag. Place the bag with the nest immediately into a large bucket filled with water placing a heavy object on top to ensure that the entire nest is submerged and all wasps are killed.