Repellents – Conventional mosquito and tick repellents will not prevent persistent foraging by yellowjackets.
Use Peppermint Oil
The smell of peppermint is a yellow jacket repellant. Combine a few drops of pure peppermint oil, a few tablespoons of dish soap and warm water in a spray bottle. Locate any active wasp nests and carefully spray the concoction around the entrance.
If having to regularly buy and spray essential oils around your deck isn't your thing, you can always make use of their sources. Yes, the aforementioned lemongrass, mint, and thyme, along with eucalyptus, scented geraniums, and citronella are all effective insect-repelling plants that keep wasps and other bugs away.
If you have a problem with wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, or bees, Pine Sol can spare you from painful stings. Remember not to use it on honey bees – we need them to help pollinate our food plants – but for other hive insects, spray full strength Pine Sol as an insecticide.
The average person can definitely outrun a yellow jacket, but you may need to run a fair distance. Some yellow jackets have chased people up to a mile. Do not run inside your home or a business. The yellow jackets will most definitely follow you into buildings.
What Eats Yellowjackets? Most yellowjackets' predators are mammals that are much bigger than wasps, like skunks, black bears, and raccoons. In Georgia and Indiana, raccoons have been identified as the top yellowjackets predators.
A: All pesticides are lethal to bees. Even soap and water kill them. Soap and water are used to kill bees when they have invaded home walls, block walls or irrigation boxes. Never spray a plant that is flowering with anything.
Spraying the entry point with a liquid wasp spray or other aerosol will kill a lot of yellow jackets, but you will not get material into the nest itself. Nests treated with aerosols will almost always bounce back. The preferred material for bee and wasp control in a wall void is an insecticidal dust.
Skunks, raccoons, badgers, bears, and other mammals have been known to attack and destroy yellowjacket nests in order to eat the wasp grubs, eggs, and even adults. Skunks typically attack at night when the yellowjackets are least active, digging into the burrow, pawing through the nest, and eating the wasp larvae.
Pheromone is a chemical released when a yellow jacket is killed. This chemical signals to the other members of the colony that a yellowjacket has been killed. As a consequence, it will attract the other members of the colony.
Yellow jackets are social insects and very territorial in nature. A yellow jacket colony can get quite aggressive when disturbed. Moreover, they can sting multiple times when provoked. Their sting is very painful and may cause allergic reactions in some individuals.
They are most active during the day and return to their nest at night, which means the chances of being stung are reduced when it's dark.
Yellowjackets are most active between 10 am and 4 pm, weather dependent.
Yellow jackets are less active at night and most of them will be in their underground nest. Yellow jackets are less active when the ambient temperature is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If working at night, keep in mind a flashlight may attract the wasps.
Colonies are likely most dangerous in the fall because this is when they're at their largest. It's also possible that yellow jackets are more aggressive in fall because they know their days are numbered. Most of them die after a hard freeze. Those living underground may take a little longer to expire.
Unlike honeybees, who lose their barbed stingers and die after one sting, yellow jackets can usually sting repeatedly. The yellow jacket's stinger is smoother than a honeybee's, allowing it to enter and withdraw from skin multiple times. Her stinger does have tiny barbs, though.
Yellow jackets can sting multiple times, unlike most bees, which sting only once. Bees have a barb on their stingers that becomes stuck in a victim's flesh, producing a single sting, while yellow jackets have stingers without barbs that can puncture flesh multiple times while injecting venom.
If you cannot find the source of your yellowjacket problem, set up a food bait trap. Yellowjackets will collect the food and allow you to carefully follow them back to their hive location. Be careful to not disturb the hive once you have found it, however, as a disturbed colony is likely to become defensive and attack.
Yellow Jackets will only die from weather exposure when there's been 5-7 days of weather under 45 degrees in a row.
Treatment: Only treat at night when it is dark. Yellow Jackets do not see well, and the chances of being stung are significantly reduced. Also, at night the whole colony will be present in the nest, making the treatment more effective.
Climate change and worsening drought could be to blame for these increased sightings of yellow jackets, a predatory type of wasp with stingers that can sting repeatedly and even kill people who are allergic to its venom.