Learn how to naturally deter social wasps from building a nest near your home.
You may begin to notice and worry about social wasp nests in the late summer. Social wasps like paper wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets have similar life cycles and their nests become large enough to notice in the summer. Social wasps look for a protective overhang like a tree branch or unfortunately, your house's eave.
There is a natural and free solution to keeping social wasps away from your home. Social wasps are territorial and the queens are looking for a nesting location with the least competition.
You can easily make a fake wasp nest and hang it from a corner of your house. All you need to do is get a paper bag and cinch one end closed, keeping the air inside like a balloon. You may place crumpled paper inside if you wish and hang the fake nest under an eave of your house.
Does this trick actually work? Yes, it does work so well that there are a few different fake wasp nests for sale.
Our customers also worry about social wasps being attracted to their mason and leafcutter bee homes. Only solitary wasps will nest inside the nesting holes. Social wasps want to build their nest inside a large open space or protected space. You can add more nesting materials or wad paper or sticks into the empty spaces above your bee nesting holes.
Social wasps might be interested in the bottom of your bee house. If this becomes a problem, you can add a layer of aluminum foil to the underside of your bee house.
A friendly reminder that adult wasps visit flowers for nectar and wasps play the important role of hunting garden pests. The adult wasps do some incidental pollination. We just don't want to be attacked by social wasps as we walk through our front doors.