Yellow Jackets in the Seattle Metro Area

Yellow jackets are actually a wasp. Though we will generically refer to yellow jackets and bald faced hornets as a ‘bee job’, they are wasps. Unlike a honey bee, yellow jackets in Seattle, and throughout the surrounding metro area, can sting multiple times. Honeybees can be relocated. We can refer a local beekeeper for that. Unfortunately yellow jackets and bald faced hornets cannot be relocated.

Most wasp/hornet jobs are $185 plus tax and warranted for the rest of the season

Yellow jackets are very beneficial. They kill a ton of insects and spiders. If you have a nest out at the far back corner of your yard where it isn’t a threat to anyone, you may want to let them stay there. Here in the Seattle, West Seattle, Burien, Normandy Park, Des Moines, Kent and surrounding areas yellow jacket nests only live one year. Early in the spring, as soon as it’s warm enough, the queen locates a place to build her nest. She is the only yellow jacket at that point. She has to chew wood, build the beginning of the nest, and lay the first eggs. Then after the first eggs hatch, she has to keep chewing wood to add on to the nest, forage for insects to feed the larvae and lay more eggs. During this time, if she gets caught in a spider’s web, eaten by a bird or you swat and kill her, the nest is dead. She’s the only one who can lay eggs.

If the queen survives until some of the larvae pupate into adults, she will never leave the nest again, but becomes an egg machine. At first the nest is as small as a golf ball, so even if it’s near your front door you may not notice it. Where the queen located the nest will have great impact on the size of the nest. If she picked a location that is shady, that nest will not get as big as a nest that gets early morning sun. They are dependent on ambient air temperature to warm them up. A nest that gets early sun, will warm up sooner, be able to work faster and longer and become a much larger nest. The nest can become larger than a basketball.

Yellow Jackets nests throughout the Seattle metro area will reach 3,000-6,000 workers by late summer!

It’s really an amazing story that happens over and over each year. From that one queen, in 3-5 months there will be 3,000 to 6,000 workers! They are all sterile females. Late in the summer the queen lays eggs that produce males and females. They mate; the males die and the new fertilized queens find places to over-winter. The current nest actually staves to death as food sources dwindle with the onset of cold weather. In spring, each queen will set about starting her own nest and the process continues.

Location of yellow jackets nests in West Seattle, Burien, Des Moines and surrounding areas.

Yellow jackets nest in a variety of places, depending on which yellow jacket it is. Some yellow jackets nest in cavities like walls, some nest in the ground, they nest in old rail road ties, compost piles and hedges.

From June on, if you’re doing yard work and something flies past you in a straight line; stop and look for a yellow jacket nest. When foraging they fly in an erratic pattern looking for insects, but when returning to the nest they fly in a ‘bee-line’. While trimming a hedge, many a homeowner has been found by the yellow jackets, before the homeowner found them. That’s a painful way to learn you have yellow jackets.

Yellow jackets not only nest in different places, but they have different temperament also. Ground nesting yellow jackets are just flat out angry, mean and aggressive. They will pursue and keep stinging up to 70’ from the nest.

Unlike bees, which can only sting once, yellow jackets in Seattle and the surrounding metro area, are a type of wasp and have the ability to sting repeatedly, making them particularly dangerous, especially to people who are allergic to their stings.

We’ve done 1000’s of successful wasp/hornet exterminations. Most wasp/hornet jobs are $185 plus tax!

CAUTION! Yellow jackets will also nest in wall cavities and or in the attic. If you have a yellow jacket nest in the wall or ceiling, DO NOT TOUCH THE AREA FROM INSIDE! Yellow jackets chew the sheetrock away and many customers while investigating break through the sheetrock right into a nest of several thousand yellow jackets. A yellow jacket nest in the wall or ceiling makes a clicking noise.

All-Pro Pest Control offers yellow jacket extermination services throughout the Seattle metro area

Though we don’t recommend it, they’re may be times you can take care of a yellow jacket nest yourself. However, if the nest is in a wall, the ground or somewhere else that the nest is not exposed you need to let us deal with it. Wherever the nest is located, we suit up, inject the nest to kill it and if possible remove the nest. We guarantee the elimination of the nest and will do a follow up treatment if needed to finish it off without extra charge