Yellow-jackets are also very aggressive when defending their nests, which are usually located at ground level or in small cavities close to the ground. Many people get stung while mowing the lawn when they accidentally run over a yellow jacket nest, not realizing it was there.

Nests are usually active for just one season, and at the end of the summer the colony and old queen dies off, and a newborn, recently inseminated queen flies away to hide in a hollow log, leaf litter, under bark or hidden deep in soil cavities until the warm days of spring tempt her out to lay her eggs and start up a new colony.

Yellow-jacket nests can grow enormous in just one short summer, sometimes containing up to as many 5,000 workers, breeding males, and 15,000 larvae cells.

Controlling yellow-jackets and other wasps is a job best left to our professionals at Imperial Pest Control. Our technicians have the required protective clothing, soothing smoke equipment, and wide experience to know how to effectively exterminate a nest without getting stung.

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