How To Get Rid Of Yellow Jackets: A Complete Guide [2024]

Have you noticed aggressive, buzzing yellow jackets swarming your picnics or outdoor gatherings? 

Fortunately, you don’t have to live with them forever.

Here at Pest Dude, we’ve been helping people eliminate yellow jackets from their yards for more than 20 years, and we’ve combined our best tips into this comprehensive guide.

Before You Get Started

1. Determine if you are dealing with yellow jackets or bees

Knowing the difference between yellow jackets and bees is important for safety and the environment.

Yellow jackets are more aggressive and can sting multiple times, which makes them more dangerous to people.

On the other hand, bees are usually less aggressive and are crucial for pollination, helping the environment.

Additionally, bees play a critical role in pollination.

If we use the same control tactics on bees as we do on yellow jackets, it can harm bee populations, disrupt ecosystems, and affect food production.

With that in mind, here’s how to tell the difference between the two species:

2. Take safety precautions

Yellow jackets can be dangerous thanks to their aggressive nature and painful stings, which can cause severe allergic reactions for some people.

Whenever you’re dealing with yellow jackets, wear protective clothing like long sleeves, long pants, and gloves. Make sure all of your clothing fits snugly so yellow jackets can’t get inside.

3. Try to locate their nest

Finding the yellow jacket nest is super important if you want to get rid of these pests.

The reason is simple: most yellow jacket colonies consist of thousands of individuals. If you only kill the workers (who are out foraging away from the nest), you’ll never wipe out the entire infestation.

• To locate the nest, follow the flight path of several yellow jackets from a distance, ideally during early morning or late afternoon when they are most active but visibility is still good.
• Be careful to maintain a safe distance so you don’t get stung.
• Look for small holes in the soil surface – the yellow jackets use these to enter and exit their nests.
• Some yellow jacket species pile soil or small stones at the entrances to their nests.
• Keep in mind that yellowjackets usually use existing, available openings at or near ground level – look for voids in concrete block foundations, below landscaping, or in other gaps and cracks.
• If you locate a ground nest – never attempt to plug it from the outside before using an insecticidal treatment since this can cause the colony to get aggressive and sting you multiple times.

How to Get Rid of Yellow Jackets

Here are our top tips to send the pests packing:

If You Can Locate the Nest

1. Insecticidal spray

Applying insecticidal aerosol spray specifically designed for wasps (like Raid and Hot Shot) can be highly effective.

While using insecticidal spray to treat wasp nests is a simple process, it requires some precautions.

Here’s how to do it:

• Read the instructions on your insecticidal spray for proper use.
• Approach the nest early in the morning or late in the evening when wasps are less active.
• Wear protective clothing to cover your skin and reduce the risk of getting stung.
• Stand a safe distance away and aim the spray directly at the nest’s entrance.
• Saturate the nest thoroughly to ensure the insecticide penetrates deeply and kills all the wasps.

After spraying, wait a few hours to a day before checking if the nest is inactive. If wasps are still present, apply a second treatment. Always prioritize safety during this process.

 2. Insecticidal dust

While insecticidal sprays are the fastest-acting wasp control technique, carbaryl- or pyrethroid-based dust can also be applied to exposed nests.

Some of the most common store-bought insecticidal dusts for use against yellowjackets include Delta Dust, Tempo Dust, and Drione Dust.

Here’s how to do it:

• Use a hand duster to gently puff insecticidal dust onto the nest and into the nest entrance during the evening or early morning when yellowjackets are less active.
• Immediately after deploying the dust, seal the hole tightly with steel wool.
• Puff some additional insecticidal dust onto the steel wool to kill workers who return to the nest after treatment. When the yellowjackets encounter the dust, they’ll take it back into the nest with them, killing the colony in a few days.
• Once you’ve treated the nest with dust or spray, wait a few days to make sure you don’t see any additional wasp activity, and then scrape or knock the nest down and remove it (double bag it and dispose of it in an outdoor trash can).
• Once the nest is gone, apply an insecticidal spray or dust to the area where the nest was. This will kill any returning workers who were not inside the nest at the time of treatment.

Tip:  If the nest is large or in a hard-to-reach location, hire a professional pest control service for help getting rid of it. Professionals have the equipment and expertise needed to eradicate the colony and get rid of the nest safely.

If You Cannot Locate the Nest

1. Baited traps

Baited traps can attract and kill yellow jackets.

Commercial reusable or disposable traps use a liquid attractant to draw yellow jackets in, while DIY traps are easy to make out of a shallow dish, wine, juice, or beer, a few drops of dish soap, and a piece of meat.

Place these traps around areas where yellow jackets are active and refresh them regularly. For more information and our top recommendations, check out this post.

Note: While traps can be effective, there’s a caveat: by about August, most yellow jacket hives will have about 10,000 workers or more. Depending on where you live, there could be a handful of hives within range of your outdoor space. With this in mind, it’s impossible to get rid of them all with a trap. While traps can help, they will not totally eliminate a severe infestation.

For most effective colony control, treat yellowjacket nests directly with insecticidal sprays or dusts.

Preventative Measures

Because it’s impossible to get rid of all the wasps in an area, we recommend focusing on the following:

• Seal potential nesting sites: Yellow jackets build their nests in wall cavities, trees, and underground burrows. With this in mind, inspect your property regularly. This allows you to identify and treat new nests before they get too big. It’s also a great way to identify potential nesting spots and seal them before the pests can get in.
• Cover trash and food sources: Securely cover trash bins and clean up food spills promptly. Yellow jackets are attracted to sugary and protein-rich foods, so eliminating these sources can prevent them from lingering.
• Maintain landscaping: Trim shrubbery, mow your lawn regularly, and remove fallen fruit and other potential food sources from your yard. Keeping your outdoor areas clean and well-maintained can make them less attractive to yellow jackets.
• Lure them away: If you have a large lot, you can place some food or an attractant far away from where you’re gathering. This only works if you’ve got enough space, though, and isn’t ideal for average-sized city lots.

When to Call an Exterminator (And How They Can Help)

You should call an exterminator any time your DIY efforts aren’t working or your yellow jacket problem seems severe.

While yellow jackets are small pests, they can be dangerous and tough to get rid of.

That’s where the pros come in.

Professional pest management companies will pinpoint the source of the infestation and get rid of the yellow jackets faster (and more safely) than you can on your own, usually following a process similar to this:

1. Inspection

The first step is a thorough inspection of your property.

The pros will look for signs of yellow jacket activity and find the nest or nests.

They’ll also check potential nesting sites and entry points that yellow jackets use to get into your home or yard.

2. Treatment

Once the inspection is done, the team will choose the best treatment. This might include using insecticidal dust, aerosols, or liquid treatments on the nests.

Sometimes, the team will set traps to catch and kill the yellow jackets.

Treatments are typically done when yellow jackets are less active, like early morning or late evening, to be more effective and reduce the chance of stings.

3. Follow Up

After the initial treatment, the exterminator will come back to make sure the yellow jackets are gone.

The team will check the treated areas to ensure there’s no more activity and may apply more treatments if needed.

Keep in mind that even a professional pest control expert can’t get rid of all yellow jackets in your area.

Even if you find a team to get rid of the nests on your property, it’s impossible to get rid of all the yellow jackets in a community or neighborhood.

While professional treatment can help, you may also have to learn to live with yellow jackets – move inside if they’re swarming your barbeque, and know that most of them will die when the first cold snap hits.

Need an Exterminator? We can Help!

If your DIY efforts to eliminate yellow jackets aren’t working, or if you need extra help, reach out to a professional pest management company.

At Pest Dude, we collaborate with licensed pest management experts nationwide.

Contact us, and we’ll connect you with a local professional: (844) 532-0076.