Wasps
What Arizona wasp species are just as dangerous as African bees?
Paper Wasps
Paper Wasps (Polistes fuscatus) are societal wasps, which mean they live in large family related groups, and are considered a pest wasp species in Arizona because they live in and around homes and building structures. An established wasp colony or, more commonly, a series of wasp colonies can be very dangerous to humans, domestic pets and livestock. Paper Wasps can sting multiple times and will aggressively defend their nesting areas. Although much media attention has been given to Africanized (killer) honeybees, because of their numbers in any given attack, Paper Wasps can be just as aggressive and lethal and will seldom abandon a home nesting site unless dealt with properly. This year, because of our good winter rains, we expect to see a significant increase in Paper Wasp colonies throughout central and southern Arizona.
Typically, our competitors will spray a wasp nest, thinking that that will solve the problem. Each wasp colony, unlike bees, is composed of many fertile females that live in a hierarchy of dominance – the queen being most dominant and aggressive. If the queen dies, the next most aggressive fertile female will take over and become the egg layer for the colony. More often than not, just spraying the nest will simply distribute the wasps by causing them to flee. Each fertile "escapee" will then move out and forage for several days, gorge on nectar and return to a place nearby or to the same site to start a new colony or rebuild the existing nest. Wasps are sensitive to pressure and will flee when any pressurized insecticide is applied near or on a nesting site. Wasps can literally hydrofoil off this pressure and use it to lift them off the nest before the insecticide makes contact. As a result, this is not the best technique to use and often leads to nothing more than distributing the fertile female wasps to make many more nests in the same area. Directly spraying a nesting site will permanently worsen the problem. Wasp colonies have to be approached differently and with some thought given to removing a family of related wasps in more than one location on any residential structure or the surrounding grounds.
Some inexperienced pest control companies will claim that if you exterminate the queen wasp, then the rest of the wasp colony will die; this is not true. Every fertile female in the Paper Wasp colony is capable of laying eggs. If just removing the active queen would work, how would you locate the queen on a wasp nest since all the fertile females look alike? Actually you can, when a foraging wasp returns to the nest bringing food for the larvae and adult wasps, the queen wasp will do a "waggle" dance by vibrating her abdomen. This behavior wakes up the larvae and prepares them for feeding. But, again, if you were able just to remove the active queen wasp without the other wasps attacking you and then fleeing and dispersing, the next most aggressive fertile female would simply take over as the new queen and continue building the Paper Wasp colony.
Another fact that most pest control companies don't know is that, just like African bees, Paper Wasps also use pheromones to mark their nesting site. This allows them to find their nest from their forage range and return home. If this pheromone is not neutralized during the process of extermination, your home will always be attractive to other Paper Wasp infestations in the future. Unlike bees, families of Paper Wasps recognize members of their family by facial recognition. Every Paper Wasp has slight variations in its facial features. But, just like bees, they can scent their home tracking pheromone from a considerable distance away from their nests. As wasp control specialists, who have studied Paper Wasp behavior for years, we follow a different, very thorough approach to the problem. We apply a five part process that we have developed, after careful study and many field trials. Call CatalinaBee Control Arizona Bee Control Service first and get the facts!
Yellow Jackets
Many people that have transplanted and moved to Arizona from other states often confuse Yellow Jackets (Vespula pensylvanica, Vespula maculifrons) with Paper Wasps (Polistes fuscatus). Like Paper Wasps, Yellow Jackets are societal wasps and can be extremely aggressive with ground nests of over 3,000 wasps or more. However, Yellow Jacket wasps are not common in low elevation areas in our Arizona desert basins. Our average state elevation is 4,000 ft. above sea level. Even though Yellow Jackets are not common in low desert regions, consider the fact that only 15% of Arizona State land is privately owned, the rest of it is Public Forest and Parks, State Trust Lands and Native Indian Reservations. Also 27% of Arizona is forest and we have 26 mountain peaks in Arizona that are over 10,000 feet in elevation. Yellow Jacket wasps can easily survive in elevations around 5,000 feet or higher as long as sufficient forage materials and water are available. They do exist in Arizona in higher elevation areas throughout the state of Arizona.
Yellow Jacket wasps are well known meat foragers. In the spring time, while they develop brood to increase their numbers, adult Yellow Jackets will aggressively forage for meat protein which may include products from your family barbecue, picnic table, other insects or even dead animal carcasses. They will forage out from their nest site as far as 1,000 yards. Once they scout and discover a food source, the colony will converge on the source and aggressively take ownership of it. Yellow Jackets also forage on nectar from plants and have an uncanny ability to seek out and find sugar products like open cans of soda pop at a picnic table, but this is usually only to feed the adult wasps. Yellow Jackets are one of the most aggressive societal wasp species in the world, live in larger colonies and will sting any object of irritation to them easily and each Yellow Jacket can sting multiple times.
Outside of the wasps being reactive as individuals trying to control a forage source, the biggest danger from them is if the ground nest is disturbed. The Yellow Jacket colony then will attack vigorously and pursue the threat for quite a distance.
Bald Faced Hornets
Bald Faced Hornets (Dolichovespula maculate) are actually another species of societal wasps that live in a nest with large numbers and can be extremely aggressive if the nest is disturbed. They build a large paper nest that usually hangs from a tree or rock face in forests or secluded areas. Left undisturbed, they generally keep to themselves and like Yellow Jackets, they prefer higher elevation areas and are not common in our Arizona desert basins. If the nest is disturbed, they will attack and follow and sting a perceived threat for long distances and are known to concentrate on stinging the facial areas of the target threat. A Bald Faced Hornet nest is exterior to any cavity and always visible. It is best to avoid the area of the nest entirely.
Mud Daubers
Mud Daubers (Trypoxylon politum, Sceliphron caementarium, Chalybion californicumare) are often considered pest wasps because of their preference for building mud nests around homes or in structural cavities on your property. These wasps are actually solitary wasps and do not live together in groups, although you may have several wasps building in the same area. The females build mud nests that will look like long mud tubes or a mud ball about the size of a lemon depending on the species. When a Mud Dauber female is building her mud nest, she will make frequent trips to and from the nest to gather spiders to put in the nest for feeding her larvae. Female Mud Daubers do not tend or defend the nest. Once they have finished supplying the nest and laying eggs, the female will abandon the site entirely.
Mud Dauber nests are unsightly, but the wasps are not aggressive and not dangerous. They do, however, leave pheromone deposits at the site that may bring other Mud Daubers back to the nesting area to do it again in the future. Mud Daubers pack a powerful sting, but you would literally have to handle one to get it to sting you.