The Kiwi’s Guide to Dealing with Wasps at Home

The Kiwi’s Guide to Dealing with Wasps at Home

Cockroaches, silverfish, termites, and carpet beetles are all considerably pesky critters in their own right. But, giant angry wasps with no reservations about stinging you are entirely different devils altogether.

Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of how to safely deal with these fearsome-looking creatures.  So, to make sure you’re properly equipped to deal with them, we’ve prepared a guide for dealing with wasps at home.

For your personal safety and convenience, we’ve also included resources for pest control professionals, house cleaners, DIY guides, roof repair technicians, lawn mowing companies, and general physicians.

Dealing with Wasps

Dealing with Wasps

Safety Tips

First and foremost, if you can afford to hire a professional pest exterminator we’d strongly recommend doing so as wasp stings can be painful or even life-threatening for those with allergies.

This guide is intended to be a reference for those who find it absolutely necessary to deal with a wasp nest if they are unable to seek the help of a professional.  As always those handling wasps should exercise due caution in order to minimize stings and injuries.

Last but not least, most insect pesticides can present harmful side effects if one is exposed to them for too long.  To avoid adverse health effects, it is recommended that one vacate the area after an aerosol killer has been deployed

Mud-Dauber Wasps

Mud-daubers are long large wasps that can be easily identified by their extremely thin waist and small, teardrop-shaped abdomen.  These insects are quite solitary and they very rarely sting people unless their mud-sculpted nest happens to be disturbed.

To safely handle these wasps, it’s important to spray large adults with a wasp-specific aerosol killer.  If you happen to know where their mud nests are located it is recommended that these be sprayed with a residual insecticide that lingers for a longer period of time.

The nest itself should also be saturated in the insecticide to ensure any larvae within are also fully exposed to the chemicals.

Paper Wasps

Paper wasps are some of the most common wasps seen in New Zealand and they can easily be identified by their thin body, larger abdomen, and yellow colorations.  These wasps derive their name from the paper-like material they secrete in order to build their nests.

These wasps tend to attach their nests to leaves, branches, or even the eaves of most homes and buildings.  Because of this, we’d recommend using a jet sprayer in order to safely and effectively reach nests located in higher locations.

European Wasps

Among the wasps on our list, European wasps are some of the largest and most intimidating species.  While they may look larger they are actually a more aggressive cousin of the standard paper wasp.

These wasps build extremely large nests with up to 100,000 members and can be found both on the ground and hanging from eaves and roofs.  Because of their size and aggressive nature, extra care should be taken to avoid disturbing these wasps.

The best way to handle these pests is to rapidly coat the nest from a considerable distance away using a strong insecticide.  Now for large nests, we would advise against using aerosols and instead urge folks to wait until they can contact a professional.