That familiar buzz you hear every summer isn't just the AC kicking on during hot days—stinging insects are out in force during summer months around Seattle. But what kind of buzzers are invading your home? How would you know to be worried or not? Some stingers are good for your home and garden, but for others, it's best to call the professionals at Eastside for stinging insect control.
Here are some tips on how to tell the difference between bees, wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets around Seattle. Stinging insects near Seattle have distinctive physical characteristics that set them apart.
They also behave differently from one another and build their nests differently. Lastly, bees populate areas in different numbers than wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets, and vice versa. These four criteria will help you identify the stinging insect near your home.
Honey bees and bumblebees are some of the most environmentally beneficial insects in the world. Their pollination of plants is vitally important to agriculture and ecological stability. But they also sting, so it's understandable to be wary of them! In fact, bees are unlikely to sting unless provoked and will leave you alone if you ignore them. As you can already see, this is a confusing mixture of insects.
Yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets are both in the classification of wasp. One of the primary visual distinctions of wasps is an almost complete lack of hair. Bald-faced hornets are usually a white and black coloring; yellow jackets are yellow and black; and paper wasps can be brown in color or yellow and black, like yellow jackets.
All of these wasps are social insects. That means they can attack as a group. But of the three, yellow jackets are the most aggressive. European hornets, Vespa crabro, are true hornets with a significant distribution through the Eastern half of the United States.
The most significant difference you will notice, visually, is that European hornets have some hairs on them. Though not nearly as hairy as bees, the presence of hairs makes them very un-wasp-like in appearance. Yellowjackets also make enclosed nests, but theirs are found below ground and may be home to hundreds of insects. Paper wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets produce new colonies each year in temperate climates.
Only the mated queens survive the cold winter months, tucked away in sheltered places. The queen emerges in spring, chooses a nest site, and builds a small nest in which she lays the first eggs. Once the first generation of workers matures, these wasps will expand the nest for succeeding generations.
In late summer or fall, the old queen dies and a new one mates before her siblings die off. The old nest usually degrades over the winter. Mud daubers and digging wasps are called solitary wasps because each egg-laying queen builds and occupies her own nest. Solitary wasps aren't aggressive and will rarely attack and sting, even if their nests are disturbed. Their venom isn't toxic to humans.
They have six legs, two sets of wings, and segmented bodies. All social wasps are aggressive by nature and will attack if you disturb their nests. During the late summer, when colonies are at peak activity, these flying insects are especially aggressive and may pursue you if you come too close to their nests. This can be a real problem with yellowjackets, whose underground nests are almost impossible to detect by casual observation. Yellowjackets are a particular problem around picnics, cookouts, and fruit trees because they're attracted to sugar.
Swat at that insect sipping your soda and you risk getting stung. Yellowjackets feasting on fruit that's fallen from a tree can become "drunk" on the fermenting sugars, making them especially aggressive. They won't just bite and sting, they will pursue you if threatened. They can be mistaken for honey bees because of the yellow markings on their bodies. Yellowjacket nests are enclosed like hornets nests are, but yellowjacket nests are found below ground.
When they fly, yellowjackets tuck their legs into their body. Social wasps will attack you if you disturb their nests. In the late summer, they will even sting if you simply get too close. Do your best not to disturb a wasp nest. If you disturb a nest by accident, stay far away from it until the wasps have settled down. This is particularly difficult to do with yellowjacket nests since they are underground and difficult to detect.
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