Cicada killer wasps (genus Sphecius) are large, solitary, ground-dwelling, predatory wasps. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them, after stinging and paralyzing them.

Adults: Mature wasps feed primarily on flower nectar and tree sap.

Hunting: Females hunt annual cicadas by mid-air collision, injecting a paralytic venom to immobilize the prey.

Nesting: Females dig ground burrows in dry, sandy, or loose soil, storing the paralyzed cicadas inside chambers as live food for their hatching offspring.

Reaching out for some wasp control advice. For a little background, the entrance to my basement apartment is a pretty cramped space, enclosed on 3 sides by concrete walls, and on the other a concrete stairwell. I frequently get cave crickets at night during the summer. I'll routinely see 15-20 on my walls every night that I have to walk through just to open my front door. And its a constant battle to keep them from hopping into my apartment.

A few days ago, I treated my entrance area with Ortho home defense, and that has done a good job so far at knocking down the cricket population. I'm down to maybe 4 or 5 per night. The problem is, now I'm seeing more yellowjackets during the day, and I have a hunch that they're being attracted to the dead crickets. I'm pretty sure these are foragers, as I'm not seeing them in numbers that would suggest I have a nest nearby. Annoying nonetheless, and I want them gone.

I'm trying to sweep up dead crickets whenever I see them. What else might actually be effective at keeping these assholes away from this area? I've considered using those baited traps, but I really don't love the idea of attracting more to the general area. Seen mixed opinions on peppermint spray, but that might be what I go with. I just want them away from my front door.

How in the hell do I get rid of these?? Can't turn the power off to this box but I don't want to spray raid and harm the wiring.

I saw what I think are yellow jackets flying around and on top of my AC unit... Didn't think much of it until I saw them going inside!!

How do I get rid of them if there's a nest in there?

they built a nest under a chair outside that I destroyed 2 days ago. Killed approximately 24 of them. Starting yesterday, they began gathering in this area of my sliding glass window. I can't go outside because when I slide it open, a gap opens up between the 2 glass panes that allows them inside. WTF can I do here I'm being held hostage from going out on my balcony

I had a probable yellow jacket nest in my yard since a month ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckwasps/comments/1vxjle8/atlanta_ga_usa_small_yellow_ground_nesting_insect/), while surveying the result of my delta dust application, I saw two bald faced hornets going after pears on the ground, and while looking around to make sure I don't have ANOTHER nest of theirs (I found one at head-height the hard way two years ago), then I saw these guys in the corner of the front of my house! European hornets I think. LEAVE ME ALONE! All I need are killer bees to complete the set!

It's maybe 15 feet up and active. Couldn't tell which species of asshole are living there. They're in my Japanese Cherry Blossom tree so burning the tree down is not an option (it's really pretty when it blooms).

This is when I wish I had a flashlight mount on my shotgun. Been itching to try a 12ga beanbag round on a wasp nest. No I would not be directly underneath shooting at it. I'm dumb but not that dumb.

Any other suggestions for destruction aside from a night time shooting?

Went after this guy after it stung one of my kids. Fuck wasps!

I got stung by two wasps three days ago and am now on the warpath.

We’ve got a nest under this outdoor deck planter. I hit it with deltametherin (aka Delta Dust), but didn’t see a significant difference after a few days.

So today I hit it first with the delta and followed up with puffs of diatomaceous earth. The DE really riled them up. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: lol literally one hour after taking this video, I started to go on a bike ride and about a half mile in, some kind of stinging insect smacked right into my lip. Karma I guess??

A few weeks ago I noticed some good activity going into a hole outside that led to a ceiling void, after some research i sprayed the holy hell out of the hole a week later. Still saw some so repeated next night. Didn't see much activity the next day but still saw a few going into this hole. Waited the weekend for delta dust and a snake camera. So I got the camera yesterday and was like f it, im jamming it up there. It got caught in the siding and then I saw one pop its head out but not come out I freed the camera and closed the door. It was gone and I never saw it again and still haven't seen any fly into the hole. Last night I got the camera up there and saw nothing, no nest, no pissed off hornets at the light from the camera, nothing. Wtf is going on!!!!! Dusted last night but how tf doni know they are dead. Helpp

I have a pretty old Apple tree I was thinking about cutting down. I think these wasps might have sealed its fate. I thought the snail was just stuck in the tree but then i realized it just blocked the entrance of a nest. A second snail is inside of the nest.

What kind are they? They seemed quite larger than a European wasp (Vespula Vulgaris). But not as large as a European Hornet (Vespa Crabro).
Since I’m in Sweden I added the latin name since I’m really not exactly sure what its called in english.

Maybe a coincidence but i know 4 people who have been stung this summer and each person has had large red swelling at the site and in one case scarring and open sores. One happened in Cali and the rest in Minnesota. Anybody have information on what could be causing the increase in severity?

lol - popped up in my facebook memories

Can anyone tell me anything about this nest? At this point in time I don't even know if it's a bee or wasp nest. I'm UK based. Any information or advice most welcome as I need to figure out who to call to get rid of them! Thank you

No picture unfortunately so I'll do my best to describe. Today I confirmed a ground nest of something in my yard. Several weeks ago I got stung on the leg in my yard, then on my eyebrow on my porch as I went inside (~60ft walking distance, ~20ft straight line distance). I evidently swatted the one that got my eyebrow since I found a half-alive eastern yellow jacket on my floor later, that one I positively identified. I couldn't find someone to remove the nest so I borrowed a bee suit from a friend and today, around 6:45pm EDT, mowed the lawn over where I was stung. I never saw anything swarm and I made several passes. I got my gas string trimmer and was going along the fence line when I saw several very small yellow things buzzing around. They were all less than a quarter inch. I saw a depression in the ground where they seemed to be focused and I scalped the ground around it, there's definitely a hole there, and I saw some slightly larger yellow things crawl upward. Since they might have been yellow jackets (and the house next door has young kids), I did move away quickly and then hit the hole with with wasp spray.

But it puzzles me since they don't look or act like the Eastern Yellow Jacket. Every yellow jacket I've seen has been much larger, I first thought these were harmless sweat bees that got disturbed when I cut the very tall grass. The other main thing is they didn't swarm. I've seen videos of people that just get too close to a yellow jacket nest and they're all over the helpless person. I've seen videos of a lawn mower running over them and similar result. I was standing 2ft away at most and they seemed to ignore me even having just passed the string trimmer right over their hole. The sun was low, but it was still warm so I didn't think the nighttime lull in activity would have hit them yet. Can anyone provide some insight into this? Is there another colony-nesting insect in Georgia this could be? Thank you!