We eliminate active wasp, hornet, and yellow jacket nests near your home's eaves, soffits, gutters, and ground areas.
Finding a wasp nest near your front door or discovering yellow jackets swarming out of the ground while mowing is not something you can ignore. Some nests are easy to handle yourself. Others are genuinely dangerous to disturb without the right equipment and timing. We treat active nests that create a safety hazard near your home. This is a reactive service, not a seasonal program. When you find a problem nest, call us and we will take care of it.
Four stinging species cause problems around Davis County homes. Two additional species look alarming but rarely need treatment. Knowing which is which helps you decide whether to call us or leave the nest alone.
Yellow jackets are the most dangerous stinging insect in Davis County. USU Extension identifies the Western yellow jacket as a particularly important pest in Utah. They are smooth, bright yellow and black, about half an inch long. Colonies build enclosed paper nests underground in old rodent burrows or inside wall voids. By late summer, a single colony can hold several thousand workers.
Yellow jackets are aggressive. They sting repeatedly and release a chemical signal that recruits more wasps to attack. Ground nests are the biggest concern because they are hidden. Homeowners find them by accident while mowing, edging, or walking through the yard. Wall void nests are equally dangerous because the entry point may be far from the actual nest inside the wall.
Paper wasps build small, open-comb nests that hang from a single stalk under eaves, porch ceilings, deck rails, mailboxes, and light fixtures. The European paper wasp has displaced native species along the Wasatch Front and is now the most common paper wasp in Davis County. Colonies are small, usually under 200 workers. They sting when the nest is bumped or threatened but are not as aggressive as yellow jackets.
These are the nests homeowners see most often around the roofline. They are also what we treat most frequently.
Wolf spiders are large, fast, ground-hunting spiders that do not build webs. Several species in Davis County reach one and a half to two inches across. They hunt by sight and ambush, which is why you see them running across floors. Their size startles people, but wolf spiders are not medically significant. They move indoors in fall seeking warmth. Their eyes reflect flashlight beams at night, which can help with identification.
Bald-faced hornets build large, gray, teardrop-shaped nests in trees, large shrubs, and on building sides. Nests can reach the size of a basketball by late summer. They are black with white face markings. Colonies hold up to 700 workers and defend the nest aggressively with coordinated swarm attacks. Despite the name, they are technically an aerial yellow jacket, not a true hornet. No true hornets live in Utah.
Mud daubers build small mud tube nests under eaves and inside garages. They are solitary wasps with no colony to defend. Stings are extremely rare. The blue mud dauber is actually beneficial because it hunts black widow spiders.
Cicada killers are very large ground-nesting wasps that alarm homeowners with their size and territorial hovering. Males cannot sting at all. Females can sting but almost never do unless grabbed. They are solitary and do not form aggressive colonies.
If you see mud dauber tubes or large solitary wasps buzzing around lawn burrows, these usually do not need professional treatment.
Most calls for wasp removal come in August and September. There is a specific reason for the seasonal spike.
Earlier in summer, adult yellow jacket workers get their sugar from larvae inside the nest. When workers feed chewed insects to the developing young, the larvae produce a sweet liquid the adults consume. This exchange is a primary food source for the colony.
In late summer, the queen stops producing new brood. That sugar source disappears. Thousands of workers suddenly shift to foraging for carbohydrates outside the nest. Sugary drinks, ripe fruit, BBQ sauce, beer, and anything sweet become targets. Colonies are simultaneously at peak population with workers no longer tied to brood care.
This is why you can eat outside in June without problems but cannot open a soda in August without yellow jackets showing up. It is not random. The colony’s internal food source dried up and they are looking for replacements.
Paper wasp and bald-faced hornet colonies also reach peak size in late summer, increasing the chance of encounters near your home.
Under eaves, soffits, and fascia boards. Paper wasps favor the sheltered underside of eaves and porch ceilings. These are the most visible nests and the locations we treat most often.
Inside wall voids. Yellow jackets enter through gaps in siding, weep holes, cable penetrations, and damaged soffit vents. The visible entry point may be a small hole in the exterior. The actual nest inside the wall can be several feet away. Never seal the entry until the colony is dead. Trapped yellow jackets will chew through interior drywall to escape into living spaces.
Underground in lawns and garden beds. Western yellow jackets nest in abandoned rodent burrows. The only visible sign may be a small hole with faint soil piles. These nests are discovered when someone walks or mows over them and triggers a mass attack.
In trees and shrubs. Bald-faced hornets build aerial nests that often go unnoticed until late summer when leaves thin. These are common near canyon-mouth areas in Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, and Fruit Heights where residential yards meet foothill vegetation.
On play equipment, sheds, and fences. Paper wasps build in any sheltered cavity. Check playground equipment, garden sheds, fence post caps, and outdoor furniture in spring before regular use begins.
We spray active nests with a professional insecticide that kills wasps on contact and leaves a residual layer that eliminates returning workers over the following days.
We treat at dawn or dusk. Nearly all workers are inside the nest at those times. This maximizes the number of wasps contacted by the initial treatment and reduces the chance of encountering aggressive foragers during application.
We treat the nest and entry points. For nests on eaves, soffits, and fascia, we apply directly to the nest and surrounding surfaces. For ground nests, we apply insecticidal dust into the entry hole. Dust penetrates deeper into underground nests than liquid spray can reach. For wall void nests, we dust through the entry point or small access holes.
We leave the nest in place for 48 to 72 hours. Returning workers that were away during treatment contact the residual product when they come back to the nest. Removing the nest too soon allows surviving wasps to scatter. After activity has stopped completely, the nest can be removed.
What to expect. Most visible activity stops within 24 to 48 hours. Full colony elimination can take up to 10 days as remaining larvae emerge and contact the treatment. You may see a few wasps circling the old nest site for several days after treatment. That is normal and does not mean the treatment failed.
Every social wasp colony in Davis County lasts one season. Workers and the old queen die after the first hard freeze, typically in late October. Only newly mated queens survive winter. They shelter in wall voids, under bark, in attics, and in leaf litter until spring.
Each surviving queen starts a completely new nest the following year. She does not reuse the old one. But she may choose the same favorable location because sheltered eave corners, protected soffits, and dry soil patches remain attractive to new queens year after year.
A single colony can produce over a thousand new queens in a season. These queens disperse widely. Eliminating this year’s nest does not stop a queen from a different colony settling in the same spot next spring. That is why this service treats active problems rather than preventing future ones.
If you notice nests in the same spot year after year, sealing the gap or screening the opening after the colony dies in fall can discourage future nesting.
Not every wasp nest requires a service call. Here is where the line falls.
Call us for: yellow jacket ground nests (hidden colonies, mass stinging risk, especially dangerous near children and pets), wall void nests (cannot be effectively treated from outside, risk of wasps entering living spaces), large bald-faced hornet nests (coordinated swarm defense, often high or hard to reach), any nest near a door, walkway, or area with regular foot traffic, and any situation where someone in the household has a known sting allergy.
You can often handle: small paper wasp nests early in the season, when the nest is golf-ball sized with just a few wasps, easily accessible without climbing, and no one in your household has sting allergies. A store-bought aerosol wasp spray applied at dusk can work for these. Stand back, spray from the recommended distance, and leave the area.
Leave it alone when: the nest is high in a tree away from walkways and activity areas, the species is a mud dauber or cicada killer, or the season is nearly over and the first freeze will end the colony naturally. Wasps and hornets are predators that eat large quantities of pest insects, caterpillars, and spiders. A nest that is not near people is doing more good than harm.
Once the application has dried, treated surfaces are safe for contact. We recommend keeping people and pets away from the treated nest area for at least 24 hours while the colony is dying. Agitated wasps are more likely to sting during that period.
They may. New queens start new nests each spring. Treating this year’s nest eliminates this year’s colony. It does not prevent a different queen from nesting in the same location next year. Sealing gaps and screening openings after the colony dies in fall reduces the chance of repeat nesting.
The colony’s internal sugar source runs out in late summer when the queen stops producing brood. Workers shift to foraging for sugary foods outside the nest. This is why late summer brings the most aggressive yellow jacket behavior around outdoor eating areas.
Never seal a wasp entry point while the colony is active. Yellow jackets trapped inside a wall will chew through drywall and emerge into your living space. Seal the entry only after the colony is completely dead.
No. Honeybees are protected pollinators and should not be treated with insecticide. If you have a honeybee swarm or hive, contact a local beekeeper for safe relocation. We only treat wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets.
We serve Davis County, Utah, including Bountiful, Layton, Kaysville, Farmington, Centerville, Clearfield, Syracuse, Fruit Heights, Woods Cross, West Bountiful, and North Salt Lake.
If you have a wasp, hornet, or yellow jacket nest near your home that needs to be removed, contact us. We can usually schedule treatment within a few days.
Phone: 801-451-2220 Text: 801-893-8836