Buzz Off: How to Keep Wasps Out of Your Car

a wasp on a car window trying to get inside a georgia car

a wasp on a car window trying to get inside a georgia carSummertime in Georgia brings sunny days, open roads, and unfortunately, some unwelcome visitors—wasps. These buzzing insects have a knack for finding their way into the smallest of spaces, including your beloved car. Thankfully, there are some easy steps you can take to make sure wasps don’t invade your space. Read on to learn top wasp prevention tips from the experts at Active Pest Control!

Why Do Wasps Build Nests in Cars?

It may seem strange that wasps choose cars for their nesting site, but there are actually a few reasons why vehicles are a top choice for many stinging insects. Wasps often build nests in cars because: 

  • Cars have plenty of shelter: Just like us, wasps appreciate a cozy shelter. Your car’s various nooks and crannies provide ideal spots for their nests. From the gaps under the hood to the crevices in the door panels, they’ll happily take advantage of any available space.
  • Ventilation makes for easy access: Wasps are resourceful little creatures. They’re drawn to cars because of the air vents, which provide excellent ventilation for their nests. The steady flow of air allows their offspring to breathe comfortably, and who can blame them for wanting a breeze during hot Georgia summers?
  • Old crumbs provide plenty of food: Wasps have a notorious sweet tooth. They’re attracted to sugary substances, such as spilled beverages or food remnants, that might be lurking inside your car. These tantalizing snacks serve as extra motivation for them to explore and establish their nests.
  • Sedentary cars are secluded: Wasps are crafty creatures that prefer to build their nests in hidden locations, away from prying eyes and curious predators. The protected environment of your car provides them with the perfect camouflage, shielding their nests from unwanted attention.

How to Keep Wasps Out of Your Car

Now that we understand why wasps find cars so appealing, it’s time to unleash our arsenal of preventive measures:

  • Remove any trash and vacuum regularly
  • Keep windows and doors closed
  • Avoid letting your car sit unused 
  • Seal any cracks with mesh or tape
  • Park in sheltered areas if possible
  • Inspect beneath the hood and in the trunk

What to Do if You Have Wasps in Your Car

Despite your best efforts, it’s possible that wasps might come inside your car. If this happens, it’s crucial to remain calm and take the appropriate steps to handle the situation safely. Here’s what you should do:

  • Stay Calm and Pull Over: If you notice wasps flying inside your car while driving, keep your cool and pull over to a safe location. Panicking or swatting at the wasps can lead to accidents or stings.
  • Open All Windows and Doors: Once you’ve safely parked, roll down all the windows and open the doors. This allows the wasps a clear exit path and encourages them to fly out of the vehicle.
  • Exit Slowly and Carefully: Exit the car slowly and cautiously, making sure not to disturb or provoke the wasps. Move away from the vehicle to a safe distance, preferably to an area without any wasp activity.
  • Call a Professional Wasp Exterminator: If you discover a wasp nest inside your car, don’t try to remove it yourself. Wasps can become aggressive when their nest is threatened, and their stings are painful and potentially dangerous. Instead, seek assistance from a professional wasp control company.

Finding wasps in your car can be a terrifying experience, but the experts at Active Pest Control are here to help! Our state-certified technicians have years of experience handling buzzing insects throughout Georgia, and they know how to quickly and safely remove wasps. To get fast wasp removal services, give us a call today!

Why are Yellow Jackets So Aggressive in the Late Summer?

Learn why yellow jackets are so aggressive in the fall in Atlanta GA - Active Pest ControlIf you’ve attended an outdoor barbecue picnic during the late summer in Georgia, you probably have dealt with yellow jackets trying to crash your party. Yellow jackets and wasps hatch in the spring and their populations grow throughout the summer. By the time fall rolls around, these stinging insects become more aggressive as they look for extra resources to support themselves. Understanding their behavior during this time of year is the key to preventing them from invading your outdoor activities!

What Attracts Wasps in the Fall?

As summer progresses, yellow jackets begin to outgrow their nests. With limited resources, they begin to expand their search for food and become more aggressive in doing so. They will seek out sugary substances as well as protein, which is why they target outdoor picnics and parties. Some of the things that attract yellow jackets outdoors include:

  • Food: Yellow jackets will eat any food source they can land on, making any food or drink you bring outside susceptible!
  • Eaves and holes: If you notice a small nest forming, call a professional to get it removed before it grows out of proportion.
  • Hummingbird feeders: Wasps will flock to the sugary water found in bird feeders.
  • Lawn insects: Wasps will occasionally grab grubs from your lawn to satiate their protein needs.
  • Swimming pools: All types of wasps love the ample water a pool provides.

How to Prevent Yellow Jackets

The best way to avoid dealing with yellow jackets outside is to know how to prevent them! Some of the ways you can keep them away include:

  1. Keep food and garbage covered with tight lids.
  2. Don’t wear bright colors or wear perfume.
  3. During the spring, seal any holes or voids around your home.
  4. Don’t walk barefoot through the grass in case they are loitering on the ground.
  5. Eliminate sources of standing water and cover your swimming pool.

Professional Help for Wasp Prevention

Because yellow jackets can get aggressive, it’s important to never deal with a nest by yourself. Especially during this time of year, they can sting without being provoked, which can be deadly to anyone allergic. If you’ve done all you can to prevent yellow jackets and are still dealing with them near your property, call the experts at Active Pest Control. We can safely remove wasp nests from your home to keep you and your family safe all year long.

What Damage Can Carpenter Bees Cause?

Bees love flowers. They don’t eat wood. So, why should you have to worry about bees damaging your home? Well, those carpenter bees don’t attach nests to the side of your home like paper wasps. And they don’t establish their nests in the ground like some yellow jackets do. They create their nests in wood. If they choose the wood of your home, you may find yourself dealing with the unwanted repercussions.

When carpenter bees target a home, they usually target untreated wood. That means decks, porches, outbuildings, sheds, outside steps, fences, and other external structures are their first choice.

When carpenter bees make a nest, they prefer to tunnel upwards into wood. These tunnels go up a couple inches and then take a turn to follow the grain of the wood. This is usually horizontal to the ground.

While a carpenter bee tunnel is only likely to be about a foot or two in length, and only about the width of a nickel, the problem with these bees is that they prefer to use existing tunnels and expand on them. If you have multiple bees boring into the wood of your property, or carpenter bees visiting you year after year, the damage can become significant.

Most Common Carpenter Bee Damage

  • If these bees tunnel up into a railing on a porch or balcony, it can cause the railing to lose integrity and give way. This can lead to injury.
  • If carpenter bees make their nests in steps, it can cause a step to snap. And, like a rail that is not sound, this kind of damage can lead to physical damage.
  • When carpenter bees bore their tunnels into support beams, these beams can weaken and cause the larger structure to warp. And, if left untreated, damage done to support beams may cause a collapse to occur. Usually, the evidence of carpenter bees is seen long before the risk of such an occurrence. Carpenter bees often make tunneling to breach the interior of wood. This damage can look like dashes, dots, or trenches. Unlike termites, carpenter bees don’t have to worry about being exposed to the air outside of their tunnels.
  • If you see circular holes that are about the size of a nickel, it is likely that you’re looking at the hole of a carpenter bee. This will most often be found underneath structures, or in rafters.

If you’re seeing signs of carpenter bee infestation, let us know. The team here at Active Pest Control is trained in the most advanced pest control methods for dealing with this and other invasive pests. Reach out to us for immediate assistance.

Problems Carpenter Bees Cause

Carpenter bees are a unique species even among their own kind. These pests do not live in colonies, and they very rarely sting. In fact, the males do not even have stingers, and the females will only sting when handled or when they feel threatened. But that does not mean that they are not a threat. Before you discover the problems that carpenter bees cause, you should know a bit about them so you can accurately identify them.

Carpenter bees look very similar to bumble bees, who happen to be their cousins. They are very large and have fuzzy, black heads and large black abdomens. The major difference between the two is that bumble bees are fuzzy all over and carpenter bees are not.

Carpenter bees are solitary insects with each female living in her own home; however, several females can live in the same general area. They prefer to nest inside untreated wood, and will often nest in decks, sheds, other outbuildings, wooden play sets, fence posts, and other untreated wooden areas. Over time, these bees can cause significant damage to these structures, especially if several females are present.

The holes created by carpenter bees are around a half an inch in diameter. Once this nest is established, the female will lay her eggs in it; and when the eggs hatch and mature, these new bees are unlikely to stray very far from home. They will, however, travel a few feet or yards away, create a new hole, and move out on their own to begin the cycle all over again.

It is important for homeowners to know the signs that carpenter bees are near. The damages they leave are typically the most noticeable warning:

  • Holes in untreated wood around your home that are generally around a half an inch in diameter.
  • Markings around the holes in a semi-circular pattern resembling a fan.
  • Wood shavings gathered on the ground near the holes.
  • Scratching sound coming from inside the wood.

Understandably, these damages are enough of a reason to keep carpenter bees from choosing your home as their nesting site, but it gets worse. Much worse! As the larvae grow and move around inside the chambers that the mother bee has made inside the wood, they make noise. You probably will be unaware of this wrestling, but woodpeckers are not. And it just so happens that woodpeckers love to feast on carpenter bee larvae. Those holes that the carpenter bee made are going to seem inconsequential once the woodpeckers are done pecking and feasting. Repairing this extensive damage can be costly.

The best way to protect your property from the damages that carpenter bees and the pests that feast on them can cause is with help from the pest professionals here at Active Pest Control. Our pest control experts can treat and control carpenter bees on your property and eliminate the risk to your home and your wallet. To learn more about our effective solutions for carpenter bees or any of our other industry-leading pest protection services, give us a call today.

Hornets & Wasps In Fall

If it feels like you’re seeing more hornets and wasps flying around, it isn’t your imagination. Every year, these insects do the same thing. In spring, the overwintering queens come out of hiding, start new nests, and grow their populations all spring and summer. In fall, those nests are filled or nearing capacity, and those stinging insects are far more abundant. Here are a few things you should know about hornets and wasps in fall.

  • This is the time of year when stinging insects will try to get in through your doors and windows. It is extremely important to make sure you keep doors and windows closed. It is also vital to have screens that are in good working order. When hornets and wasps land on screens, they crawl around in search of entry points. Those entry points can be as small as the size of a pea.
  • Damaged weather stripping is an easy access point for stinging insects. Inspect the weather stripping on your sliding doors. If you have any damaged bristles or the weather stripping isn’t making a solid contact from top to bottom, you could accidently let in an unwanted guest. Look closely. It doesn’t take much of a hole for these tiny critters to squeeze in.
  • Door sweeps are another, often overlooked, entry point. When wasps and hornets get into the garage or onto the porch, it may be a damaged door sweep that lets them into your home. Fixing your door sweeps will keep them out and keep all the cold air out when it starts to get cold outside.
  • If you have nests on your property, you’ll have more run-ins with hornets and wasps. You’ll also have more hornets and wasps trying to get into your eaves and in through your windows as the temperatures go down.
  • Hornets and wasps can be quite aggressive when their nest is threatened. It is important to follow strict safety protocols when neutralizing and removing a nest. Pest control companies have the tools and education to do this safely.

If you live in our extensive Georgia service area, let Active Pest Control take care of those nests. Our team of certified pest specialists is trained in advanced pest protocols, and follow strict safety guidelines when dealing with nest removal. You can always trust that insecticides will be handled in a way that will pose no threat to you, your children, or your pets, while making sure that no stinging pests will have a home on your property.

Let our team of dedicated professionals show you why our customers have made us the 2015 Angie’s List Super Service Award winner.