Hornets, Wasps, Yellow Jackets and Bees: How To Protect Your Home?

We routinely come across hornets, wasps, yellow jackets and occasionally – even bumblebees and honey bees during a home inspection. These insect nests are sometimes visible – but more than often – they can not be seen until you suddenly happen upon them.

Opening a metal panel door, crawling into the attic or crawl space or inspecting the exterior areas of a home’s overhang / soffits / gable vents / windows / doors and it’s foundation areas will often readily encourage the nesting of these pests – especially wasps.

While most of the time, these insects do not cause significant damage to your home, except maybe honey bees, they do obviously cause safety issues for you, your family, pets, visitors and service professionals who are required to be present at your home. At Sentry Home Inspection Services we are not licensed to provide Pest Control Services. But, we can, and do identify visible safety issues regarding the presence of these and other pests. Of course, if we fell that the situation is serious enough and the general safety and well fare of your family and pets is in danger, then we will recommend securing professional pest control services. 

So, what can you do as a home owner to minimize the likelihood of intrusion by these pests? This is a situation where a good defense is always the winning approach. Preventing or eliminating opportunities for these pests to gain access into your home is always the best strategy. Always inspect your home looking for any opportunities that pests may have to enter your home environment. Repairing cracks, tears or holes in wood surfaces, repairing window, crawl space or gable vent screens, screening soffit vents and ensuring that no entry points exist in exterior roof or wall surfaces, electrical panels or distribution boxes – will be a great start toward mitigating this issue. In addition, make sure that any electrical or cable wiring entering the home has the entry hole properly sealed with an all weather sealant to discourage entry.

Of course, nests such as wasps nests that can be visually observed from a safe distance can be eliminated by knocking the nest down with a long pole or there are many effective long stream foaming sprays that are available for use as well as CRC sprays that can safely be used around electrical equipment to avoid the risk of shock and electrocution. For bees nests such as honey bees – locating a local bee keeper who can come and remove the swarm is the most effective intervention. Hornet nest and bumblebee nest should be terminated by a pests control professional.