Understanding Stinging Insects Around Worcester Homes
Yellow jackets cause most of the trouble. They nest in the ground — old mouse burrows are a favorite — and in wall voids, growing from a spring queen to thousands of workers by late summer, which is why a nest that seemed small in June defends itself ferociously in September. They are the wasps at the picnic, the ones in the soda can, and the ones that swarm a lawnmower crossing the nest entrance.
Paper wasps are the calmer tenants: small umbrella-shaped nests under eaves, porch ceilings and railing undersides, colonies of dozens rather than thousands, and a temperament that mostly minds its own business unless the nest is touched. Bald-faced hornets build the big gray football nests in trees and shrubs — impressive, defensive at close range, and usually far enough from doors to be a frost problem rather than a summer one. Carpenter bees are not nest builders at all: a female bores a round tunnel into trim, fascia or deck rails to raise young, which is a carpentry problem wearing a bee costume.
Honey bees stand apart. A honey bee swarm resting on a branch is a colony looking for a home, valuable and protected by common practice if not by statute — local beekeepers collect swarms gladly. Honey bees established inside a wall are a different and bigger job, because the colony, comb and honey all have to come out. Telling honey bees from yellow jackets — fuzzy and golden versus smooth and bright-striped — is the first thing the intake will help you do from your description.
