Pest Control Pros Can Kill Red Wasps Before Their Aggression Increases

Their angry red bodies and purple-black wings render them striking to the eye but that’s not all. Their visage is likely to inspire fear in all living creatures who encounter them, especially those that have previously felt their excruciating stings. Yes, we’re talking about Polistes Carolina.  These aggressive, fire-red fliers are known to create colonies that are 900 members strong and they have no problems defending their confiscated turf to the death. So if red wasps have started to show up in your neighborhood, better put our pest control pros’ numbers on speed dial.

When it comes to red wasps, the females do more than just lay eggs and build nests. They are the ones that aggressively use their stingers to defend their young.  Many things irritate them and prompt acts of aggression. Among the chief irritants are loud noises, foreign wasps who threaten their young and living things that dare try to disturb their prized nests.

The males and sterile workers, on the other hand, only look ferocious and the fertile ones traditionally die off after mating. Their main job is to find, kill, chew up and spit out other insects for the colony’s larvae to eat. If they are not feeding the larvae or repairing the nest, worker wasps and fertile males often focus on feeding themselves. They’re favorite foods, as you might have guessed, are sweet, sticky substances. Examples include nectar and abandoned soda pop. However, they are also fond of ingesting their victims’ bodily fluids.

Most red wasp colonies form in the spring and becoming increasingly agitated as their life cycles progress. Then the sterile workers and males die off in the late fall, right before the queens choose to overwinter. Hence, the most red wasp stings tend to occur from August until late fall. To learn more about killing red wasps before they become too aggressive to have around, please contact our pest control pros.