Tag Archives: wasp control

Flying Insects – The Difference Between Bees, Wasps and Hornets

You may think you know, but do you really understand what key factors differentiate the flying insects? What makes a bee a bee, or a wasp a wasp?

If your seven-year-old nephew asked you what’s the difference between these pesky flying insects, would you be able to confidently explain what’s what and look really awesome in his eyes? Or would you have to pull out your smartphone and do some fact checking?

If you’re no longer so sure, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered!

First things first, let’s get this out of the way quick:

Hornets are a type of wasp.

Go blow some kid’s mind with that. We’ll wait.

Welcome back. So now the real question is:

What’s the deal with the remaining two types of flying insects: bees and wasps?

To answer this question, we’ll have to perform some tests. Don’t worry, they’re easy.

Flying Insects Appearance Test: Fat And Hairy, Or Skinny And Bald?

Quite simply put, wasps are long, thin and smooth. Bees are round and fuzzy.

This is because wasps are hunters and bees are gatherers. Wasps hunt other bugs for food, so they need to be sleek and aerodynamic to catch their prey. Bees collect pollen, so they need a heftier, hairier body (the hair traps pollen) to help store and transport their precious cargo.

To elaborate even more on their appearance, bees are often 11 to 25 mm long whereas wasps and hornets vary between 12 to 40 mm long. Bees will always be yellow and/or black, but wasps can vary in colouring from black and yellow, to reddish-brown to even white in colour depending on the species.

Flying Insect Personality Test: Friendly Or Mean?

To put it simply, bees are generally friendly whereas wasps tend to be mean.

Bees are gentle and like to keep to themselves. They hang around flowers, filling up on pollen before buzzing over to the next flower.

Wasps are much more aggressive, stalking human gatherings in search of food to eat. Overripe fruit and sugary drinks are their absolute favourite. So if a flying insect that isn’t just a house fly is buzzing around annoying your dinner guests, it’s most likely a wasp.

Flying Insects Homemaking Skill Test: Hive Or Nest?

After a long, hard day of gathering pollen, a bee goes home to a hive made up of hexagonal wax cells made from beeswax secreted from their abdomen. Oftentimes though, you won’t even see the beehive as bees tend to swarm around it. Instead, you’d just see a big flying ball of bees.

Unlike bees, wasps go home to grey-coloured paper-looking nests made up of chewed up wood pulp. If you have a wasp nest in your backyard or anywhere else on your property, you’ll want to call the professionals to take care of it as soon as possible. Wasps can get very territorial protecting their queen and can cause a lot of damage if they decide to swarm you or your guests.

If you ask us, bees are the better housekeepers.

LEARN MORE: THE BEST WAYS TO PREVENT A WASP NEST ON YOUR PROPERTY

Flying Insect Ouch Test: How Many Times Did They Sting Ya?

This is probably the worst way to distinguish a wasp from a bee, as either way it can hurt a whole bunch! But if it stings you once and you find the stinger inside you, it’s a bee. If it stings you a bunch of times, it’s a wasp.

Both bee and wasp stings will show similar symptoms to their victim however, with an initial sharp pain or burning at the sting site. You may also experience residual redness, swelling and itching.

Bee stings can happen, especially if you accidentally touch one while rooting around in your garden, however they don’t mean to sting you. When a bee stings, their stinger is pulled from their abdomen and unfortunately, they die as a result.

Wasps on the other hand feel no remorse. They are able to pull their stinger out of their victim and live to sting another day, or even sting you again right after the first one. On top of this, when stung by a wasp, the wasp actually releases a chemical to alert other nearby wasps. When other wasps detect this chemical, they’ll join the original wasp in a swarm to help attack the enemy (you).

Some neat and not so neat facts, huh? We hope this article will teach you to appreciate the subtle differences between bees, wasps and hornets, but if you don’t, we understand. After all, a pest is a pest. If nothing else, this blog will help you avoid the flying insects that are a little more vengeful than their other insect companions.

Want Flying Insects To Buzz Off For Good? Contact Terminix Canada Today!

Whether it’s bee removal, hornet nest removal, wasp removal or your looking for help identifying the flying insects that are harshing your mellow, Terminix Canada can help. Our pest management services are effective, efficient and affordable. Book a free consultation with us today!

The Best Ways To Prevent A Wasp Nest On Your Property

There is nothing worse than trying to enjoy a beautiful afternoon in the backyard, just to be taken out of your rest and relaxation to swat away buzzing wasps. The problem is, you can’t have summer without having wasps, so to a certain extent you’ll have to learn to live with them. However, you don’t have to learn to live with a wasp nest, and we want to help you prevent wasps from ever deciding that your property makes an ideal spot to nest.

Once wasps have settled into a new colony, wasp nest removal can be very difficult and dangerous if done improperly. Tenacious and dangerous when provoked, it is absolutely not recommended for you to try and remove a wasp nest without the help of pest control experts.

That’s why wasp nest prevention is key.  

Here are some of the best ways to prevent wasps from ruining your summer barbecues, without stirring up a hornet’s nest.

The Best Ways To Prevent Wasps From Building A Wasp Nest

In the fall, a queen wasp goes into hibernation as her workers die off from the cold. When she awakens in the summer, she sets out to build an entirely new nest from scratch. What this means is that you have a wasp prevention grace period in the early summer to find and get rid of prime wasp nest locations before a queen can set up shop.

Common locations for wasp nests are hollow tree trunks, eaves, railings, overhangs and even your child’s play house. There are a variety of natural repellents you can use to keep wasps away from prime nesting locations. Specifically, peppermint or dish soap work well.

One particularly cunning trick to stop wasps from moving in is setting up a commercially available decoy wasp nest somewhere visible on your property. Wasps are highly territorial, but they’ll respect another colony’s territory.

Maintain Your Yard To Prevent A Wasp Nest

Once you take care of the obvious wasp nest locations, you need to think about how to prevent wasps from other people’s properties making their way onto yours. In other words, you have to keep the rest of your yard inhospitable to them. Luckily, that just means doing the yard maintenance you should already be doing anyways.

This includes some of the chores you’d like to put off, but they make a big different in wasp prevention. Things like keeping shrubs and trees pruned and leaves and grass clippings cleaned up. Additionally, the same way birds will flock to your yard looking for water, so will insects. This means you should remove standing water from bird baths and rain gutters.

If you’re wondering what to do about food and drink when hanging out in the backyard, don’t worry. You can still enjoy your sweet libations and barbecues, just don’t leave these items outside longer than they need to be. Keep food covered when not being served. Don’t leave sugary drinks laying out in the sun once they’re done being drunk. There are also many different reusable drink containers on the market that allow you to keep your drinks cold. Additionally, these containers avoid the dreaded wasp stuck in a car or accidentally swallowed.

Due to their sweet tooth (or mandibles), wasps love to hover around garbage. They eagerly await the chance to lick any sweet stains on the side. This means you should always make sure your trash can lids are securely closed and frequently hosed off.

How Not To Prevent Wasps Or Wasp Nests

Once a nest has fully established itself, it becomes extremely dangerous to even go near it. Annoying just one wasp or getting too close to the wasp nest can quickly turn into a whole colony of peeved off wasps which could result in many painful stings.

While there are many myths about how to keep wasps away, they can be inaccurate and unsafe. For instance, using liquids to drown out a ground nest is ineffective. This is because the tunnels go down lower than you would expect. On top of that, chances are the queen will survive and live to nest another day.

Think it’s as easy as covering the hole with a big rock or caulking? Think again. Unless you fully seal the hole at night while the entire colony is inside, you’re just going to end up with swarms of wasps upset and looking for a way back in.

Attempting to vacuum them out is more likely to land you in a hospital ward than stop wasps. The best way to keep wasps away is simply prevention, as discussed above. But when that fails, Terminix Canada is here to help.

For 90 years, Terminix Canada’s bee hive and wasp nest removal services have helped thousands of Canadians keep themselves and their families safe from potentially life-threatening attacks.

We use special insecticidal dust and aerosols to neutralize hives and environmentally-friendly insecticides to make underground wasp nests uninhabitable. Contact us today to make the wasps plaguing you buzz off.

Spring Cleaning – The Best Way To Keep Spring Bugs Out

Spring is a time for renewal, refreshment, and restoration. With lighter evenings and warmer weather, many Canadian homeowners feel rejuvenated to tackle a new project or pick up from where they left off in winter. Take it from Terminix Canada; the best way to channel these inner desires is to take some preventative spring pest control measures.

Why? Because spring is breeding season for many types of pest. Ultimately, if you stand still, spring bugs will feel more than at liberty to make your home theirs. That’s why Terminix Canada has listed four places in your home where spring cleaning and spring bug maintenance should take place. By being proactive, you can prevent spring bugs from appearing and killing your springtime buzz.

4 Places Where Spring Bug Maintenance Should Take Place

  1. Kitchen
  2. Washroom
  3. Basement
  4. Outdoor Areas

Clean The Kitchen

While human populations are grounded from vacation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not the same for spring bugs. Ultimately, your kitchen is the biggest pest holiday destination of them all! It’s open for business if you do nothing about it. Pests love food and since your kitchen is where the food is, bugs like ants, flies and beetles can’t get enough of your food preparation space.

Nevertheless, by thoroughly and diligently cleaning up food spills, crumbs, and overripe fruits from the countertop, you will make your kitchen less appealing to spring bugs.

For your annual spring clean, first remove everything from your cabinets and pantry. Get rid of stale spices and dated items. Put open packages into airtight containers. Next, wipe down the inside of your cabinets and put in new shelf paper. Then, pull your appliances as far from the wall as possible and vacuum behind them. The last thing to do is give the counter and floor a real scrubbing with a sponge soaked in warm water and a bit of dishwashing liquid.

Tidy Up The Washroom To Wash Out Spring Bugs

Cockroaches and silverfish are just some of the springtime critters that love moisture and make their homes in washrooms. Ultimately, reducing any areas of concentrated moisture is essential for effective cockroach and silverfish control. If you have a dehumidifier handy in your home, we recommend using it to dry out your washroom and other areas.

Elsewhere, while you’re in the washroom, wash your shower curtain and liner. Clean out your medicine cabinet and check under the sink and around the tub and toilet for leaks as well. Remember, leaks lead to moisture build up on the floor and in the pipes themselves. Should you uncover any leaks in your space, call your local plumber.

Better The Basement

Pests like spiders and wildlife like rodents enjoy harbouring in dark corners and cluttered areas of your home. These favourable conditions are often found in your basement. This is why we recommend taking some time during your spring cleaning to truly go through your basement looking for spring bugs.

We’re talking about eliminating clutter wherever possible, storing items in plastic bins with secure lids, and reducing cardboard box use too. Damp cardboard boxes provide another springtime oasis for a number of pests, especially silverfish.

Before you return upstairs, finally inspect your basement with a magnifying glass. Look out for any gaps and crevices that require caulking. Remember, even the tiniest cracks or crevices provide pests and wildlife ample access to the interior of your home.

Audit The Outdoors For Spring Bugs

So far, this blog has addressed places where spring cleaning and spring bugs maintenance should take place inside the home. But don’t forget the outside too!

You’ll want to perform a complete inspection of the outside of your house. This includes noting any damage that might have occurred during the winter. Replace any rotted roof shingles, and unclog the gutters and downspouts. Repair any ripped screens, put in new weather-stripping where needed, and patch-up loose mortar around the windows and foundation.

As far as landscaping, trim back bushes and branches so that pests can’t use them as tightropes into your home. Get rid of any rotted tree stumps and make sure mulch is at least 15 inches away from your foundation. Termites love rotting wood. If you come across any bee, hornet or wasps nests, do not engage. Terminix Canada has the treatments you need for wasp removal and hornet removal.

Since bee populations are in danger, we often recommend customers contact local beekeepers to safely rehome bees and their bee hives. However, in cases where bee hives are located in an area that poses a danger to human safety, especially in cases of allergies, we are able to control the threat and safely remove bees from your property. Contact us today and see your flying insect control problems buzz off for good!

READ MORE: THE BEST WAYS TO KEEP YOUR DECK SAFE FROM TERMITE DAMAGE

Get Rid Of Spring Bugs With Terminix Canada

Pests don’t care about your home. So why suffer? If you believe your home is infested this spring, locate and contact your nearest Terminix Canada branch today. Simply tell them what happened, and they’ll take care of the rest – building the pest control program you need.