Tag Archives: wasp pest control

Flying Insects – The Difference Between Bees, Wasps and Hornets

Bees, Wasps, And Hornets / May 31, 2021

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!

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The Best Ways To Prevent A Wasp Nest On Your Property

Bees, Wasps, And Hornets / May 31, 2021

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.

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Beware These Dangerous Bugs This Spring

Ants / April 28, 2021

Your first reaction when the sun finally emerges from the cold, grey winter sky to melt away the snow is probably to cry tears of joy. Few know the true joy that comes with the start of spring like Canadians. Unfortunately, these dangerous bugs were also waiting for their perfect time to shine.

For every flower we must have rain. Everything is dual natured after all, including springtime. As you frolic through the greenery and skip past the clouds of midges, remember to keep a lookout for these dangerous bugs that like to make a comeback around the same time that the sun does.

Why Ants Can Be Dangerous Bugs

Ants enjoy a good frolic as much as anyone else. Their impressive navigational systems also make it easy for them to return to any place they deem worthy, even if that place is your home. What makes them especially trouble is the fact that they do in swarms, often in or around your home.

One of the more common problematic ants in Canada, the carpenter ant, is capable of causing structural damage to your home. Additionally, the odorous house ant, which seems annoying but harmless, can contaminate your food. Lastly, we have the fire ant, a tiny ant that can pack a painful sting if provoked or feeling cornered.

The House Fly – An Annoying, But Also Dangerous Bug

We all know house flies are one of the most maddening and repulsive pests that make your house their home in springtime. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, your house can quickly go from fly-free to a buzzing hive of house flies that are impossible to trap or deter. If flying around your face and buzzing in your ear wasn’t bad enough, house flies can actually be dangerous. They feed on filth, such as food or animal waste and then land on your surfaces and food, which can spread some very serious diseases.

Earwigs – Dangerous Bug Or Just Plain Gross?

Earwigs are the fuel of children’s nightmares everywhere. Also, the reason no one likes to leave their shoes outside, but are they a dangerous bug? Not to humans but can cause serious harm to your plants as they like to feed on your flowers, vegetables and any other greenery you have. You’re likely to spot earwigs wandering around at night or in damp areas during the day, hence the inside of your shoes making the perfect hiding spot for them.

Quite simply put, their appearance is enough to deter most people from wanting them anywhere near your living space.

Wasps – Likely The Most Dangerous Bug On The List

This one is an easy one to answer. Wasps are not your friends, especially if you happen to be allergic to them. If they perceive you as a threat to them or their hive, even if you’re just innocently standing there, they will attack. Unlike bees, wasps can sting you multiple times, causing serious damage.

On top of that, when a wasp stings you, it doesn’t just hurt a whole bunch, it also releases a hormone telling the rest of their colony that you are the enemy and they should also attack. Want to know what’s worse than one wasp sting? A whole colony of wasp stings.

Spiders – A Dangerous Bug Or A Hideous Helper?

Spiders and their webs may seem quite gross and rather scary – they do have eight legs and many teeny tiny eyeballs after all, but they’re often more helpful than harmful. At least the ones you typically find in your home are. Cellar spiders, daddy-longlegs, wolf spiders, and other common house spiders are harmless to humans. Thanks to the rich diet of insects spiders eat, when they stay hidden and out of the way, can actually help keep the eco system of your home under control and other pests at bay.

The only spiders that you need to seriously watch out for in Canada are two species of venomous spider which can cause serious pain and require medical attention. These spiders are the brown recluse or black widow. Even still, unless you accidentally brush up against them or get caught in a web, these spiders are more likely to flee than bite.

Termites – This Dangerous Bug Is Your Home’s Worst Enemy

Termites are not a threat to you directly, but they are a serious threat to your home, which still feels personal. They’re one of the most common springtime pests in some areas of the world, and probably the most destructive. They can live either in the ground or in your home, feeding on the cellulose found in wood and wood by-products. The National Pest Management Association actually estimates that termites cause a whopping $5 billion in property damage every year. Yikes!

Dangerous Bugs Stand No Change To Terminix Canada

If any of the above dangerous bugs have infiltrated your home, and by extension, your nightmares, then it’s time to call in the pros! Don’t let these pests pester you this spring, Terminix Canada can help rid your home of unwanted intruders for good.

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