You may be interested in knowing about wasps, their behavior, and whether they eat wood. Find out if the wasps like cedarwood or other types of wood are among their preferences.
Know if the wasp’s sting and what wood borer wasps are supposed to be so that you will recognize them. You can also know how to repel wasps, prevent them from eating wood, and finally, how to eliminate their nest.
Do Wasps Eat Wood?
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When you see a couple of wasps on your property, you may wonder how it will affect your life. Wasps often sting, create nests, and feed on the wood around them. Wasps apply the girdling process where they eat wood, create cellulose, and use it to form their nests.
Although the damage that wasps do to wood is not comparable to that of termites, it is also very serious. You can imagine that you can have some beautiful wood areas, and all of these can be eaten up by wasp infestation.
You can often see the wasps feeding on the wood are yellowjackets, horntails, and potter wasps. These specimens are usually found throughout the North American territory for you to investigate and recognize.
Do Wasps Like Cedarwood?
Cedarwood is one of the main targets for wasps to eat and create cellulose. This wood is pure and useful for creating sturdy nests that will withstand winter weather. Although wasps can also eat other types of wood around them, they are not entirely selective.
Why Do Wasps Chew Wood?
Worker wasps can traverse large stretches of land until they find useful wood to eat. If they find a tree, the wasps will begin to destroy the bark to extract some wood. The wasps chew the wood to create cellulose, which is used to build nests that the queen orders.
What are Wood Boring Wasps?
Almost all wasps are wood borers, so you can’t tell the difference in this regard. Yellowjacket, potter, horn-tailed, or European hornet wasps found in the United States eat wood. These species use the girdling process to create their nests outdoors or in your home.
Many people say that “boring wood wasps” correspond to one species, but it is very broad. So you have to try to recognize the wasps you are dealing with at home and eliminate them. These wasps are differentiated by the color of their bands, size, or even how big their stinger is.
Do They Sting?
Wasps can sting, but only females have a stinger without barbs on their bodies that differentiate them from bees. Male wasps don’t usually have a stinger, so they are a harmless species that will only run away from you.
However, you must be afraid of female wasps because of their stingers and how aggressive they get to protect the young.
Can Wasps Get Through Walls?
Wasps are unlikely to enter your wooden walls unless the infestation is there. You must eradicate wasps that are dedicated to eating the wood in an uncontrolled way. And you will see the damage they cause in one year.
You should also remember that wasp nests are very small, so they do not need to create a lot of cellulose. Instead, the wasps usually occupy a few small millimeters of wood that they will sound and then create that sticky substance for the nest.
Also Read: 12 Plants that Repel Bees and Wasps
How to Repel Wasps In Your Home?
Before you prepare to repel wasps at home, you will have to take some basic tips.
First, you have to wear the right suit to manipulate the wasp nests within your property.
Second, you should not forget that the bite of these flying insects is very painful and can cause serious damage.
You can wear a special suit that will allow you to avoid wasp stings on your body and face.
If you do not feel capable of eliminating the pest, you should contact experts in the area. You can be supported by a team responsible for eradicating pests such as wasps, bed bugs, or cockroaches at home.
The best time for you to repel wasps at home is winter because the nest is affected. Due to the low temperatures, the texture of the nest becomes sensitive, which can help you when you try to remove it.
How to prevent wasps from eating wood?
You can prevent wasps from eating the wood in your home by using the following natural products:
Natural oils
You can use natural oils that have a strong odor to prevent wasps from eating wood. These oils can have lavender, rosemary, peppermint smell, or even a combined odor that is unpleasant to the insect.
Mint
You can turn to liquid mint to prevent wasps from continuing to eat the wood from your walls. This natural product can be found in any store classified for pest control at a low cost.
In addition, you can combine peppermint with natural oils to have a better effect against wasps.
Ginger
If you want to have a good smell at home and prevent wasps from taking over the wood on your walls, use ginger. You can use the ginger with the water, put it in a spray bottle and apply it all over the end of the wood. The smell of ginger causes the wasps to flee your home and build their nest in other places.
How to Eliminate a Wasp Nest Naturally?
For you to get rid of a wasp nest naturally, you will have to do the following:
Apply the repellent to the wasp nest
As a first step, you must apply the repellent to the wasp nest to scare and kill the specimen. The repellent you use should have a strong odor so that the wasps get dizzy and die inside the nest. You have to wear a good suit so that the wasp stings do not affect you and put your life at risk.
Remove the nest
When you eradicate the wasps, remove the nest with a stick, with your hands, or with a shovel. Therefore, it is important that you remove the entire nest and then take it to the nearest garbage can.
The simplest way to remove the wasp nest is with your hands, although it can also be dangerous.
First, make sure all the wasps are dead inside the nest to avoid stings on your hand when you try to remove them.
Clean the area
Finally, you have to clean the area where there was once a wasp nest created with cellulose. You may need to remove all your cleaning products to remove the stain that that nest leaves.
