Why some Texas nests never stop growing
The standard wasp story ends with frost. A colony builds through summer, the cold kills the workers and the old queen, and only new queens survive to start again. That story is mostly true in Dallas, and occasionally it is not. Texas A and M states plainly that in Texas some colonies can survive for several years and continue to grow, and that colonies in Texas and other southern states have been reported at six feet across. A typical southern yellowjacket colony tops out around 4,000 workers, so a nest of that size represents multiple seasons of uninterrupted building. Average winter lows around 37 degrees are what allow it. Freezing happens, but a sheltered cavity under a slab, inside a wall, or deep in a bank can stay above the temperature that would end the colony. The practical consequence is small but important. Do not assume an old nest site is finished. Watch it on a mild winter afternoon, and if wasps are moving in and out, treat it as a live colony that has a head start on the coming spring rather than as leftover activity.
The nest in the ground is the one that hurts people
Aerial nests get photographed. Ground nests send people to the emergency room, and the difference is entirely about warning. Southern yellowjackets nest underground most of the time, using old rodent burrows, voids beneath slabs and sheds, and loose soil along beds and slopes. The entrance is small and unremarkable, and the comb often sits off to one side rather than directly beneath it. You get no visual cue to walk around it. What sets a colony off is vibration. A mower, a string trimmer, a wheelbarrow, or heavy footsteps translate through the soil, and the response is many workers at once rather than the single defensive wasp you would get from a paper comb. The CDC's review of national mortality data found 84 percent of American sting deaths between 2011 and 2021 were male, a pattern that fits yard work, mowing, and outdoor labor. If you find an active hole, mark the spot from a distance with a stake or a flag, keep everyone off that ground, and schedule the treatment rather than trying to handle it before dinner.
The two inch wasp that is not a hornet
Every July somebody in Dallas photographs a wasp the size of a thumb and asks whether it is a giant hornet. It is almost always a cicada killer, and Texas A and M calls them one of the signs of summer in Texas. They are big, at one and a half to two inches in length by Texas A and M's measure, and they behave in ways that look threatening. Males patrol low over lawns, hover at people, and chase each other, which reads as aggression. They cannot sting at all. Females can, but only if you grab one or step on one barefoot, and they are busy digging burrows and hauling paralyzed cicadas into them. What they do cause is cosmetic. Thin, dry, well drained turf can end up dotted with burrows and small piles of excavated soil, which looks bad on a front lawn. The fix is landscaping. Thicken the turf, water the area, and mulch bare beds so the ground stops being attractive to dig in. They finish their season on their own by late summer, and nothing needs to be sprayed for them.
A month by month view of the Dallas wasp year
April and May are founding months. Clemson describes colonies beginning in April or May when the overwintered queen emerges, and at that point a nest is one insect and a small comb. This is when a walk around the eaves, fence rails, and patio structure pays for itself. June and July are quiet growth. Workers hunt caterpillars, flies, and cicadas to feed larvae, and they largely ignore people. Underground colonies expand without anyone knowing they exist. Cicada killers appear during this stretch and cause a lot of unnecessary alarm. August brings the turn. Clemson notes colonies may reach several hundred workers by August, and Texas A and M records reproductive cells being built late in the summer. From here the colony is large, defensive, and increasingly interested in human food. September and October are the peak. Alabama Extension describes the end of summer and fall as peak yellowjacket season, which is exactly when outdoor gatherings pick back up here after the worst heat has passed. Winter thins most colonies out, though not all of them, so the year does not always close cleanly.
Getting two quotes you can actually compare
Two companies can quote the same nest and land far apart, and the reason is almost always scope rather than markup. Ask for both in writing and read for four things. First, is the price for one nest or for the property. A walkthrough on a typical Dallas lot with a fence line, a shed, and mature beds often turns up more than the one you called about. Second, does the work include removing the nest, or only killing the colony. A large mass of comb left in a wall or under a slab means dead larvae and paper, and it can draw scavenging insects afterward. Third, is the entry sealed, and when. For a wall colony, the sealing must come after several days of no traffic, not on the same visit, which means a return trip that should be priced. Fourth, what does follow up cover. Ask directly what happens if wasps are still flying a week out, and whether that return visit costs anything. Get the answers on paper, since a verbal promise is difficult to compare against another company's written scope.