wasp control in Georgia: Your Complete Guide to Safe Removal & Prevention

What to look for

And since summer 2023, the yellow-legged hornet has been building nests around Savannah and moving inland. Cicada killers dig finger-sized holes in sandy soil from Augusta to Warner Robins and look terrifying, but they sting only if handled. European hornets, big and brown, nest in hollow trees and wall voids and fly at night. Bald-faced hornets build gray paper balls in trees and on soffits. Native paper wasps hang open combs under eaves and porch ceilings in every Georgia city. A surviving colony adds queens instead of losing them and can grow into a super nest holding tens of thousands of wasps, in a wall, a shed or an abandoned car. Clemson and Texas A&M both note that in the Gulf South some southern yellowjacket colonies survive winter, and with a 33F median winter low, parts of Georgia qualify. In cold states a yellowjacket colony dies in the fall. The climate is the twist. A nest you cannot see is the one you find with a mower, and with 71 percent median humidity and 52 inches of rain a year, the state's lawns get mowed a lot. The southern yellowjacket and the eastern yellowjacket both nest in the ground, taking over old vole and chipmunk burrows, and they also move into wall voids, crawlspace vents and the gap behind a brick veneer. Yellowjackets do the damage in Georgia.

• 1A steady stream of yellowjackets flying in and out of a hole in the lawn, a mulch bed or a crawlspace vent.
• 2Wasps disappearing behind brick veneer, under vinyl siding or into a weep hole at the foundation.
• 3A humming sound inside a wall or above a ceiling that gets louder on hot afternoons.
• 4Open gray combs the size of a hand under porch ceilings, deck rails and mailbox hoods.
• 5A gray paper globe in a crape myrtle, pine or oak that was not there in June.
• 6Big hornets hovering in front of a beehive, snatching bees in midair, near the coast.
• 7Golf-ball-sized holes with a fan of excavated sand in a sunny bed or bare patch of yard.
• 8Yellowjackets thick at trash cans, soda cans and pet food in September and October.

Treatment options and typical costs

Prices are typical published ranges. Ask what’s included before you compare quotes.

Which wasps you are dealing with in Georgia.

They sting when the comb is bumped and otherwise mind their business. Native paper wasps are the long-legged brown ones hanging an open comb under the porch ceiling. Both scavenge hard in fall, which is why Atlanta patios and Macon ballfields get swarmed in September. Eastern yellowjackets overlap with them in the northern half of the state and behave the same way. Yellow and black, half an inch long, they nest in the ground and in wall voids and get aggressive around the entrance. Southern yellowjackets are the Georgia default. Georgia is its US point of entry, and any sighting belongs with the state agriculture department, not just a pest company. The newcomer is the yellow-legged hornet, dark with yellow leg tips, which hunts honey bees at the hive entrance. The females dig burrows in sandy soil and drag paralyzed cicadas underground; they will not sting unless grabbed. Cicada killers are solitary. European hornets are bigger, brown and yellow, nest in tree hollows and walls, and are the ones at the porch light after dark. Bald-faced hornets, black with white faces, build the gray paper football in a tree or on a soffit and defend it hard.

wasps activity by season.

In Georgia, checking the foundation, gaps around doors and windows, and any moisture or clutter near the structure usually turns up the conditions that are letting them in. The most useful first step in Georgia is to note where you have seen wasps and when they appear, because that timeline is what lets a provider focus on the right area instead of treating the whole property. Scheduling before the busy stretch, rather than after it, tends to mean faster service and a more accurate quote, and a local provider can point out the conditions that matter most in Georgia.

Why a Georgia winter does not always end the colony.

By the second summer it can hold tens of thousands of wasps and fill a shed wall, a crawlspace or the trunk of an abandoned car. Instead of shrinking to one queen, the colony keeps its workers, accepts more queens and starts the spring already huge. Clemson and Texas A&M both describe southern yellowjacket colonies in the Gulf South that survive winter. Our 21-city data puts the median winter low at 33F, right at the line, and the coastal plain often sits above it for the whole season. Georgia does not get that promise everywhere. In Illinois or Maine, wasp control has a built-in ending: hard frost kills every worker and the nest is empty by December. Ask a pro whether they think your colony is a first-year nest or an overwintered one; the difference shows in the traffic, which is much heavier for an old colony. The same nest in south Georgia should be treated, because waiting may only make it bigger. A yellowjacket nest found in October in north Georgia can often be left for frost. For you, this changes the advice. These super nests are what make the news, and they are a Savannah, Valdosta and Albany problem more than a Rome or Kennesaw one.

The yellow-legged hornet: what Georgians should know.

What it does: hovers in front of a honey bee hive and snatches foragers in midair, which is why beekeepers spot it first. What it looks like: a dark hornet, smaller than a European hornet, with a mostly black body, an orange band near the tail and yellow tips on the legs. In the most recent year reported, nearly 200 nests were removed, and activity now reaches inland to Statesboro and south of Fort Stewart. Five active nests were removed in the Wilmington Island area that first year. In summer 2023 the Georgia Department of Agriculture announced that yellow-legged hornets were seen hawking beehives near Savannah, according to Clemson's summary of the response. The right answer is yes. Ask any company you hire whether they report suspected yellow-legged hornet nests. A private pro can treat a nest on your property, but the state wants the location because they are tracking the spread and trying to hold the line. What to do: photograph it if you can do so safely and report it to the state agriculture department. Nests start low in shrubs in spring and move high into trees by summer, where they can be basketball-sized and hard to see through leaves.

What the first visit looks like at a Georgia house.

For a ground nest, they come back at dusk, puff dust into the hole and leave it open. They rule out honey bees and, near the coast, note anything that looks like a yellow-legged hornet. They check porch ceilings, shutters and deck rails for paper wasp combs, and scan the pines and oaks over the yard for a gray hornet nest. They walk the lawn and beds looking for the ground entrance, then check the foundation weep holes, crawlspace vents, the top of the brick veneer and the soffit line for wasps entering a gap. A pro working a Georgia call starts outside, usually in the late afternoon when yellowjackets are flying hardest. Ask before they start how many nests the price covers, whether sealing is included, whether they remove the comb from a wall, and what happens if the colony turns out to be an overwintered super nest that needs demolition. Paper wasp combs get sprayed and scraped on the spot. For a reachable hornet nest, an aerosol or dust at the opening after dark and a bag the next morning. For a wall void, same dust at the entrance, then a return visit a few days later to confirm the traffic has stopped before the gap is sealed.

What moves the price of wasp removal in Georgia.

A super nest that survived a Savannah winter can take multiple visits, heavy protective gear and a contractor to open the wall or shed, and the comb has to come out or it rots and draws beetles and roaches. A first-year nest in August is a normal job. Size is the second. A colony behind brick veneer or in a crawlspace wall in Augusta needs dust, a waiting period, a second trip and sealing, and the price climbs with each piece. A yellowjacket nest in the ground is a dust and a return check. A paper wasp comb on a porch ceiling in Athens is a quick job. Location of the nest is the first lever. Get all of that before comparing numbers. And distance matters in the rural stretches between Albany, Valdosta and Rome, where a trip charge is common. Count matters on long porches in Atlanta, Marietta and Smyrna, where one quote may cover a single comb and another covers the whole roofline. A bald-faced hornet nest 30 feet up needs a lift, a pole system, or the honest recommendation to wait for a freeze, which in north Georgia is a few weeks and in south Georgia may never come. Height matters in a state full of tall pines. That is a different quote entirely.

Renters, landlords and who pays in Georgia.

Read the lease before arguing. A small paper wasp comb on a patio umbrella or a back deck is grayer, and some leases put minor exterior pests on the tenant after move-in. A tenant who finds yellowjackets streaming from a weep hole in Columbus or a hornet nest over the front door of a duplex in Augusta should report it with a photo the day it is found. Ground nests, wall-void nests and roofline hornet nests fall to the landlord in most Georgia rentals, because they are conditions of the property that a tenant did not cause and cannot safely fix. For property managers with multiple units in Atlanta or Savannah, a spring walk of the foundations and porch lines in April, when every colony is one queen, is the cheapest wasp control there is. A landlord who is told about a ground nest by the mailbox and does nothing is carrying that risk. University of Kentucky Entomology estimates about two million Americans are hypersensitive to stinging-insect venom, roughly one household in a hundred. What tips the balance toward urgency is the location of the nest and who lives there.

Simple ways to keep wasps away

• Walk the lawn and mulch beds in May looking for a single yellowjacket entering a hole, and mark it before the colony grows.
• Fill abandoned vole and chipmunk burrows along the foundation with soil in early spring.
• Screen crawlspace vents and weep holes with fine mesh that still lets air through.
• Caulk the gap where brick veneer meets the soffit and around outdoor light fixtures.
• Keep trash and recycling in lidded cans from August through October when yellowjackets scavenge.
• Check porch ceilings, shutters and deck rails every couple of weeks from April on and knock down single-queen combs.
• Pick up fallen figs, pears and pecans, which feed fall yellowjackets across middle and south Georgia.
• Trim pine and oak limbs that overhang decks so a bald-faced hornet nest cannot form over the seating.
• If you keep bees near the coast, watch the hive entrance for hovering hornets and report them.

Questions people ask

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