What Types of Wasps Are Found Around Lewisville?

Have you ever seen a stinging insect in your yard and thought, "I wonder what that is?" It wouldn't be surprising. While wasps have a distinctive look to them, there is a wide variety of them in the world. This can make it difficult for you to protect yourself from being stung. Let's take a moment to look at a few wasps you might see in your Lewisville yard.

Social Wasps

The wasps you need to be most concerned about are social wasps. These are insects that protect their nests, gather together in a swarm, and chase you. When you combine this aggressive behavior with the fact that wasps can sting you several times without losing their stingers, it is clear to see how they can be a threat.

Paper Wasps — These wasps are the most common in our area. While not as aggressive as yellow jackets, they can be a threat. Paper wasps are usually a brownish red color but they may be yellow and black like a yellow jacket. You can tell the difference by looking at two characteristics.

• The legs of a paper wasp dangle. Yellow jackets tuck their legs up.
• The waist of a paper wasp is pinched. Yellow jackets have a fat waist.
• Three things you should know about paper wasps:
• Paper wasps prefer to create aerial nests.
• The nests of paper wasps are gray orbs of paper-like material.
• Nests can often be found under overhangs and in bushes. Be careful.

Yellow Jackets — These wasps are well known for their bad temperament. It isn't their fault though.

Yellow jackets just obey their instincts, and their instincts make them easily agitated by anything they perceive to be a threat.

What Yellow Jackets Look Like:

These are small, fat wasps with a distinct black and yellow coloration. Their wings are attached to each side, just above their front legs.

3 things you should know about a yellow jacket:

• Yellow jackets prefer to create nests in ground holes and other voids.
• These wasps are more likely to create a nest in your walls than a paper wasp.
• The vibration of a lawnmower can set these insects off.

Bald-Faced Hornets — All hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. So, bald-faced hornets are wasps. One of the reasons they're called hornets is that they are large. They range in size from ½ to ⅝ of an inch long.

What Bald-Faced Hornets Look Like:

Most often, these hornets are white and black with a white pattern on their faces. From a distance, you might mistake one of these insects for a yellow jacket because of its markings, but its white coloration and size helps to remove any confusion.

Three things you should know about bald-faced hornets:

• Bald-faced hornets prefer to create large aerial nests.
• They often have sentries flying around outside of their nests.
• They create nests in protected locations such as overhangs, trees, shrubs, and inside the voids of sheds and houses.