11 Easy Tips to Get Rid of Yellow Jackets

Yellow jackets have to be nature’s most annoying creation. Seemingly designed for the sole purpose of ruining picnics, al fresco suppers, and indeed any outdoor garden activity, these little critters are a real nuisance. They are at peak nuisance level during the fall and will spend the spring and summer building up their numbers when fruit begins to fall and rot. But don’t despair. If you want to know how to locate the yellow jacket nest and also know how to get rid of yellow jackets naturally when the nest is located, there are plenty of home remedies that are just as effective as chemical insecticides and much kinder to other insects and pollinators.

How to locate a yellow jacket nest 

First and foremost, you need to find the nest. Yellow jacket traps do work and will control the problem, but unless you deal with the nest, it is a war you will not win.

If you’re lucky, locating the nest is a breeze.Yellow jackets build their nests in a variety of places with different species preferring different structures. Yellow jackets often build using wood pulped up to form a paper mache like substance.

The nests can be in trees, shrubs, in sheltered areas such as inside man-made structures, and in tree stumps, etc. These nests tend to be easy to spot as a structure is clearly visible. Yet, many yellow jacket nests are located underground and if the nest you are trying to locate is one of these, there is no obvious structure. All you have to go on is the hope of catching a glimpse of a yellow jacket entering the nest.

So how do you find a yellow jacket nest that is not clearly visible?

Fortunately, there are few more thorough methods than just trying to follow a yellow jacket in the vain hope that it is going back to the nest. More often than not, they will be moving on to the next scavenging project, leading you (quite literally) up the garden path.

Finding a yellow jacket nest using jello

First technique is to put some bait out. Jello or something sweet is fine. The yellow jackets will happily gorge themselves. Pay close attention to the wasps that leave. Their direction of travel will always be straight back towards the nest when full. Try and follow them if you can. If this pointer is not enough to locate the nest, move the bait 10 yards towards the nest in the right direction. Repeat the process until you find the nest.

Finding a yellow jacket nest using flour

Second technique to locate the nest is to use flour. Sprinkle some flour on individuals that you find. If you can, blow the flour on using bellows or puff as you want the little critter to be able to fly which it won’t be able to do if it has its own body weight of flour on its back. Follow the yellow jacket straight afterward as it will be heading back home to clean itself up.