Keep Yellow Jackets Away from Your Home This Summer

Got bugs and insects this summer? If you are looking for remedies geared toward insect control in Alaska, read on! Here are a few natural ways keep yellow jackets away from your home this summer.

Plant herbs

Some herbs work extraordinarily well at repelling yellow jackets and other pesky insects. Plant herbs near outside hangout areas or spread these herb leaves on your outdoor tabletops:

• Lemongrass: Lemongrass is a popular herb found in many home gardens. This herb repels yellow jackets and other insects, including mosquitoes, and lends its wonderful flavor to foods.
• Thyme: Thyme smells lovely and tastes great in cooking, but it’s also a tried and true yellow jacket deterrent. This perennial plant is easy to keep alive and maintain, as long as it is planted in full sun and you don’t overwater it.
• Spearmint: Easy to grow and good smelling, spearmint is a long-used go-to natural yellow jacket repellent. Spearmint spreads as it grows, so pick a spot in your garden where it can go crazy. Or, plant it in a pot to avoid invasive growth, which you can then move to your outdoor dining table as needed to deter insects.

Fresh scents

You can also try keeping away insects with some of the fresh scents you love:

• Cucumber slices: Why spray harsh and toxic chemicals around your patio to keep yellow jackets away when you can use fresh cucumbers instead? Simply cut a fresh cucumber into slices and place them in a single layer on an aluminum dish. Set the plate of cucumbers on your patio and enjoy your day. The cucumber reacts with the aluminum, giving off a chemical scent that’s undetectable to humans but unappealing to yellow jackets.
• Dryer sheets: Dryer sheets can be used in many applications. Of course, they help banish laundry static cling, but they also keep yellow jackets away! Try leaving scented dryer sheets around the patio table this summer.

Homemade traps

Some people have successfully deterred yellow jackets with homemade traps. It couldn’t hurt to experiment with these ideas yourself:

• Sugar water wasp traps: Sugar water is irresistible to yellow jackets and wasps. Hang sugar water traps in areas where these insects like to gather. The goal is to attract the critters to fly into the container, from which they can’t escape.
• Meat lures: A meat trap involves hanging a piece of meat over a container of soapy water. The yellow jackets eat, then drop into the water and drown.

Essential oils

Most essential oil scents are pleasant to humans, but not to wasps and yellow jackets:

• Peppermint oil: Yellow jackets are not fond of mint-based herbs like spearmint and peppermint. The great thing about peppermint oil is that it naturally repels all sorts of pests, including yellow jackets, wasps, flies and spiders.
• Essential oil blend: A mix of different essential oils can work well against yellow jackets. A known mixture that works is a combination of clove, geranium and lemongrass essential oils.

If you need professional yellow jacket removal in Alaska, call Pied Piper Pest Control right away!

Categorised in: Insect Control, Yellow Jackets

This post was written by Writer