It's hard to stay indoors on a sunny summer day in Mid-Michigan, unless you have a hornets nest in your yard.
Pest-removal services have been busier than normal this year with calls about stinging insects.
Rock’s Free Yellow Jacket and Hornet Removal service have been pretty busy so far this year, responding to calls of people hoping to have hords of unwanted insects taken away.
“A couple of days ago I had to about 25 voicemail messages,” said Travis Rockafellow who works with this father, Lee, removing insects.
Lee is a retired teacher with a passion of science and Travis is a middle school teacher during the fall and winter.
“The last few years have been very busy because the winters have been mild and the queens have not been killed,” said Lee. “so we have a large population of hornets, wasps, yellow jackets and all of which we collect.”
The team doesn’t kill the insects they trap, instead they’re collected and frozen.
“We provide them to a laboratory to collect the venom from the insects to use in immunotherapy,” said Lee.
The process is fairly simple. You suit up, hoses are hooked up to a vacuum, and insects are sucked into a trap.
Vacuums will usually run for an hour to make sure all insects have been trapped.
Pillow cases are used for a hornets paper nest.
Hornet calls are usually taken care of at night when most hornets are back at the nest.
“We have to instantly put them on dry ice, freeze them, and get them back to the freezers,” said Travis. “They can't die on the spot because the venom will go bad.”
If you summer turns inundated with these unwanted flying insects there is no need to panic, just simply leave them alone.
“We've found tennis rackets, golf balls, all kinds of things in the nests which do not make them very happy,” said Lee. “That's when they get aggressive, otherwise they just really go about their business.”
August and September are the busiest months for Rock’s Free Yellow Jacket and Hornet Removal service.
If you do plan to give them a call, do not use any type of spray on the insects before crews arrive. The spray will ruin the venom.
You need to know what you're dealing with if you're going to try to remove bugs yourself.
Bees can build a hive just about anywhere but they rarely do so indoors unless they have open access to an attic or crawlspace.
The good news if you're going to try to remove one yourself is that honeybees can only sting once.
The bad news is the hive may contain 50,000 bees.
It's best to call a beekeeper to remove it so they can preserve the hive.
Bumblebees and carpenter bees are unlikely to bother you unless you try to handle them.
The various types of wasps are more aggressive and more dangerous.
Both hornets and yellow jackets are types of wasps.
Their nests are usually smaller than a bee hive.
They can and will sting multiple times and will attack in number when their nest is disturbed.
It's dangerous to kill a hornet outdoors because killing them releases a pheromone that signals others to attack.
If you decide to spray a nest you should do it at night when they're all inside and less active.
Don't stand close to the nest when you spray because some of them may come out looking to attack.
