RVA Yellow Jacket specializes in the live, LOW COST removal of live, UNSPRAYED yellowjacket and hornet nests– without the use of chemicals!
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Chemical-Free Removal
After setting up a mutually agreeable day and time, we arrive at your destination clothed in a full protective bee suit, gloves and boots. We place a small vacuum powered trap next to the entrance of the nest. Next, we disturb the nests and vacuum the insects as they come out to defend their colony. We continue to vacuum at the entrance of the nest for up to an hour in order to collect most of the foraging workers as they return home.
Once we have collected the live insects, we remove the nest itself along with the paper combs and tidy up the remaining debris. We take the comb home to feed neighborhood chickens--who love the insect larvae. Nothing is wasted.
All that remains is a $100 service fee using Venmo or Cash App or cash for removals within a 5 mile radius of our Lakeside location. $125- $200 for removals further out. There is also an addional charge of $50 each for the removal of multiple nests.
We only collect *UNSPRAYED* nests!
Insects that are treated with any pesticides or chemicals of ANY sort are not allowed for use in human allergy immunotherapy. Therefore, we will not collect insect nests that have been sprayed, drenched, or where an extermination has been attempted. We will not attempt to remove the nest or insects if we arrive and find this to be the case. The customer is still responsible for the service charge.
So please, leave the nest alone and call us for removal.
Bee kind to Honey bees!
In addition to removing hornets and yellow jackets, we are also beekeepers and have a genuine affection for these often misunderstood pollinators. If you ever happen upon a honeybee swarm or an established honey bee hive, DO NOT SPRAY IT! Give us a call and we can refer you to a local beekeeper for live rescue or extraction.
We do not remove Bumblebees! ...Or any other solitary bee species.
Unless disturbed, most bumblebee species are not aggressive and stings from them are rare. Bumblebees have a very short annual lifecycle, typically between two and three months. Along with a number of other species, such as Leafcutter, Mining, Mason, Sweat, and Carpenter bees, they are amazing and vital pollinators! For this reason, we do not remove bumble bee nests. Check out this guide to view a few of the most common "yellow stripey things" to help identify your particular insect.
Central Virginia Hornets and Wasps
Eastern Yellow jacket wasps (Vespula maculifrons) and (Vespula squamosa), European hornets ( Vespa crabro), and Bald faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) are all common to Central Virginia and have a similar life cycle. These varieties of yellow jacket wasps are ground-dwelling while the hornets make their nests above ground---most often in trees or bushes, but sometimes on or in buildings.
Each Spring a fertile queen begins the initial structure of a nest by chewing wood and adding in saliva to make a quick-drying pulp to create cells for depositing eggs. Other cells are then added to the sides of the first and an envelope is built around the first group of cells which form a miniature comb. The queen then lays eggs in these cells, which will become workers upon emergence. As soon as the workers emerge from their larval state, the nest begins to enlarge rapidly. To make room for more cells, the inner layers of the envelope are rechewed and used to make more envelope layers outside.
A colony consists of three types of individuals in a social group: queens, workers, and males (drones). Until the first offspring emerge as adults, the lone queen lays eggs, forages for food, cares for the young, and defends the nest. The nest can quickly develop with succeeding generations of workers.
Only worker and queen wasps and hornets are capable of stinging and can sting repeatedly. Hornets (but not yellow jackets) can also squirt or spray venom from the stinger into the eyes of nest intruders --which is quite painful. This is a response to outside noise and vibration, which is percieved as a threat to the colony. Males (drones) have no stinger. Their sole purpose is to mate with a virgin queen in the Fall to insure the continuation of the speciies.
In our area wasp and hornet colonies typically peak around August or September. When late Fall arrives, the colony dies and some of the mated queens survive to begin a new colony the next nesting cycle in the early Spring. The original queen dies along with any remaining workers and drones.