3 yellow jacket/waspy things in the house in 2 days

what to do what to do 

yuck.

Let them out. See if they may have a nest nearby. We had one in the door jamb.

And try not to be afraid. They don't attack often. And if they do, you'll probably be all right.

I my mom and dad's home, we grew up with no screens in the house. We had an apple tree growing next to the house. Every spring I would wake up to the silly bees buzzing around my head and I would cover my head in my blanket. Mom and dad never thought much of it and sure enough after the apple blossoms were gone so were the bees. Dad always assured us if we just stayed calm and didn't swat at them they would go away. And they always  did! I never got stung.

Or, you could get what we have: A device that looks like a tennis racket but delivers an electric shock, killing the wasp. I am definitely in favor of protecting honey bees, but wasps and yellow jackets get no quarter here. We have had about a dozen in the past few days, and I show no mercy. Of course, I have a sensitivity to the venom, so I really can't afford to be stung.

We had something similar, years ago. It turned out that wasps/hornets had made a nest inside the chimney. Even though I had the damper closed, they would crawl through it towards the light they were seeing. I remember that, every afternoon at about 2 or 3 o'clock, I'd find hornets buzzing around the living room.  And I am a coward when I'm in an enclosed space with a stinging insect!

We had an exterminator destroy the nest, and then installed a protective cap over the chimney opening with a fine mesh to keep birds/squirrels/wasps out of the chimney. (While we were trying to figure out what was happening, I tapes a plastic shower curtain to the fireplace opening in the living room to keep the nasty critters out of the room - wasps and hornets are the only critters I'm really not happy to interact with!

We know they are building nests around the chimney from our wood-burning fireplace, but not sure how they are entering the house. We keep spraying and knocking down the nests, but they keep coming back. *sigh* I guess we need to install something up there to keep them out.

Not that you should endure excessive danger of being stung, but wasps are just as important as bees are in the ecology.

There are fake wasp nests you can buy to install where ever you have a problem. I guess they are territorial and won't go where another nests appears to be.

Tom_Reingold said:

Not that you should endure excessive danger of being stung, but wasps are just as important as bees are in the ecology.

 Really? How so? (sincere question)

PeggyC, you can google it, but there was a recent discovery about how they don't just pollinate. They also spread essential yeast which is vital for grapes and other plants.

Seriously, I think it's fair to assume that every type of organism serves a function. Except for mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes feed the bats.

When the wasps and I are outside, I will happily live and let live. When those things come into my house, all bets are off! If they are lucky, my husband is home and shoos them away. If they are unlucky enough to be here with me alone, no way!