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There are large populations of many species of stinging pests during warm weather, which may require a professional pest manager to control them effectively in a way that is safest for you, your family, your pets, and your environment.

Bumble Bees
Bumble bees are large black bees with yellow, orange and red markings and long stiff hair on their hind legs to carry pollen. They live in large underground colonies where they construct "combs" of several stories with cells to lay eggs, store pollen and nectar, and make honey. Only the queen survives the winter to start a new nest in the next year.

Bumble bees are very beneficial as pollinators. Their tongues are very long, and because of this they are the only insects that can pollinate certain red clovers. Though beneficial insects, they become pests when they attempt to nest in places such as rolled up rugs in garages and similar locations and will sting when disturbed.

Carpenter Bees
The most common eastern species of carpenter bees is about 1" long and closely resembles the bumble bee except the abdomen is black and shiny instead of at least partially covered with yellow hairs. The male has a yellow face and the female has a black face.
Carpenter bees ar not social insects and do not live in nests or colonies. Females prefer weathered and unpainted wood. Male carpenter bees tend to be territorial and can become aggressive. Males, however have no stinger. Females have a potent sting but it is rarely used.

Adults winter in abandoned nest tunnels. In the spring, survivors emerge and feed on nectar. A mated female may either reuse an old gallery, contruct a new one by lengthening an old gallery, bore a new one, or extend a gallery from a common entrance hole.

The female bores a circular hole, the diameter of her body, straight into the wood across the wood grain for a distance equal to her body length. Then the gallery takes a right-angle turn with the grain of the wood and parallel to the outer longitudinal surface. New galleries average 4-6" long, but galleries used by several bees may extend up to 10 feet.

The female lays a single egg at the closed end of the gallery in a mass of pollen and regurgitated nectar, then seals it off with a chewed wood-pulp plug making a cell. She repeats this process until a linear series of 5-6 cell is completed about 1 cell per day. Developmental time is about 36 days.

Hornets
Hornets are large sized wasps, usually with aerial nests. The European and the Baldfaced are common in Connecticut.

European hornets are very large, ¾" to 1" long, brown with yellow abdominal stripes and a pale face. They build large brownish-colored "paper carton" nests, sometimes as large as a basketball, which are often located in some protected area, like a wall void, an attic, or within branches of a bush. When their nest is in an exposed location, such as hanging from a tree branch or from the eave of a building, it is usually covered by several layers of brownish "paper carton."

Although mainly active in the daytime, workers (and males) do fly at night and may be attracted to lights. They are generally beneficial insects, feeding mainly on other insects, many of which are pests of our plants. By late summer, a mature colony may number 200 - 400 (up to 1,000). Only fertilized queens winterover.

Workers are protective of their nest and give a painful sting, sometimes repeatedly, if they or their nest are disturbed. In general, they are much less aggressive (even near their nest) than are baldfaced hornets.

Baldfaced Hornets (White Faced Hornets)
Baldfaced hornets are large black wasps 5/8" to ¾" long, with yellow markings and a mostly white face. They are social insects which live in aerial nests. The adults are represented by workers (which are sterile females), queens, and males (which come from unfertilized eggs) and usually appear in the late summer. Only inseminated females winterover in sheltered places.

In the spring the females use chewed-up cellulose to build a paper carton nest of several dozen cells covered by a paper envelope. Each cell contains one egg which was laid as the cell was constructed. After about 30 days, the first 5-7 workers emerge and shortly thereafter take over all the work except for egg laying. The nest will eventually consist of 3-5 rounded paper combs which are attached one below another, and are covered with a many-layered grayish-colored "paper carton". Nest size varies up to 3,500 cells in 5 combs but usually consists of less than 2,000 cells in 3-4 combs and contains 100-400 workers at its peak.

Later in the season, larger reproductive cells are built in which queens and males will be reared, though males are often reared in old worker cells. Newly emerged queens and males leave the nest and mate. Only inseminated queens hibernate and survive the winter. The founding queen, workers, and males all die.

The large grayish-colored "paper carton" aerial nests are constructed in shrubs at ground level to 66 feet or higher in trees. Nests may also be built on overhangs, utility poles, houses or sheds. At maturity, nests can be quite impressive with sizes of up to 14" in diameter and over 24" in length and usually hang in an exposed location such as from a tree. Adults are extremely protective of the nest and will sting repeatedly if disturbed.

Control of Stinging Insects
The first step in solving this problem is to clean up all spilled sweet materials thoroughly, placing all soda cans and anything similar in tightly-closed heavy plastic bags.

Wash and rinse all solid surfaces and food or drink serving utensils frequently. Keep all sweet foods, drinks and fruits covered until they are to be eaten.

Avoid wearing strong flower scented perfumes or colognes outdoors, and consider wearing a good insect repellent when outside.

A professional pest management company such as AAA American Exterminators II can do a survey to find out where they are and how big their population has become, provide immediate knock-down treatments if needed, advise on any sanitation improvements, and treat garbage areas and containers with a stronger, more persistent formulation of a properly labeled residual pesticide than you can purchase or use as a homeowner.

Control of stinging insects should be left to properly certified and equipped professionls to help the property owner plan and carry out an effective, efficient control program.