How to Get Rid of Wasps and Keep Them From Coming Back
Every summer we arrive at the summer house and I do a tour before anything else gets unpacked.
Not the excited kind. The cautious kind, where you walk around the perimeter of the house looking at corners and eaves and the gap around the air conditioning unit with a specific kind of dread that comes from experience. Because every year without fail the wasps have been busy while we were gone.
They find the sheltered spots. The corners nobody checks in winter. The space behind the air conditioning housing where it meets the wall. By June there’s always something somewhere and the question is just how many and how big.
Last summer it was three nests. One under the roof overhang near the front door, one in the corner of the backyard wall, and one that took me a while to find because it was tucked behind the external unit of the air conditioning where I couldn’t see it without getting uncomfortably close. That one I didn’t deal with myself.
And then of course there are the meals outside. Which is the whole point of having a summer house — eating in the backyard in the evening, taking your time over food, that particular kind of unhurried summer meal that doesn’t happen in the city. Except the wasps come to those too. They circle the food, land on the rim of glasses, make everyone tense in a way that is so specific and so annoying and so hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it. You’re not scared exactly. You’re just never quite relaxed.
Several summers of dealing with this and I’ve worked out what actually helps. Some of it is obvious. Some of it surprised me.
The tour you need to do when you arrive
Early morning. This matters more than most things I’ll say in this article.
Wasps are slow in the morning when it’s still cool. The nest is quieter, the colony less agitated, and you can get close enough to identify what you’re dealing with without the whole thing immediately becoming a crisis. Do the same walk at noon in August and you are doing it wrong.
Check every corner where a wall meets a roof. Check the underside of any overhang. Check around shutters that have been closed all winter because the gap between a closed shutter and the wall is exactly the kind of sheltered space they look for. The air conditioning unit outside — go around it, look at where it meets the wall, look at the housing itself. Gaps anywhere in the exterior of the house are worth checking if they’re sheltered from rain.
Write down what you find before you do anything about any of it. Dealing with one nest and not knowing about the one two metres away is how you get stung dealing with the second one.
Getting rid of the nests
Small nest, accessible, not inside anything enclosed — wasp spray after dark, direct into the entrance of the nest, long sleeves, face protected, know where you’re walking before you start because you don’t want to be navigating around garden furniture in the dark while agitated. One application usually does it for a small colony. Wait two days minimum before touching the nest.
Larger nest or anything inside an enclosed space like the gap in an air conditioning unit — call someone. I know this isn’t the answer people want but getting sprayed by a colony in a confined space because you tried to handle it yourself is significantly worse than the cost of a pest control visit. The nest behind our air conditioning unit I did not touch. I called someone. It was the right decision.
When the nest is dead and you remove it, put it straight into a sealed bag. And then spray the location with something peppermint-based because the spot carries pheromones that tell other wasps this was a successful nesting site. If you don’t treat the location you will find a new nest in the same spot next year. I know this because I didn’t do it the first year and found a new nest in the same corner the following June.
The air conditioning specifically
The gaps where the unit meets the wall are the problem. Before you leave at the end of summer, fill them with foam sealant. It takes twenty minutes and a tube that costs almost nothing and it genuinely makes a difference the following year. The foam degrades so check it annually and reseal where needed.
Mesh over any ventilation gaps in the housing itself — cut to size, fixed in place, keeps wasps out while still letting the unit breathe. This is the thing I wish someone had told me in year one.
The backyard meal problem
This one is less about elimination and more about making the table less interesting than whatever else is available.
Cover the food. Not occasionally, consistently. Mesh food covers are one of those things that seem fussy until you’ve had a wasp land on the chicken and then they seem completely reasonable. Keep drinks covered too — a wasp inside a glass you’re drinking from is an experience nobody needs and it happens more often than you’d think, especially with anything sweet.
Peppermint oil on a cotton ball placed somewhere near the table. Or diluted in water and sprayed on the table surface and chairs before you sit down. Wasps genuinely don’t like it and it smells considerably better than anything chemical. It evaporates so you reapply, especially if there’s been any wind.
A wasp trap placed away from the table, not near it. This is important. The trap attracts wasps so you want it pulling them toward a point that’s far from where you’re eating, not concentrating them in the general area of the food. We put ours at the far end of the backyard. Homemade version works fine, cut a plastic bottle in half, sugar water in the bottom half, invert the top half into it so they can get in and can’t get out.
The decoy nest thing. I was skeptical about this for a long time and then I tried it. A paper bag inflated and hung near the dining area, or an actual paper decoy nest you can buy. Wasps are territorial and won’t build near what looks like an existing colony. Doesn’t stop every wasp from flying through but it does seem to reduce the nesting ambitions in the immediate area. We have one near the back door and one near where we eat and the corner of the backyard wall that had a nest two years running has been clear since.
Why they keep coming
The bins. Unsealed bins near the house in summer are an open invitation and this is so obvious that I almost didn’t include it and yet the summer I had the worst wasp problem was also the summer the bin near the back door had a broken lid. Sweet-smelling food waste in summer heat. Of course they came.
Standing water. Any dish under a pot plant that collects water, any puddle that doesn’t drain, anything stagnant. Wasps need water and they’ll find whatever’s available.
Pet food left outside longer than necessary is protein and wasps want protein as much as they want sugar. Don’t leave it out.
And the old nest locations. Every single one needs to be treated before the following season because the pheromones left behind are a signal to new colonies that this was a good spot. Spray it, seal it if possible, hang a decoy nearby. The corner that had a nest this year will have one next year if you don’t do something about the location itself.
Before you leave at the end of summer
Seal every gap you found this year before you go. Foam sealant around the air conditioning unit, anything in the fascia boards, any crack in the exterior walls that could shelter something over winter. An hour of work in September is worth more than a morning of dealing with nests the following June.
Empty the bins completely and clean them and leave the lids off so they air out properly. A summer house left with even a small amount of food residue in the bins will have interest from wasps by the time spring arrives.
Take down any nests that are now dead and empty. A wasp nest left in place over winter signals to new swarms in spring that this location has been used successfully before.
Hang decoy nests on the exterior before you close the house. Leave them up through spring when new colonies are scouting for nesting sites.
A final thought
The summer house is worth protecting. The backyard in the evening, meals that go on longer than they should, the particular atmosphere of a summer place that you’ve been looking forward to since February.
Wasps try every year to make it less enjoyable than it should be.
They’re less successful at it now than they used to be. Not because I’ve found a perfect solution but because I understand the problem better and I do the things that actually help rather than the things that feel like doing something.
The tour when we arrive is shorter. The meals outside are mostly uninterrupted. That’s enough.
I hope this article helped you understand what you should do to keep them away. If you have any other ideas and you just wanna share your thoughts with us, feel free to comment down below!
Until next time,
Stay safe,
I’m Katerina Lithopoulou, co-creator of DIY Cozy Living. I’ve always loved the little things that make a space feel special. With a background in language and a passion for photography and cozy design, I enjoy turning everyday inspiration into simple ideas people can actually use.
My motto: “Cozy isn’t a trend — it’s a feeling.”
