“I just frantically freaked out, and I ran out, shut the door and locked the exterminator in the room.”

One of our own producers had yellowjackets build a nest in her walls — and the weather could be the reason why.

Madie Homan said it started with a “tippy tapping” sound in one of the guest bedrooms.

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“But all of a sudden I see some drywall just kind of like tumble down, and I see inside there's a yellowjacket literally eating away at the ceiling,” Homan said.

Here’s all you need to know as a homeowner to save yourself the trouble of what she describes as a pretty terrible experience.

How to identify a yellowjacket and if you have a problem with them

Is that a bee? Or a yellowjacket?

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The difference for us is a big one. Bumblebees are relatively harmless and honeybees should be protected, but yellowjackets and other wasps are much more aggressive.

Yellowjackets have yellow and black coloring just like bumblebees, but those colors are a bit brighter; they’re smooth instead of fuzzy and have a noticeable tapered “waist.” They're closer to the size and shape of honeybees, but honeybees are brown and yellow.

It’s not uncommon to see yellowjackets out and about, but if you notice several of them and especially in the same location over several days, it’s definitely time to take a closer look at whether they’re setting up a nest in your walls.

The yellowjacket colony lifecycle and what it means for you

Yellowjackets are primarily a “cavity-dwelling species.” That means that while they can build nests outside, they actually prefer finding a home inside buildings, in places like walls and attics.

They build their homes by chewing wood fiber or drywall into a pulp that they then form into papery nests.

They start to pop up around March, and colonies peak in August and September. This is when you’ll start to really notice them buzzing around your area.

The colonies last only one season, though. Come winter, when it gets cold, they all die out. The sole survivors will be any newly mated queens, which leave the nest to hibernate for the winter. In spring, they will build an entirely new nest — they don’t reuse the old one.

Weather's influence on yellowjackets

Weather patterns directly influence how quickly a colony grows and how aggressively they behave around your house.

• Warm, dry springs speed up nesting: Consistent warmth early in the year allows the new queen to forage successfully without freezing.
• Late summer droughts trigger aggression: Hot, dry weather kills off natural food sources like flowers and insects. That’s when they turn to human spaces for moisture and sugars, aggressively hovering around trash cans and outdoor dining areas.
• Heavy rainfall can drive them indoors: Sudden torrential downpours can flood outdoor nests and ground-dwelling colonies. This forces surviving yellowjackets to look for higher, drier spaces — like your home.
• The first hard freeze ends the cycle: A sustained frost (below 32°F) kills off the entire worker force and the old queen.

So, you have a yellowjacket problem — what do you do about it?

The simple answer: call an expert. 

They’ll have the protective gear to keep them safe from stings, tools like insecticide to kill them off, the knowledge of where to find them and the ability to evaluate the extent of your problem.

It’s not something you can really DIY, and you don’t want to get hurt in the process.

“The exterminator used his spray to kill them, and now there is still a nest left behind in the wall,” Homan shared in her experience.

She said as a homeowner, you then have a choice of leaving it there or getting it removed and fixing the damage to the wall in the process — she’s choosing the latter.

Content writer Ada Wood enjoys exploring the stories that science and climate teach us about our natural world and how it influences the way we live in it.