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Stinging Insects
Exterminating Stinging Insects in New York City Homes and Businesses
Stinging insects should be removed carefully from your home or business because they can be dangerous and will fly angrily toward you once they see you attacking their hives or nests. In exterminating stinging insects in New York City and New Jersey, our pest control company is what you need. Contact us today; we offer free service quotations.
Yellowjacket Wasps
The population of yellowjackets and other social wasps becomes large and noticeable in late summer. Yellowjacket wasps are commonly called bees, and they build paper nests similar to hornets, but in the ground, log, landscape timber, building wall, or attic. Nests around your home increase the risk of a bee sting, which needs treatment.
Carpenter Bees
Carpenter bees look similar to bumblebees, but their abdomen’s upper surface is bare and shiny black. Bumblebees have hairy abdomens with some yellow marks. Despite their similar appearance, carpenter bees and bumblebees are quite different.
Behavior of Carpenter Bees
Male carpenter bees are aggressive, often hovering in front of people around their nests. However, they are pretty harmless because they don’t have stingers. On the other hand, female carpenter bees can inflict a painful sting but seldom will unless they are molested or handled. Bumblebees usually nest in the ground, whereas carpenter bees tunnel into wood to lay their eggs. They prefer bare, unpainted, or weathered softwood, especially cedar, redwood, pine, and cypress.
Carpenter bees overwinter as adults in the woods within abandoned nest tunnels. They usually emerge in April and May. Carpenter bees drill entrance holes that are perfectly round and about half an inch in diameter. Painted or pressure-treated wood is much less susceptible to their attacks.
Where Do Carpenter Bees Usually Nest?
Carpenter bees commonly nest in the following sites:
Bumblebees
Bumblebees are big, fuzzy insects recognized by almost everyone by their robust shape and black and yellow coloration. The common species are 3/4 inches or more. Bumblebees usually nest on the ground in a deserted mouse or bird nest. They occasionally nest in cavities within a wall or the clothes drier vent.
In situations where the vicinity of a bumblebee nest can be avoided, the preferred management option is to leave them alone until they die in the fall. However, bumblebee nests are often found in yards, woodpiles, flower beds, or walls in high-traffic places, where the threat of stings is high.
Trapping bumblebees is not practical, and exclusion techniques may not solve the problem. Instead, using insecticides to poison bee colonies is the method of choice for controlling them.
Brown Recluse Spider
Adult brown recluse spiders are about 1/4 to 1/2 inches long, soft-bodied, yellowish-tan to dark brown, and have long, delicate grayish to dark brown legs covered with dark, short hairs. Their leg span is about the size of a half dollar. Their distinguishing characteristics include having three pairs of eyes arranged in a semicircle on the forepart of their head. They also have a violin-shaped, dark marking immediately behind their semicircle of eyes, with the neck of the violin pointing towards the bulbous abdomen.
Systemic Symptoms of Brown Recluse Venom
The severity of an individual’s reaction to the brown recluse spider’s bite depends on the amount of injected venom and individual sensitivity to it. A bitten person may experience immediate, delayed, or no effects. Some individuals may not be aware of the bite for 2-8 hours, whereas others feel a stinging sensation followed by intense pain for severe reactions. Usually, a small white blister appears at the bite site, surrounded by a large swollen and congested area.
A victim may experience a systemic reaction within 24-36 hours characterized by fever, restlessness, chills, joint pain, nausea, and weakness. The area will also enlarge, becoming inflamed and hard to the touch.
The brown recluse spider’s venom contains an enzyme that crushes cell membranes in the wound area, with the affected tissue gradually sloughing away, exposing underlying tissues. The bite site can erupt into a volcano lesion within 24 hours, leaving a hole in the flesh due to damaged, gangrenous tissue.
Recovering From a Brown Recluse Spider Bite
An open wound caused by a brown recluse spider bite may range from the size of an adult’s thumbnail to a hand’s span. The sunken, ulcerating sore may slowly heal within 6-8 weeks. Full recovery may take several months. Scarring may remain, so the victim may need plastic surgery and skin grafts to fix it.
Brown recluse spiders aren’t aggressive and bite only when handled, disturbed, or crushed. They are aptly named since they are reclusive creatures seeking and preferring seclusion.