Wasp nest in mailbox in Wall is a real sting risk - Wasp & bee control in Wall NJ
Challenge
What's in your mailbox?
I was sent to a home in Wall where wasps had taken up residence, of all places, inside a customer's mailbox. Until I arrive on site and personally inspect any areas of concern, as a pest control technician, I don’t know the true level of infestation to determine the best solution for the customer. With this wasp infestation, while inspecting the mailbox, I saw that the customer's mail was still inside. Since I could not treat the wasps without contaminating the mail, the mail had to be removed before any chemical applications. For a minute, I was hesitant about taking out the mail myself. I’m no legal expert, but I do know that mail tampering is a federal crime, and it’s probably not a good idea to remove someone else’s mail. However, I clarified with the homeowner that I needed to take out her mail to treat the mail box. Otherwise, the mail would be contaminated. With her permission, I carefully removed the mail and immediately handed it to her. She had told me that she knew she had mail deliveries, but there was no way she was going to get the mail herself with wasps hovering inside. I didn’t blame her one bit. Wasps are very territorial about their nests and they are protective of their colony. They won’t hesitate to sting if someone intrudes on their nest. Unfortunately, most wasp stings happen to innocent people who inadvertently come too close to the nest or knock it down by accident. I don’t think the postal delivery worker knew that there were wasps nesting inside the box since he did not notify the customer or leave the mail elsewhere. Regardless, I’m glad I was there to handle this problem for everyone involved. I don’t want to see either a homeowner or a devoted postal employee receive painful wasp stings just because a queen wasp thought a mailbox was a good place for her to set up shop. There may be worse places for a wasp to build a nest, but inside a mailbox ranks right up there!
Solution
After removing the mail, I inspected the inside of the mailbox. Sure enough, paper wasps were building their nest on the top interior portion of the box.Paper wasps have the slender “wasp” waist and long legs that most people associate with wasps. There are other common wasps like yellow jackets and baldfaced hornets. Regardless of the type of wasp, all of them are nasty insects that won’t hesitate to sting if they perceive you as a threat.
Paper wasps may be brown, reddish brown, or black and yellow, and are named because of how they construct their nests. They gather fibers from plant material, which they mix with their saliva, to make nests that look like they’re made from a brown or grey “papery” material. These wasps build a small paper nest with a single tier of open cells to lay their eggs and rear their young. The nest has no external covering and resembles an umbrella (in fact, these wasps are sometimes called umbrella wasps). These nests are commonly attached by a short stalk to some structure — as this Wall homeowner learned, even the inside of a mailbox can be used as a nesting site!
I first used an aerosol spray on the wasps. This knock-down insecticide uses pyrethrins made from chrysanthemum flowers to stun and kill the wasps by targeting their nervous system (see photos of the dead and dying wasps in and around the mailbox). With the wasps no longer a threat, I could safely remove the nest, making sure that the entire nest was removed with no residual vestiges remaining. Once completed, the mailbox was usable once again. The homeowner could now safely access her mail without risking a painful sting!
With the nest removed and the wasps gone, my job was done. The homeowner was grateful that she could once venture out to her mailbox once again. Also, even though I never had a chance to meet the postman who delivered here, I’m glad that I saved him from any wasp stings as well. I’m sure he would have thanked me.
