Deal with any nests early in the season. Keep food and sugary drinks covered, and manage your trash. And if the problem is already out of hand, know you can always book a treatment ahead of a big event.
Nothing clears a patio faster than wasps working the dessert table. By late summer, when the Hamptons social calendar is packed, wasp colonies are at their largest and their most aggressive. The timing is not great.
Understanding wasp behavior helps you plan around it. Early in the summer, colonies have one goal: feed the young. They do this by hunting insects.
As the season wears on, the colony peaks in size and the workers shift toward sugars and proteins. That’s why wasps have a bad habit of crashing barbecues and pool parties.
If it’s already mid-to-late season, your best bet is to reduce attractants. Sweet drinks, ripe fruit, and open garbage are wasp magnets. Keep dishes covered until serving and put lids on cans and cups (wasps crawl into open soda cans from time to time, and mouth stings hurt exactly as much as they sound like they do). Keep trash bins closed and away from seating.
The best thing you can do is control nests, although that has to happen earlier in the season. A nest tucked under the eaves or inside a shed can put dozens of workers near your event. Walk the property in early summer and look for the start of nests, when they're small and easier to deal with. Knocking down a golf-ball-sized-nest in June is fairly easy. Knocking down a basketball-sized one in August is a genuinely dangerous thing to do solo.
For a significant event, a property treatment ahead of time reduces the wasp activity along with the mosquitoes. A special-event spray a day or two before is a common move for weddings and large parties in the area.
One more thing: if wasps do show up, stay calm and don’t swat. That only makes them mad. Most are scouting for food and will move on once the easy pickings are taken.
If you're tired of wasps hijacking your summer gatherings, Mosquito Squad of the Hamptons can help. Mosquito Squad treats the areas where wasps nest and forage and offers special-event sprays ahead of big occasions. Pair with barrier treatment for an up to 90% reduction in mosquito activity for 21 days at a time.
