Paper Wasps, Yellowjackets and Bald-Faced Hornets in Georgia
By Mark Sargent, President of High Priority Pest Services · Updated October 7, 2026
All three sting, all three are called hornets by somebody, and the treatment for each is different enough that guessing is a bad idea. Identifying which one you have is mostly a matter of looking at the nest rather than the insect — the nests are unmistakable once you know what you are looking at, and you can usually do it from a safe distance.
Identify It by the Nest
- Paper wasp. An open, umbrella-shaped comb hanging from a single stalk, with the cells visible from below. Usually under eaves, deck rails, porch ceilings, in grill covers and mailboxes. Colonies stay small — often a few dozen. The least aggressive of the three, and they will generally leave you alone unless you crowd the nest.
- Yellowjacket. A large paper nest fully enclosed and hidden — in the ground in an old rodent burrow, in a wall void, under a shed floor, in a compost pile or landscape timber. You often cannot see the nest at all, only a steady stream of insects going in and out of one hole. Colonies reach thousands by late summer. Aggressive when disturbed, and they sting repeatedly.
- Bald-faced hornet. Despite the name this is a yellowjacket. Its nest is the gray papery football hanging in a tree, shrub or under an eave, fully enclosed with a single opening near the bottom. Black and white rather than yellow. Very defensive of the nest.
Late Summer Is When People Get Hurt
Colonies build all season and are at their largest in late summer and early fall, exactly when people are outdoors and doing yard work. That is also when yellowjackets shift their diet toward sugars and start showing up at cookouts, garbage cans and hummingbird feeders, which is why they feel like a sudden problem in August when they have actually been building since spring.
The genuinely dangerous scenario in Georgia is mechanical. A ground nest hit with a mower, a string trimmer along a fence line, or a bush hog on acreage produces hundreds of stings in seconds. If you work property, walk it first and watch for insects funneling in and out of one point in the ground.
Things Not to Do
- Do not seal a wall-void yellowjacket nest from the outside. This is the most common serious mistake. Blocked from their entrance, they chew inward toward the light and the warmth and come out inside the house. The nest has to be treated first, then sealed.
- Do not use gasoline or fire on a ground nest. People still do this. It contaminates soil, it does not reliably reach the colony, and it puts you standing over an opening you have just enraged.
- Do not treat in the middle of the day. Foragers are out, so you leave a large share of the colony alive and returning to a nest that now smells wrong.
- Do not stand directly over a ground nest opening, and do not use a flashlight held at your body if you are working at dusk. They orient toward light.
When It Can Wait and When It Cannot
A small paper wasp nest under an eave, well away from doors and walkways, is genuinely fine to leave alone. Paper wasps are predators of caterpillars and other garden pests, and a nest nobody walks past is not a problem worth treating.
It becomes a job when the nest is near a door, a play area, a walkway or a deck people use; when it is a ground nest anywhere someone mows or works; when it is in a wall or soffit void; when it is a bald-faced hornet nest within reach of a used space; or when anyone on the property has a known sting allergy. In that last case the calculation changes entirely and it is not worth handling yourself at any size.
What We Do About Them
Hornet and wasp extermination covers nest treatment and removal, including ground nests and nests in wall and soffit voids where the sealing has to happen in the right order. We treat at the times of day that actually reach the colony rather than the foragers. Ongoing prevention — treating the eave and soffit lines where paper wasps start nests each spring — is part of the Priority Pest Management Plan.
If you have acreage, barns or outbuildings and you are about to start clearing, it is worth having the property looked at first. That is easier than the alternative.
If pests return between scheduled visits, so do we, at no extra charge. We are licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and serve central and eastern Georgia.
Need a Nest Gone?
Call or text High Priority Pest Services at (470) 474-2847. Tell us what you are seeing and where, and we will tell you what is likely driving it. Service is available within 24 hours, and our work is backed by the High Priority Promise: if pests return between scheduled visits, so do we, at no extra charge.
Schedule Pest Service
Tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours. Office hours are Mon–Sun, 8AM–6PM — and we’re available 24/7 for urgent problems, so call (470) 474-2847 if it can’t wait.
Where we treat this
High Priority treats this pest across the Lake Country, including Eatonton, Lake Oconee, Greensboro, Madison and Milledgeville. See all areas we serve, our current prices and the Georgia pest calendar.