WHAT CAN YOU DO TO ABOUT CONTRA COSTA INSPECTION REPORT PREVENT YELLOWJACKET MOSQUITO & VECTOR YELLOWJACKET PROBLEMS? CONTROL DISTRICT A District employee has responded to CONTROL You can help reduce food and water available to Protecting Public Health Since 1927 your service request and investigated yellowjackets by: Early in the 1900s, Northern California suffered the pest problem. Tightly covering garbage containers through epidemics of encephalitis and malaria, and ¥ severe outbreaks of saltwater mosquitoes. At times, TREATMENT Properly maintaining compost piles ¥ parts of Contra Costa County were considered YES NO ____ nest needs to be marked ¥ Tightly covering can and bottle recycling bins uninhabitable resulting in the closure of waterfront areas and schools during peak mosquito seasons. Not leaving pet food outside ____ not a ground-nest ¥ Recreational areas were abandoned and Realtors ¥ Placing pheromone traps in early spring to had trouble selling homes. The general economy ____ not yellowjackets capture queens suffered. As a result, residents established the Contra Costa Mosquito Abatement District which began REMARKS: ______service in 1927. HOW TO AVOID GETTING STUNG ______Do NOT disturb the nest Today, the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector ¥ Control District continues to protect public health DonÕt go barefoot ______¥ with environmentally sound techniques, reliable and ¥ DonÕt swat with your hands efficient services, as well as programs to combat emerging diseases, all while preserving and/or AVOID TREATED AREA FOR 8 HOURS Use lids on soft drinks ¥ enhancing the environment. Worker wasps that were foraging while control Keep garbage away from eating areas was taking place may return to the destroyed ¥ nest. Immature yellowjackets may hatch from If eating outside, check food before placing it in ¥ FREE Services for treated nests and then disperse. For safety your mouth Contra Costa County Residents reasons, we suggest that you keep your family ¥ If a wasp is in your car, pull off the road and get and pets away from the area for 8 hours. If nest the wasp out before proceeding further MOSQUITOES TICKS Inspection and control Tick identification activity persists after one week, please call our ¥ Avoid using items yellowjackets may be District office at (925) 771-6172. attracted to (perfume and other scents, hair MOSQUITOFISH RATS AND MICE Free for residential ponds Inspection spray, heavily scented suntan lotion, and brightly and advice IF YOU HAVE ALREADY COME INTO DIRECT colored clothing) YELLOWJACKETS CONTACT WITH YELLOWJACKETS AND BEES SKUNKS Wash all clothing worn at the time of exposure to ¥ If exposed to large numbers of yellowjackets, Ground-nest and Inspection leave the area quickly and use clothes to protect swarm control and assistance yellowjackets. When threatened, yellowjackets your eyes and mouth may release a pheromone onto a person and PUBLIC EDUCATION their clothing that is undetectable to people but Literature and presentations attracts other yellowjackets to the area. These IF YOU ARE STUNG yellowjackets will be aggressive and may sting ¥ If the stinger remains in your skin, remove it by and bite. Pets that have been in contact with scraping from the side with your fingernail yellowjackets should be bathed immediately ¥ Apply cold water or ice in a wet cloth for the same reason. Lie down and lower the stung arm or leg ¥ Thank you for your cooperation ¥ Do not drink alcoholic beverages ¥ Should you show signs of an adverse reaction (dizziness, difficulty breathing, wide-spread District EmployeeÕs Name swelling, or other symptoms), contact a physician Contra Costa Mosquito & Vector Control District or call 911 immediately 155 Mason Circle ¥ Concord, CA 94520 (925) 771-6172 office ¥ (925) 685-0266 fax www.ContraCostaMosquito.com Date Time WHAT ARE HOW DO YELLOWJACKETS WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND YELLOWJACKETS? BUILD THE NEST? A YELLOWJACKET NEST ÒYellowjacketÓ is the common name for several Nests are constructed from paper. Yellowjackets Avoid the area. If the nest is in an area that canÕt be species of wasps. These wasps can become a make a pulp by gathering wood or plant fibers, avoided and is a ground-nesting yellowjacket species, nuisance around our homes, gardens, pools, chewing it up and mixing in some of their own saliva. call the District for a free service call. Please follow orchards, and parks. They can also pose a health When the pulp is spread out it dries to form paper. The the directions listed under YELLOWJACKET SERVICE hazard, especially for those who are allergic to their inner core of the nest is a series of horizontal combs GUIDELINES below. venom. which contain many six-sided cells used for rearing immatures. The core is surrounded by a spherical FOR OTHER NESTS WHAT DO THEY EAT? envelope of overlapping sheets of paper. (trees, shrubs, or buildings) Yellowjackets are attracted to and eat sweet foods Contact a licensed private pest control agency. Look such as honey, candy, fruit, and soft drinks. For under ÒPest ControlÓ in the Yellow Pages. If you cannot protein to feed their young, they hunt other insects find a nest, but are still being bothered by yellowjackets, and spiders and therefore can be considered the use of food or pheromone (odor) baited traps may beneficial to humans. Pest species will also collect red help to reduce the problem. These traps are available meat, chicken, fish, and even pet food. Ground- at most hardware and garden stores. Traps should be nesting species are more likely to become pests than located away from the house at the edges of the property aerial nesters, which feed mainly on other insects. to reduce contact with people. Follow the instructions provided with the trap and change the bait frequently (stale bait quickly loses its attractiveness). Setting traps early in the year (late February and March) can prevent problems later in the year by removing queens before they YELLOWJACKETS can establish a nest. Yellowjackets are beneficial insects that eat garden pests and pollinate crops through daily foraging. If left YELLOWJACKET undisturbed, yellowjackets normally should not be a problem. However, these wasps will defend their nest SERVICE GUIDELINES if they sense a threat to the colony. When a nest is GROUND-NESTING YELLOWJACKETS ONLY disturbed, yellowjackets can inflict multiple stings that In the spring the queen begins construction of a new Call the District to request service. A District employee are painful and may be life threatening for individuals nest, or she may use a nest built in a previous year will respond and/or treat the nest with pesticides within hypersensitive to wasp venom. Photo by Randy, Son of Robert to raise her first brood which consists of workers. As one to two business days. Please attach a map of the workers are produced the nest is enlarged. By the property/area showing the location of the nest on the YELLOWJACKET SERVICES end of summer the nest may contain several tiers of front door or place an obvious marker near the nest WHERE DO THEY LIVE? GROUND-NESTING YELLOWJACKETS ONLY cells and be several inches to a foot in diameter. New location so the District employee can locate it easily. Yellowjackets live in colonies (actually large families) queens and males are produced in late fall. They mate To locate the nest, simply observe the area where the Homeowners, business owners, city and county housed in nests. Some species attach the nest to and the new queens seek winter hibernation quarters yellowjackets exit and return (in the ground, shrubbery, personnel or any group in Contra Costa County can trees, shrubs, or buildings. Native pest species usually where they wait until spring to begin the new cycle. pile of leaves, debris, etc.). request a free yellowjacket service call. Please see construct nests underground, often in old rodent YELLOWJACKET SERVICE GUIDELINES in this pamphlet burrows and ground holes. The Western yellowjacket The District employee must know the location of the nest for further details. (Vespula pensylvanica) is one common ground- or it will not be treated. Pets should be restrained or kept nesting pest species in our county. These wasps can indoors during treatment. Pets may return to the area be observed returning food to the colony as they eight hours following treatment. enter a hole in the ground.