As summertime approaches humans start to enjoy the outdoors and share their space with bees, wasps, and yellowjackets. So how do you get rid of them?

The real question really is "should you get rid of them?"

Bees, wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets are NOT the same.  While some may be nuisances, many, actually most, are beneficial.

Take the bee for instance.  Honeybees, carpenter bees, miner bees, and bumble bees are the crucial pollinators responsible for pollination of many of our fruits and vegetables.  These insects are not aggressive, and generally go about their business without anyone taking note.

Another surprisingly beneficial insect is the paper wasp.  It is the one that builds the gray umbrella looking nests underneath eaves.  Paper wasps are beneficial predators of caterpillars and other insects  including those pesky aphids in your garden.  And they do not scavenge.

Like the paper wasp, the bald-faced hornet is also a beneficial insect that feeds other live insects to its young including most of the pests that you wish to rid from your vegetable and fruit garden.  Unless their nest is seriously disturbed, they will generally go about their merry way paying no attention to humans or their picnics.

So what do you need to watch out for?  Yellowjackets.  It is the yellow and black yellowjacket that gives these other insects the bad name.  It is the one that spoils picnics, that is responsible for most summer "bee stings", and the one that you don't around.  The best way to keep away yellow jackets is to use yellowjacket traps.  These traps take advantage of the scavenging nature of the yellowjacket and helps keep the population down.

A great article on indentifying these various insects, and about how beneficial most are can be found on the Colorado State University website here. Or look at our pictorial guide to figuring out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So next time you see a flying insect.  Take a moment to identify what it is, and then take action.  If you get rid of all of your wasps, hornets, and bees, you may find yourself with a bigger pest problem in your garden than you expected.