How to Get Rid of Wasps and Hornets in Your Garden

As gardeners, we are told to love all pollinators—honeybees, wasps, hornets, ants, yellowjackets, bumblebees and even flies because increasing pollinators can be a tremendous benefit and improve garden production.

I have learned to peacefully coexist with the pollinators I dislike. Still, I hear from many people who want to know how to avoid attracting the most dangerous pollinators to their gardens, like highly aggressive wasps and hornets. Maybe you just don’t want them, you’re afraid of them, or you’re allergic to them, but you still want to grow a garden.

I don’t want anything to prevent you from growing a garden, so I’m sharing how to get rid of wasps and hornets safely without harming beneficial pollinators!

Natural Methods

The best way to get rid of garden pests is to prevent them from being attracted to your garden in the first place with DIY pest prevention methods that actually work!

After employing prevention tactics, these resources were created to help you get rid of any bad bugs that still cause problems in your garden:

• How to Get Rid of Slugs & Snails in the Garden

• Identifying and Preventing Tomato Hornworms

• Preventing Squash Vine Borer Effectively

• How to Get Rid of Spider Mites

• What Are Soil Mites & How To Get Rid of Them

• How to Get Rid of Fungus Gnats Indoors

• How to Get Rid of Squash Bugs

Types of Wasps and Hornets

Even though they are often considered the same, bees and wasps have some fundamental differences. (Hornets are simply a type or sub-group of wasps that are usually larger and carry more venom than the average wasp.)

Bees are generally not aggressive and can only sting once, while wasps are more aggressive and can sting multiple times without it being fatal to them. Also, bees feed on pollen and nectar from plants, while wasps also consume meat, other insects, and fruit.

Some common types of wasps you may encounter include:

• Paper Wasps

• Bald-Faced Hornets

• Yellowjackets

• Mud Dauber Wasps

Signs of Wasps in Your Garden

Wasps are most active during the daytime on warm summer and fall days. Here are some common signs that you have wasps in your garden:

• Sound - You may hear them before you see them. I know I have wasps in my garden right now because the air is almost vibrating with them!

• Wasp Activity - If you are in your garden during the daylight hours, you can usually spot wasps. Patiently watch for a few minutes to see if you spot them flying around your plants and fruit.

• Nests - Look for nests around your garden. They could be made of mud, a papery material, or even be in a hole in the ground.

How to Get Rid of Wasps & Hornets

This is a tricky problem because we need pollinators for successful gardening, and we don’t want to deter or harm beneficial pollinators. But in the late summer and early fall, wasps and hornets can be increasingly aggressive. This could keep you out of your garden, especially if you are allergic!

This brings us to the tips I use for reducing wasps. They are avoiding planting umbels, getting rid of exposed wet clay, and keeping garden produce harvested and cleaned up.

Don’t Plant Umbels

Wasps and hornets absolutely love umbels, as do other bees. An umbel is a cluster of flowers with multiple short flower stalks emerging from a single point, forming an umbrella-shaped grouping.

Some garden plants that produce umbels include fennel, dill, celery, carrots, parsley, and cilantro. As you can see in the video above, my fennel plants are covered in bald-faced hornets, and dill attracts the Eastern Yellowjacket, a very aggressive wasp.

If you want to reduce the number of wasps and hornets attracted to your garden, you need to stop growing plants that form umbels!

Remove Wasp Nest Building Materials

The second tip for not attracting wasps and hornets is to avoid having bare wet clay. If you have a pond or any area that holds water and is rich in clay, it is a wasp's best friend! They will chew up the clay and mix it with saliva and little bits of wood fiber to build their nests.

To resolve this, use as many cover crops and grass coverage as possible to prevent wet clay from being left exposed.

Keep Your Garden Area Clean

Another way to get rid of wasps in the garden is to reduce or eliminate their food sources. Have you ever been outdoors enjoying a picnic with your family and been dive-bombed by wasps? They are probably after the sugar in your ice cream, pop, or fruit.

Fruits are high in sugar and can attract hornets and wasps like crazy. You don’t want any fruit lying around for wasps and hornets to eat, like tomatoes, cherries, or apples. Keep ripe fruit harvested, and any fruit that has fallen from fruit trees or garden plants cleaned up off the ground!

Using Wasp Traps

Wasp traps are already commonly used, so I won’t belabor the point. You can use wasp traps to effectively reduce their numbers, but depending on the type of trap you use, you may also be attracting more hornets and wasps to the area.

I hope you learned something new and this information helps you enjoy your garden without the fear of dangerous pollinators.

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