A wasp nest in a wall is one of the few wasp problems where the instinctive fix makes things much worse. You spot wasps disappearing into a gap in the siding, grab a tube of caulk or a can of spray foam, seal the hole, and feel good about it. A day or two later, wasps start showing up in the living room. With their front door blocked, they chewed their way through the drywall.
For non-aggressive wasps I've had great luck spraying nests with this Spectracide wasp remover in the evening. For a nest up high in an eave, soffit, or tree, this Gotcha pole adapter clamps onto the can so you can spray from the end of an extension pole and treat the nest from 10+ feet away instead of standing right under it. And for anything aggressive I wear this ridiculous-looking upper torso beekeeping suit and keep my distance. It seems silly, but trust me, I learned the hard way.
Wall nests are hidden, they’re often big, and the wasps that build them are among the most defensive in North America. They’re also very manageable once you know what you’re dealing with. This guide covers how to recognize a nest inside a wall, how to tell wasps from bees, what not to do, how wall nests are actually treated, and when it’s reasonable to simply wait for cold weather.
Safety note: if anyone in your household has had a serious reaction to a sting, don’t investigate a suspected wall nest yourself. Call 911 for any sting followed by trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, dizziness, or hives spreading beyond the sting site.
If the insects turn out to be honey bees, the plan is completely different. See Wasps or Bees? below.
Most wasps prefer to build out in the open, under eaves, in shrubs, or in the ground. Only a few species regularly move into the hollow space between your siding and drywall, called the wall void.
Yellowjackets are by far the most common culprits. The German yellowjacket (Vespula germanica) in particular is known for nesting inside buildings, in wall voids, attics, and crawlspaces. Eastern and western yellowjackets usually nest underground but will use structural cavities too. A yellowjacket colony starts in spring with a single queen and can grow to several thousand workers by late summer. See our yellow jacket identification guide and our guide to the European wasp for more on the German yellowjacket’s habit of moving indoors.
European hornets (Vespa crabro) naturally nest in hollow trees, and the closest thing to a hollow tree around most homes is a wall void, attic, or barn wall. They’re large (about an inch long), brown and yellow, and unusual among wasps for flying at night, so they often bang against lit windows after dark. Our hornet guide covers identification.
Paper wasps sometimes slip into soffits, attic vents, and the gap behind shutters, but they rarely build deep inside a closed wall. Their open, umbrella-shaped combs and smaller colonies (usually a few dozen wasps) make them a lesser concern.
Mud daubers and other solitary wasps may plug brick weep holes, window tracks, or nail holes with mud. That’s not a colony. These wasps almost never sting, and there’s no nest of defenders behind the plug.
Bald-faced hornets build their gray paper footballs in trees and under eaves, and only occasionally inside attics or sheds. If you can see the nest hanging, it isn’t in your wall. Our article on a wasp nest in a tree covers those.
The clearest signs come from outside, but some show up inside the house too.
Outside:
Inside:
For a step-by-step method of watching your siding to find the exact entry, see our guide on how wasps are getting into your house. If you’re seeing wasps indoors but can’t find any opening, wasps in the house with no open windows covers the hidden routes.
You don’t need to see the nest to confirm it. In fact, you shouldn’t try.
Never confirm an attic nest by climbing into the attic during the day and moving things around. If you must look, shine a flashlight from the hatch after dark, when the foragers are home and slow. If you see a nest, back out and close the hatch.
Before anyone treats anything, make sure the insects are wasps. Honey bees also move into walls, and treating them like wasps causes real damage to your house.
| Yellowjackets / hornets | Honey bees | |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance | Smooth, shiny, bright yellow-and-black (or brown-and-yellow hornets) with a narrow waist | Fuzzy, golden-brown to amber, thicker waist |
| Colony life | One season. The colony dies in late fall. | Perennial. The colony survives winter and keeps growing for years. |
| Inside the wall | Paper nest | Wax comb filled with honey and brood, sometimes many pounds of it |
| Treatment | Insecticidal dust, then seal | Live removal by a beekeeper or bee removal specialist, with the comb taken out |
Poisoning honey bees in a wall leaves the wax comb and honey behind. Without the bees to cool and maintain it, the comb can melt in summer heat, and honey can seep through drywall and attract ants, rodents, and wax moths. Bees from other colonies will also come to rob the honey. Many areas have beekeepers who remove wall colonies alive. Our bee nest vs. wasp nest guide can help you tell them apart.
Most serious wall-nest stories start with one of these:
While you’re waiting for treatment, or deciding whether to wait for frost, you can make your living space much safer:
Treating a wall nest is one of the clearest cases for calling a wasp exterminator. The standard approach looks like this:
In a few cases (a very large nest, a stain spreading through the drywall, or a strong odor) the wall may need to be opened afterward to remove the remains. That’s usually a separate repair job.
Can you do it yourself? Some homeowners treat a small, ground-level wall entrance with a dust product labeled for wasps in wall voids, following the label exactly. Wear protective clothing, work at dusk, and stay off ladders. But if the entrance is above head height, the colony is large, you’re not sure what insect it is, or anyone in the home is allergic, hire a professional. For timing, see the best time to spray a wasp nest. Wall and attic nests usually cost more to treat than exposed nests because of the access and follow-up involved, but the price is small next to the cost of drywall repairs or an emergency room visit.
Often, yes. Yellowjacket, hornet, and paper wasp colonies in most of the U.S. are annual. In late summer and fall, each colony raises new queens, which mate and leave to find a sheltered spot for winter. The workers and the old queen die as the weather turns cold, and after several hard freezes the nest is empty. The temperature at which wasps stop flying and our guide to where wasps go in the winter explain the cycle in more detail.
Waiting is reasonable if:
Treat now if wasps are getting into your living space, the entrance is near a doorway, or you live in the Deep South, Gulf Coast, or Southern California. In those warm climates, colonies can stay active well into winter, and in rare cases they survive for more than one year and become enormous.
Either way, watch for at least a week or two with zero activity on warm afternoons before you seal the hole.
Wasps don’t reuse old nests. Next spring’s queen will build a new one from scratch. In most cases, a dead, dry paper nest inside a wall can simply stay there.
There are a few things to watch for:
Our guide to wasp damage to your home covers repairs in more detail.
Wall nests start in spring with one queen looking for a protected cavity. Take away the openings and she’ll build somewhere else.
In most of the U.S., yes, eventually. Yellowjacket and hornet colonies die off in late fall after the new queens leave. But in summer, a wall colony is still growing, and waiting means more wasps and more chances for them to get inside. In warm southern climates, colonies can stay active much longer.
Yes. Yellowjackets build with chewed wood fiber, and drywall’s paper facing and gypsum core don’t stop them, especially when their usual exit is blocked. That’s why the exterior entrance must never be sealed while the colony is active.
Not until the colony is dead. Seal it after professional treatment once activity has stopped, or after several hard freezes in late fall with no wasps seen for a week or two. Sealing early traps the wasps inside with your living space as the easiest way out.
After a dust treatment, most colonies decline sharply within a day or two and are dead within about a week. You may see a few stragglers that were away during treatment. Wait until activity has fully stopped before sealing.
It can be. The main risks are wasps getting inside the house, and someone disturbing the entrance while mowing, painting, or working on a ladder. Leave it alone, protect the interior, and have it treated. Anyone with a sting allergy should keep well away; see our guide to allergic reactions to wasp stings.
They don’t come back to the old nest, which is abandoned for good. But a new queen looking for shelter can find the same unsealed gap and start a fresh nest in the same void. Sealing entry points after the colony is gone is what breaks the cycle.
A wasp nest in your wall is a hidden, often large colony of defensive wasps sitting a few inches from your living space. The fix is simple but counterintuitive: leave the outside hole open, seal the inside, get the colony treated with dust, and seal the entrance only after the wasps are gone. In late fall, when colonies are dying off anyway, waiting for frost can be a perfectly reasonable choice, as long as no wasps are getting indoors.
For the full picture on identifying and dealing with every kind of nest around your home, visit our complete guide to wasp nests.
This article is for general educational purposes. Always follow label directions on any insecticide, and never use fire, fuel, or ladders to deal with a wasp nest. If anyone shows signs of a severe allergic reaction after a sting, call 911 immediately. See our wasp sting treatment guide for first aid.