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Every late spring, many Seattle homeowners notice the delicate, papery umbrellas of wasp nests tucked up under roof eaves and porch overhangs. These structures—built by social paper wasps (genus Polistes)—are not random decorations. They are the result of precise biological timing and a careful choice of microhabitat: solitary overwintering queens emerge as the weather warms,…

In the Pacific Northwest’s mild, damp climate, the first signs of wasp activity often appear in spring as single queens emerge to found new colonies. In Seattle homes those earliest nests are usually modest in size and readily overlooked: a single open comb the size of a golf ball to a small orange, a tiny…

Late spring is prime time for yellowjacket queens to reappear after winter’s dormancy, and May is often when homeowners first notice a single, purposeful wasp inspecting yards and structures. Unlike the noisy swarms of workers that dominate later in the season, a scouting queen acts alone as she searches for a suitable nesting site. Understanding…

Every year as temperatures rise and gardens come back to life, a small but consequential drama begins above our heads: solitary queen wasps emerge from winter hiding and start building nests. What looks like a tiny, fragile paper cup in May can be the seed of a large, aggressive colony by late summer. For homeowners,…

Seattle’s cool, maritime climate — wet winters, mild summers, abundant green space and dense urban landscaping — creates an environment where certain pests thrive year-round. From slugs and snails in shady garden beds to ants, rodents, occasional cockroaches, and mosquito pockets near standing water, homeowners and property managers face recurring challenges. At the same time,…

Ants are one of the most common household pests—ubiquitous, persistent and, at best, an annoyance and at worst a contaminant of food and surfaces. For parents and caregivers, the calculus is different: children’s natural curiosity and tendency to put things in their mouths raises the stakes when choosing pest control. That has driven demand for…

Pesticide poisoning in children is a medical emergency that can progress rapidly, yet its earliest signs are often subtle and easily mistaken for common childhood illness. Because children are smaller, breathe and eat more relative to their body weight, and often play close to the ground where residues collect, they are more likely than adults…

Summer brings longer days, warmer temperatures and more outdoor activity — all conditions that can encourage pests to move in or become more active around your home. From ants and mosquitoes to rodents and stinging insects, pests can threaten your family’s health, damage property and erode your enjoyment of outdoor spaces. Performing a pest control…

Seattle’s wet, mild climate and dense urban neighborhoods create ideal conditions for a surprising variety of pests — rodents (especially rats and mice), raccoons and other urban wildlife, ants and carpenter ants, cockroaches, bed bugs, mosquitoes, stinging insects, pigeons and other birds, and occasional wood-destroying insects such as termites. Because these problems cross property lines…

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a decision-making framework that combines multiple tactics—cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical—to keep pest populations below levels that cause economic or aesthetic harm while minimizing risks to people, non-target organisms, and the environment. Natural predators—predatory insects, mites, birds, bats, amphibians, and microbial agents—are a cornerstone of the “biological” component of IPM….