Q&A for How to Get Rid of Ground Digger Wasps (Cicada Killers) from Your Lawn

To trap regular wasps in your house, first I recommend sealing up any cracks and gaps around windows, doors, and vents to keep more from getting in. Then, set up wasp traps near windows or where you usually see them. You can make a simple trap with a plastic bottle and some sweet liquid bait like sugar water or fruit juice. The wasps will be drawn to the bait, go into the bottle, and get trapped. Check the traps regularly and get rid of the wasps you catch. If the problem continues, try using insecticidal sprays or call a professional pest control service for help.

Keeping ground digger wasps in your yard can actually be quite beneficial. Unlike some other wasp species, ground digger wasps are not hostile or protective over their nests. Similar to mud dauber wasps, allowing ground digger wasps to inhabit your yard without disturbance can be beneficial. Although you may be quite concerned or annoyed about the holes they create in your lawn, these holes actually provide excellent aeration for the soil, promoting healthy growth. So, instead of treating your entire yard with insecticide to eliminate them, I highly recommend letting ground digger wasps coexist in your yard.

Cicada killer wasps are not aggressive toward human beings and prefer to retreat than attack. The female cicada killer wasp can sting humans but usually this only happens by accident; if trodden on or stuck in clothes or shoes by accident, the wasp may sting in self defense. The male wasp does not have a stinger, only a sharp spine to jab with. Take care where you step and don’t bother the wasps and they won’t bother you.

While only the female digger wasp has the ability to sting, this is not an aggressive wasp toward humans. The only reason a digger wasp would sting a human is if she felt threatened or harassed. To stay safe, keep away from the nest and don’t handle or bother digger wasps. These wasps bring benefits to your yard/garden in the form of eating insects and aerating your lawn, so it’s good practice to leave them be and they’ll do the same for you.

You need to reseed it. The ammonia kills everything around it.

Wasps are attracted to thin areas in the grass where they can get to the ground. Try with one flower and see how it goes. How many nests do you have in the flower bed? You could treat some nests, wait a day or two to let the flowers recover and then continue treatment if you need to. After the treatment is done, mulch around the flowers to discourage additional nests.

Yes, and your grass.

If you are allergic to stings (you experience trouble breathing, major swelling, etc.), go to the emergency room. If you do not have major symptoms it will probably hurt like heck and you should wash the area with mild soap and water and ice it every 15 minutes. Break up an aspirin with a little warm water to make a paste and put it on the area. Take Tylenol or Ibuprofen.

Use ice for about 5 minutes, and then After Bite can be bought at your local drug store.

If the adults leave, the kids will also. I would leave them alone and they will eventually leave.

Their nests can go very deep into the ground, so I would not try this unless you mind ruining your yard. It's best to contact a professional for complete removal.

Pour one gallon of warm sugar water in the hole. Use 3 cups of sugar to one gallon of warm water. The ants will then come and drive away the wasps.

Read the label of the can and it should say what it can be used for, as well as provide safety instructions. You'd want to exercise extreme caution when spraying anything directly into the hole.

No. I tried it undiluted and with hot boiling water; they only moved their nest.

They do not eat bees. Do not worry about them. They will not sting you unless you grab them. They eat nectar and sap. Maybe some spilled honey too.

Because they are invasive and destructive.

There are multiple species of cicadas that have different cycles. Also, the 17-year cicadas are not "gone" between their outbreaks. The immature cicadas are underground feeding and developing.

Small amounts are OK because most fertilizer blends have small amounts of ammonia (in the form of ammonium nitrate) in them to aid with nitrogen production of the soil. Straight ammonia in the direct area where your plants are, or extremely close to the roots, will kill them though. It will burn their roots first and the plant right after. I would just buy a vegetable-safe pesticide instead.

Some cicadas make the high piercing sounds, others make a buzzing noise that sounds like an electric fence power surge.

Pour a gallon of sugar water (three cups sugar to a gallon of lukewarm water) down the hole at night. The ants will then come and drive the wasps away. Sugar water will not hurt your plants or the environment.

The ammonia should only harm grass and the cicada killers.

In my experience, only the grass immediately around the spot where you poured the ammonia dies.

The presence of their prey species (cicadas larvae of different species) in the area. That, combined with a good area near dry soil in which to build their nests and raise their young.

If your pet provokes the wasps, they may sting. Your pet may be allergic to the stings, so keep them away from the wasps as much as possible.

I use a butterfly net to catch and squish them.

You have more of a chance getting hit in the face from a rock kicked up by your mower.

Leave them alone. The wasp larva will hibernate over the winter and just fly away in early spring.

You should consult an extermination service, to see which ones are harmful and which are helpful, and formulate a plan for eliminating the bad ones.

Yes, if there is a crack in the asphalt that leads to dirt.

You could try putting a screen over it, and make sure the planter's soil is always moist to make it unfavorable for the wasps to live in. You could also try putting diatomaceous earth into the nests, as that breaks down insect exoskeletons and kills them.