Hornets/ Yellowjackets Dying Once They Get Inside My Home

Nature Talk
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Hornets or Yellowjackets (still waiting on iNat to figure out exact species) have been getting into my second floor condo for a while now. It turns out that there’s a hole into the walls that they’re getting through.

What’s weird, and what I’m wondering about, is that once they get inside, they die. It takes a while - 20 minutes to half an hour maybe, I haven’t timed it, and often I don’t notice them until they’ve already been inside a while and are already dying, or until I find them dead on my floor - but none of them last to even an hour. I’m sure of that much.

First, they lose the ability to fly. Then they crawl around for a while, getting slower and slower, until they’re dead.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?

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Does it happen now? Nests are dying in this season, so it may be part of fhem dying off, sometimes you can feed them sugar.

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my guess would be some sort of pesticide treatment.

but the other question is why are they going into your house specifically?

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… which will only prolong their lifes for a bit…, it´s natural that they die off in autumn

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We actually had this once in my parents home. They squeeze in ta room in the second floor through a hole. We later figured out that they had a nest in our roof/attic.
In autumn, when food gets scarce they start to leave the nest when they get hungry but they are actually already pretty weak and die soon.

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The nest was right outside, in one of the empty plant pots on the balcony, or possibly hanging from the balcony. The handyman who told me about the nest didn’t have much English, so I’m unclear about exactly where the nest was.

I don’t know that they’re only going into my condo. They might well be going into the neighbors’ condos as well. (There’s a language barrier there, too, so I haven’t asked).

I’m not really concerned about saving them, just curious why they’re dying like this.

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Depending on where you are, fall is around the time social wasp nests begin dying off (minus some queens). Once temps start to dip near/into freezing is around the time the social structures of the nest fall apart and the wasps begin to die. It could be that they are seeking the warmth of your home but end up dying from exhaustion/old age regardless.

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oh ok. then judging by this and your location in the world, then the others here are probably right about this just being the season and entering your house to seek warmth.

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