I’ve battled backyard wasps for two years. Guess who won?

I’ve tried every known remedy to eliminate what I was sure were hornets (more on that in a bit) in my backyard, but after two summers of battling them, I’m ready to concede: They have won the war.

The uninvited guests colonized the worn joints of my bluestone patio last year. Anticipating their return, in the spring I power-washed the stones and sealed the gaps with an expensive sand-and-gravel mixture. And for several weeks this summer, I celebrated what seemed like victory — not a single insect hovered above my patio. That all changed around mid-July when they returned, drilling through my fortified sand barrier with military precision.

Mindful of risks to my goldendoodle and toddler nieces who play in the backyard, I researched nonchemical pest-control methods. I watched YouTube tutorials and TikTok reels, and I clicked on links that organic gardeners swore held foolproof solutions.

I poured boiling water down holes. I slathered the area with dish soap, then used a hose to create mountains of bubbles. I placed small cups of mint essential oil around, then planted actual mint when the oil didn’t work. I tried vinegar and an “all-natural” spray from a big-box store. Nothing worked.

“You’ll die before they do,” one Reddit commenter bluntly stated.

Their occupation held my backyard hostage. Simple tasks became combat missions — I sprinted between my glider and the grill, certain each dash courted a painful sting. When I threw an old rug over the nesting holes, my college-aged daughters rolled their eyes.

“You're obsessed with those things,” they said.

It was time to consult the experts about what — if anything — I could do.

Know your stinging pest

“The first step is always identification,” says Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist for the National Pest Management Association. “It might seem easy, but there are different species of stinging pests, and each has different behaviors and responses to treatments.”

It turns out that my stinging pests weren’t hornets, but cicada-eating wasps. “People misidentify their pests all the time and then wonder why they can’t eliminate them,” Fredericks says. The NPMA provides an online guide to help homeowners identify their specific stinging insect.

It’s also crucial to know if the stinging pest is social or solitary before you venture out to do battle, to protect yourself. Solitary insects, including ground-nesting bees and wasps, are relatively docile around their nursery area, while social stingers like hornets, umbrella wasps and bees defend their home aggressively.

“They get really upset when threatened and come out in large numbers to attack,” says Wizzie Brown, senior extension program specialist at Texas A&M. “There are thousands of wasps in a mature colony, and each can sting multiple times.”

For more aggressive stingers, including yellow jackets, it may be best to enlist a professional.

Do organic remedies work?

I wanted to find something that would be effective but wouldn’t harm my dog, my nieces or wildlife. Is there such a thing? The internet screams “YES!” but experts are skeptical.

“Nearly all insecticides, whether organic or synthetic, are broad-spectrum and can’t differentiate between a good bug and a bad bug,” says Joe Lamp’l, founder of Joe Gardener. “Between 97 and 99 percent of bugs are not pests and are beneficial or neutral. Killing them with an insecticide has consequences to all insects, wildlife and the environment.”

And they’re not just bad for insects. According to the American Bird Conservancy, as many as 67 million wild birds in the United States may be killed every year by ingesting insecticides.

“I wish organic insecticides were safe and more effective, but the truth of the matter is, snake venom and ricin are organic, and both are highly deadly,” Lamp’l says. Vinegar can be lethal to frogs, toads and lizards, he adds. “Organic gives people peace of mind, but it’s really a misconception.”

Other “natural” solutions, including online hacks like boiling water, essential oils and soapy water, may be less toxic, but they aren’t proved to be effective. I tried boiling water, but the larvae were buried too deep to be affected. The soapy solution and essential oils require multiple applications, which I failed to do. And my strategic placement of a mint plant might have been too late to be effective.

Some people claim that blue paint or decoy paper bags can help keep stinging insects at bay, but there’s no science to support those ideas, says Johnalyn Gordon, an assistant professor at the Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

“Some natural remedies may solve the problem, but there isn’t evidence they’ll consistently be effective,” Gordon says.

What about synthetic pesticides?

“People think anything laboratory-made is bad and anything natural is good, but that’s not necessarily true,” Brown says. “Water is a chemical, and naturally derived products from plants like pyrethrins are chemicals too. A pesticide is a pesticide, whether it’s made in a laboratory, comes from a plant, or is soap and water.”

Before they can be marketed, commercial insecticides, which contain ingredients like pyrethrins, pyrethroids and other synthetic compounds, must go through scientific testing that shows the toxicity of the product, how long it lasts in the environment, its efficacy and how it breaks down under certain conditions. The chemicals are required to pose no threat to pets or humans when used properly.

Before approving them, the Environmental Protection Agency “weighs the risks to humans or nontarget wildlife against the potential economic benefit of its use,” according to its website.

When Faith Oi, an associate professor of urban entomology at the University of Florida, had hornets near her front door, she turned to mainstream insecticides.

“The EPA puts pesticides through pretty rigorous testing,” Oi says. “The toxicology profile for synthetic pyrethroids is really quite good these days. They’re not like the old style, so I was OK using them for my own home.”

After exhausting all the natural methods, I broke down and ordered a chemical spray that had glowing online reviews. I sprayed it into the holes late at night and again before the sun rose, per the label instructions. It didn’t work; by midmorning the insects rose again.

Regardless of whether you use an organic or synthetic pesticide, Lamp’l says, you should narrow the treatment area, use as little insecticide as possible and read the instructions. “People use the whole can,” he says. “It’s literally overkill and has ripple effects.”

Alternatives to pesticides

The best way to keep stinging insects away is to prevent them from establishing residence in the first place. Trim bushes and trees away from foundations and keep your lawn trimmed. Seal driveway or patio cracks and other burrowing places.

Stinging ground insects, including yellow jackets, ground bees (like digger bees), bumblebees and cicada killers prefer dry soil, so keep your landscape well-watered and cover bald spots with mulch, Oi says. Also eliminate food sources by keeping sticky soda cans, trash barrels and coolers out of your yard. Or, at the very least, cover them, empty trash regularly and wash recycling bins. And don’t delay. Take action at the first sight of a stinging insect, to keep the population from getting out of hand.

No action is the best action

Regardless of whether you’re comfortable using pesticides, experts say, it’s best to leave stinging insects alone if they’re not in high-traffic areas. Lamp’l takes it a step further and says to leave them alone even if they’re in inconvenient areas.

“I let Mother Nature bring in beneficial insects, and allow predatory insects to take out the bad bugs,” Lamp’l says. “Everything is connected to everything. We’re not just killing one insect. We’re risking harm to a whole ecosystem.”

To avoid them, you can move your grill, use an alternative door or rope off part of your yard. Having them around can be beneficial, after all: Predatory wasps pollinate and feed their babies insects, and many stinging insects attack other pests.

“Getting people to believe Mother Nature will take care of their bug problem if they’re patient can be difficult,” says Lamp’l. “But once they do, they never go back.”