These FAQs provide important information about the Yellow-legged Hornet, including its presence in Georgia, potential impact on pollinators, and identification tips. They also outline best practices for reporting sightings and nest removals. For more details on the Yellow-legged Hornet and our ongoing management efforts, please visit our main Yellow-legged Hornet page.
Currently, Yellow-legged Hornets have only been detected in the Savannah area, specifically in Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, and Liberty counties.
As of now, Yellow-legged Hornets have not been found in the Metro Atlanta area.
The yellow-legged Hornet poses a threat to honeybees and other pollinators in our state. Certain crops (e.g. Apples, blueberries, cucumbers, watermelons, etc.) are heavily dependent on bees – honeybees and native bees – for pollination. So, these pollinators play a significant role in Georgia's agriculture industry, the state's main economic driver, and it is imperative that these invasive pests are tracked and eradicated. In fact, USDA estimated that insect pollination adds more than $34 billion in economic value to U.S. agricultural crops annually.
Yellow-legged Hornets do not pose a significant threat to humans. However, we recommend that individuals with allergies to bee or wasp venom avoid them for safety.
Although we use the terms “wasp” and “hornet” interchangeably, there is a difference between these two groups of insects. Technically speaking, hornets are not native to North America. The insect we call a “baldfaced hornet” is an aerial yellowjacket, a type of wasp. The European hornet was introduced into North America in the mid-1800s and has become well established.
Wasps are a very large group of insects, and hornets are a subset of that group. For example, the term “athlete” includes everyone that participates in sports while football players are a specific group of athletes.
Another term that entomologists (people who study insects) use is “social.” Social means that the insects form a colony with multiple individuals who have different roles (e.g. foraging for food, laying eggs, caring for the young, etc.).
| Wasp | Hornet | |
| Size | Typically, less than 1 inch (although exceptions occur) | Typically, 1 inch or more |
| Body type | Slender | Robust, stocky |
| Hairy or fuzzy | No | No |
| Social | Can be social or solitary | Social |
| Coloration | Tend to have brighter colors and more varied patterns (yellows, blacks, reds, metallic, etc.). | Typically have darker coloration, featuring black or reddish-brown hues |
| Aggressiveness | Depends on the species | Depends on the species |
For more information on wasps and hornets, please visit https://extension.umd.edu/resource/social-wasps-yellowjackets-hornets-and-paper-wasps/.
Yellow-legged Hornets are known to be aggressive toward honeybees, but they typically don’t pose a threat to humans unless they feel provoked, or their nest is disturbed.
There are several insects in Georgia with yellow on the legs. A yellow-legged hornet’s leg is dark colored where it attaches to the body and the last third of the leg is yellow. However, a key in identification is the very wide orange to yellow strip on the insect’s abdomen.
To date, yellow-legged hornets have only been found in Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, and Liberty counties in Georgia and the Hilton Head area of South Carolina. Embryo and primary nests are usually found in trees, bushes, shrubs, awnings, and porches, while secondary nests are typically built higher up, often more than 60+ feet off the ground.
We strongly recommend contacting the Georgia Department of Agriculture for nest removal. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it is critical to ensure the queen is eradicated to prevent the hornets from rebuilding a nest elsewhere. Secondly, if there are yellow-legged hornets in the area, we will want to deploy traps and monitor so that we can remove any other yellow-legged hornet nests that may be in the area.
We strongly recommend contacting the Georgia Department of Agriculture for nest removal. If a nest has already been removed, please notify us. We ask that you provide photos of both the nest and the hornets to help us confirm if they are Yellow-legged Hornets. You can send the images to yellow.legged.hornet@agr.georgia.gov. We will want to deploy traps and monitor so that we can remove any other yellow-legged hornet nests that may be in the area.
Report any hornet sightings or suspected nests by emailing the Georgia Department of Agriculture at yellow.legged.hornet@agr.georgia.gov or using our online reporting form.