The Fastest Way To Catch Wasps In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The wasp is a hostile bug in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It can be found all day, all year, for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere players, regardless of weather conditions. It's hard to avoid wasps altogether on your island--just like previous Animal Crossing games (back then, they were actually bees), the wasp is an aggressive insect that will chase and sting the player if provoked. But as annoying and painful as wasps are, they're also extremely valuable. You can accidentally knock down a wasp nest from a tree and if you're quick enough, you can catch the wasps and sell them for some major bells. You can also make medicine and treat any stings you have.

Below we'll go over ways to avoid, catch, and scare away wasps, what price a wasp will sell for, what to do if you get stung by a wasp, and what to do with a wasp nest.

For more on Animal Crossing: New Horizons' critters--including the similarly aggressive tarantula--check out our comprehensive bug guide and a list of April's new seasonal bugs and fish to catch.

How To Catch Wasps

• Requires: 1x net

To catch a wasp in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you first have to be unlucky enough (or lucky, if you're hunting for them) to knock a wasp nest out of a tree while going about your daily chores. This can happen in a number of ways: by shaking a regular tree looking for sticks, shaking a fruit tree to pick its fruit, or hitting a tree with an axe to get wood. There are five wasp spawns per day on your own island, and there are likely to be a couple on deserted islands too, so always come prepared.

All you need to catch a wasp is a net, but you have to be smart about your approach. Unlike other bugs, which you can generally run up to or sneak up on to catch at your own leisure, you only have a second to scoop up the wasps before they sting you.

Right after you shake or strike a tree with a wasp nest, the nest will pop out and a brief animation will play showing the wasps angrily swarming out of the nest. At this point, if you don't do anything, you'll get overtaken by the swarm and stung. It's certainly possible to run from the wasps and quickly turn to catch them in your net, but that can require very precise timing and can go wrong in an instant if you're not careful. If you do attempt this, we recommend picking a direction to run in, sprinting away by holding down the B button, and then quickly turning to face the direction you came from. This way you get some distance between you and the swarm and can easily catch them as they approach.

There's also a much quicker and safer way to catch wasps, which we'll detail below.

The Fastest, Easiest, And Safest Way To Catch Wasps

The fastest, easiest, and safest way to catch a wasp in Animal Crossing is to approach a tree from the front with the net equipped. Make sure your character is facing perfectly away from you and they're facing the tree straight-on.

Shake the tree, then let the wasp nest pop out. You won't have control over your character for a second when the wasp nest is provoked, but you'll notice your character will automatically turn to face the swarm. The second you regain control, hit A to use your net and catch the wasp.

So, a quick step-by-step:

1. Equip net
2. Approach tree from front (character facing away from camera)
3. Press A to shake tree
4. Press A to use net on wasp swarm as soon as you can

By approaching the tree from the front instead of the back or side, you ensure your character is automatically aligned with the wasp swarm so you're in the best position to catch one once you regain control. You also have more visibility this way. By having the net equipped, you save time fumbling in your inventory pockets or tool wheel and can catch the wasp instantly--otherwise, they'll start swarming from all directions and make it extremely difficult to line up a shot.

This might sound like the best approach if you're hunting wasps, but it's good to do this even if you're just picking fruit or chopping wood--this way, you won't get blindsided and can walk away with some easy money.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Wasp Sell Price

Like any other critter, the wasp can be donated to the museum or sold to either Nook's Cranny or the special visitor Flick, who will purchase bugs from you at 150% market price.

• Nook's Cranny price: 2,500 bells each
• Flick price: 3,750 bells each

How To Avoid Stings And Scare Wasps Away

If you aren't interested in trying to catch a wasp, or find yourself unprepared to, there are still ways to get away from them, either by running away or scaring them away.

Running From Wasps

You can escape a swarm of wasps by running into a building, but you only have a few seconds to do this before they catch up to you. This works best when you're shaking up or chopping away at trees near your town center or a villager's house, but if you're on a deserted island, you'll need to either be prepared to catch them or scare them away.

Scaring Wasps With Party Poppers

The party popper item can be purchased from Nook's Cranny. It's a handheld item that explodes or pops off when used. If you use a party popper on a swarm of wasps, they will get scared and disperse. But like anything else, your timing has to be perfect!

How To Cure Wasp Stings

If you get stung by wasps, your character's eyelids will swell up. This doesn't have any negative side effects gameplay-wise, but it does change the way your character looks unless you use medicine or quit and come back the next day. It will also frighten your villagers! Perhaps the worst consequence of getting stung is passing out. If you get stung by wasps a second time without treating your stings, your character will faint and wake up in front of their house, or near the dock if you're on a Mystery Tour. This can be annoying and time-consuming.

To treat a wasp sting, all you need is medicine. You can purchase medicine from Timmy and Tommy or Nook's Cranny for 400 bells. Or, you can craft it yourself. If you don't know how to craft medicine, talk to a villager after you've been stung--they'll give you a DIY recipe for medicine so you can craft it at any workbench. Sometimes, they might even take pity on you and give you medicine for free.

How To Craft Medicine

• Requires: 1x wasp nest, 3x clump of weeds

To craft medicine to treat your wasp sting, you'll need a wasp nest and three clumps of weeds.

You can only find wasp nests from trees after you've disturbed a swarm--they'll drop out immediately, just before the swarm descends on you. Weeds can be found all around your island and deserted islands. Just run up to the leafy green brush growing out of the ground and press Y to pick it.

Once you have medicine in your inventory, you can use it to heal your stings right away.

What To Do With A Wasp Nest

The only thing you can do with a wasp nest besides crafting medicine with it is sell it to Timmy and Tommy. They'll purchase it for 300 bells at Nook's Cranny.