Yelllow Jackets
Common Name
Scientific Name
Yellow Jacket
Paravespula vulgaris
Identification:
Yellow Jackets are social wasps that live in colonies containing workers, queens, and males. The Yellow Jacket worker is sometimes confused with a Honey Bee when flying in and out of their nests. The Yellow Jacket workers and males are about ½ inch in length, and the queen is about ¾ of an inch long. They are blocky, short, and have alternating yellow bands on their abdomen. Yellow Jackets have a lance like stinger and can sting repeatedly, where as other bees and wasps can only sting once. They have mouthparts that are well-developed for capturing and chewing insects with a tongue for sucking nectar, fruit and other juices.
Biology:
The different castes among the Yellow Jacket, as said above, are the workers, queens, and males. This type of wasp, like many wasps, is annual, meaning they have one nest per year, but is it has been reported that a colony will re-use an old nest. In late April early May the fertilized queens from previous colonies will emerge from overwintering, find a nesting site, and begin to make a small paper nest where eggs will be laid. She will tend to the first set of eggs, and when they hatch she will take care of the 30 to 50 larvae fro 18 to 20 days. These first 50 are now the female workers, when the queen lays more eggs they will tend to the young, queen, and protect the nest. From this point on the queen will remain in the nest laying eggs until she dies in late autumn.
The colony then expands rapidly reaching a maximum size of 4,000 to 5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000 to 15,000 cells in August and late September. At peak size, reproductive cells are built with new males and queens produced. The reproductive males and females will remain in the nest being fed by the workers. The females will build up fat stores at this time to help support them during the overwinter process. The reproductive males and females will leave the nest in late autumn and mate, the males die soon after mating and the females find a spot to overwinter. In the spring they will emerge and the process will start over again.
Habits:
In late summer early autumn Yellow Jackets become very bothersome pests. This is the time when their nests are enlarging rapidly, and they are trying to scavenge for human food. They are commonly found feeding on carbonated beverages, cider, juices, ripe fruits and vegetables, candy, ice cream, fish, ham, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. It is common to see them at outdoor gatherings such as, picnics, cookouts, outside restaurants, bakeries, campsites, fairs, sports events and other outdoor get-togethers. The nests that Yellow Jackets create are built in trees, shrubs or in protected places such as inside human-made structures (attics, hollow walls or flooring, in sheds, under porches and eaves of houses), or in soil cavities, mouse burrows, etc. Nests are made from wood fiber chewed into a paper-like pulp. When and if a nest is in a common area where people work, live, and play, it is important to either leave it alone, or have it taken care of, because some Yellow Jackets are known to be very aggressive and the sting is very painful, sometimes causing allergic reactions.
