Other types of pesticide applications for control of yellowjackets in outdoor recreation areas are rarely effective. Yellowjacket baits and traps can kill large numbers, but there can be a lot more where they came from and the problem may continue. When located in wooded areas, the nests can be difficult if not impossible to find and treat.
Attracted to human food, especially meats and sweet liquids, wherever it is being prepared, eaten or discarded, yellowjackets pose an increased threat to humans. When disturbed, some yellowjackets sting repeatedly, while others sting and lose their stingers as do honey bees.Īnother special case occurs when large numbers of yellowjackets forage in public areas such as parks, schools and zoos. They scavenge more aggressively at this time, taking food from trash containers and picnickers. When temperatures cool in late summer, yellowjacket numbers peak just as their insect food supply begins to decline. Adults consume nectar and sweets, but feed the larvae on captured insects. Nests of the Eastern yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons) are located in the ground, while the German yellowjacket (Paravespula germanica) nests in cavities including crawlspaces, attics and wall voids. Up to 3,000 (many more in warmer states) wasps can be present in the yellowjacket colony. They construct paper nests up to several feet across that contain combs arranged like the floors of a building covered by a papery envelope. Often mistakenly called “bees,” yellowjackets are in fact wasps. Notoriously aggressive, the yellowjacket’s shiny yellow and black striped abdomen is an unmistakable warning. More people are stung by yellowjackets than any other type of wasp or bee. Many find their way into structures and are later seen crawling sluggishly across the floor when temperatures rise in late winter or early spring. Late in the year, colonies of paper wasps, yellowjackets and hornets produce new queens that abandon the nest (it will not be reused) and seek shelter for winter. To feed the larvae, paper wasps capture insects, especially caterpillars. Larger nests can harbor up to 75 paper wasps including larvae and pupae developing within the cells. A paper wasp nest is a single comb of hexagonal cells made of a papery material the wasps form by chewing wood and mixing it with saliva. dominula) which is black and yellow, resembling a yellowjacket.
fuscatus), a black to reddish-brown wasp up to ¾-inch long, and the European paper wasp ( P. Common species include the northern paper wasp ( P. They are also known as “umbrella wasps” because their nests look like umbrellas hanging upside-down from eaves and overhangs. Paper wasps are perhaps the most common wasps around structures.
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