Trying to enjoy your late-summer picnic and within minutes, dozens of yellow-jackets intrude on your fun. People often think, "Bees!" but these uninvited pests are just as likely to be yellow-jackets, a type of ground-nesting wasp. Often confused with bees, yellow jackets are much more aggressive.

In spring and early summer, yellow jackets are carnivores, feeding mostly on insects to provide protein to developing larvae in their colony. In doing so, they help keep garden pests, such as caterpillars, in check. As the season progresses, their population grows and their diet changes to include more sugars.

Yellow jackets often nest underground in rodent burrows, so if you see lots of flying insects emerging from a hole in the ground, they're probably yellow jackets. By late summer, a colony may contain thousands of individuals that will aggressively defend their nests from intruders.

Late Summer or Fall
Yellow-jackets and wasps colonies are at their maximum size. Yellow-jacket workers are most aggressive about searching for food (usually sugary foods). New wasp reproductive (kings and queens) leave the nest and mate. The new queens look for a sheltered place to hibernate for the winter.

Winter
Wasps are no longer a problem. When the weather gets cold, yellow-jackets and paper wasp nests are deserted. The original queen, males and workers die.

Spring
New Queens start their own nests in the spring when the weather warms up. After the first brood of workers hatch, the queen devotes her time to egg laying, while the workers expand the nest, forage for food and care for the eggs.

Summer
Queens make more workers and the nest expands, but toward the end of the summer they lay eggs to create new kings (drones) and queens (reproductives) The new reproductives
leave the nest and mate. The workers become more aggressive about finding food.

Distinguishing Yellow Jackets from Other Summer Flyers
Paper wasps and hornets, like yellow jackets, form colonies but they nest above ground. They also help control garden pests. Both can inflict nasty stings and can be aggressive, but they don't scavenge like yellow jackets and so are less likely to show up at outdoor activities.

Honeybees nest in cavities, such as hollowed out trees (or in beekeepers' boxes). In contrast to yellow jackets, honeybees are relatively gentle. Bees that are out foraging among flowers for nectar and pollen usually sting only if stepped on or swatted.

Bumblebees nest underground, but they are so big they're easy to distinguish from other bees and yellow jackets, and a colony rarely tops 100 individuals.

Van Bourgondien Nursery carries various traps and sprays to eliminate Yellow Jackets from your home and picnics!