Wildlife Watching Wednesday: Those Nasty Yellowjackets

By: Tom Berg

Yellowjackets. Almost everyone knows what they are! They are often mistakenly called bees or hornets, but they are actually a species of wasp. There are at least 17 species of yellowjackets living in North America. They are yellow and black in color and pack a powerful sting – and unlike honeybees they can sting repeatedly. Their stings are very painful, but they are usually only dangerous to people who are allergic to them or who are stung multiple times in a short period of time.

You can easily tell the difference between a yellowjacket and a honeybee by the fact that yellowjackets do not have brownish-colored hair on their bodies. Yellowjackets look very similar to paper wasps since both species are yellow and black, but the paper wasps have a segmented and much thinner body. Paper wasps also have orange-tipped antennae, while the yellowjackets have plain black antennae.

Yellowjackets frequently build their nests in the ground, and that’s where unsuspecting humans can accidentally come into contact with them. Kids playing in the yard or adults cutting the grass often disturb those nests and the yellowjackets come out to defend their nest and sting anyone nearby. That’s when it is smart to run away very quickly!

In areas where people are scarce, yellowjackets hunt other insects. They have even been known to invade honeybee hives to kill and eat the bees, the bee larvae and the bee eggs. In the fall when natural food sources start to disappear, yellowjackets often become very aggressive.

Anyone who has attended a late-summer or fall picnic has likely seen numbers of yellowjackets buzzing around the food. Although yellowjackets will sometimes gather pollen from flowers, they prefer to eat meat and sweets. Any sort of meat at a picnic will attract them, and sugary items seem to be their second favorite treat. Cut fruit, spilled soda pop, fruit juice, cakes and other desserts will definitely attract them].

Unfortunately for us, yellowjackets will sometimes sting even when they are unprovoked. That’s one reason humans usually don’t like them!

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